The Final Score: Ninoy is History’s MVP

We all remember the firsts; first kiss, first heartbreak, first bottle of beer, first paycheck. Relevance has a way of etching events permanently in our minds. On a balmy August afternoon in 1983 during a family reunion in my Lola’s house, news of an assassination was welcomed with gasps. I was 8 years old. That was my first taste of social consciousness. I didn’t know who Ninoy Aquino was. All I knew was the news flash interrupted Sunday cartoons. It also altered history and my view of the world permanently.

Prior to August 21, 1983, my concept of heroes was limited to the animated kind. So as an 8-year old boy with a constricted view of the universe, I equated hero with Superman and heroes with Super Friends. Coincidentally, 1983 was the year I started watching the PBA. So I suppose my take on heroes got an upgrade from caped, costumed and masked crusaders to dribbling, shooting and side-stepping athletes. At least, my worship was now directed at actual human beings.

In all honesty, I probably felt more sadness with each loss by the Toyota Super Corollas than I did on that surreal Sunday afternoon. I was a grade 3 student. I idolized Aquaman, Jaworski, Arnaiz and Fernandez. How was I to know the significance of Ninoy’s horrific demise? I knew so little of what was going on in the country. Years later I would learn who Ninoy was and what he meant to the struggle for democracy. Years later I would realize the difference between Jawo and Ninoy. I discovered that athletes were heroes in shorts and legends in sports. History’s heroes, on the other hand, endured more than ankle sprains and contributed more than statistics.

“The Last Journey of Ninoy", a docu-film produced by Unitel and the Benigno S. Aquino Foundation, reminded me of how an entire generation’s restricted view of life in the Philippines was shattered by the deafening roar of an assassination. While the grim deed emboldened Filipino adults into action, it opened the senses of my generation to concepts such as love for freedom and love for country. We were too young to hit the streets on our own. My own parents left me at home while they lined up like the thousand others in Sto. Domingo Church during Ninoy’s wake. We were too old, nonetheless, not to realize that something jolted our parents, uncles and aunts. We were cognizant enough to realize that a nation was awakened.

Although I continued to admire my champions of the hardcourt, the events of 1983 and, subsequently, 1986 fortified for me a more mature concept of heroism. Thus, I admired Jaworski for showcasing his never-say-die attitude, but I will always be awed by Ninoy’s indomitable spirit. The Big J ruled the PBA and made one team larger than life. Ninoy, like Gandhi before him, carried a nation on his shoulders, took the biggest shot of the game and won for his people a championship for all time. - GMANews.TV