00:00 Let's talk more about Nino Aquino's legacy with columnist and writer Manuel Manolo Quezon III joining us here in the studio.
00:08 Thank you so much for joining us Manolo.
00:10 We heard both sides of the political spectrum, Bongbong Marcos saying that he wants unity, set aside political differences.
00:19 You heard Archbishop Sok Villegas saying, "Tuloy ang laban and wake up from ignorance."
00:25 Your thoughts?
00:26 Well, the president, we have to realize, probably didn't write his statement.
00:32 It's a clever statement.
00:34 It's a statement that actually put his own supporters, the president's own supporters, in a tough spot where they had to applaud it.
00:44 When what they were expecting probably was actually an abolition of this commemoration.
00:52 So in that sense, the president approached it pragmatically.
00:56 Why pick a fight on a day that has never been good for your family and what it represents
01:04 and turn it into a long-standing encounter when you could just sort of go through the motions and in that way help bury it further?
01:16 But by coming out with this statement, does he want reconciliation?
01:20 The president wants peace.
01:22 The president does not want to bring up old fights, considering he has many fights on many fronts at present, as all presidents who are in power do.
01:34 So I think in that case, it's a pragmatic statement.
01:37 It is one that I think came very close to statesmanship.
01:42 But if you read it carefully, there were still a few jabs there that people on both sides who are passionate about it would not have missed.
01:54 But for President Bongbong Marcos, it is better that he said something than nothing at all, Manolo.
02:01 Yes, absolutely.
02:02 And it is better that he went through the motions of respecting.
02:07 Remember, he has to stay true to himself on two ways, as the son of his father and as a president with his own mandate.
02:17 His own mandate is a specific mandate which was referred to in his statement, which is he's a unity president.
02:23 And therefore, he's not about to revive old divisions.
02:28 He will, however, still have to not be a traitor to his father.
02:33 And therefore, the characterization of Ninoy Aquino as relentless in what he believed was his quest is towing a very fine line of not disrespecting his own father while not categorically starting a new fight with admirers of Ninoy.
02:58 But do you think that there was a tug of war before he came out with this statement? Because there are some within his camp who were against.
03:03 No, I don't think so. I don't think so at least. I don't think so at least. No.
03:06 I think that very early on, we saw that there is a division of labor that has taken place.
03:11 The president, as I said, has to stay close to his being a unity president.
03:17 His sister is leading the fight to revise and to change minds and to win the hearts and minds of a new generation for which this is the past.
03:27 Has she revised? Has she been able to make those changes with the two films that have already been launched over the past year?
03:34 Remember, she has been at it for, oh, about 30 years.
03:39 She's done it analog and digital.
03:43 She has done it in a scholarly, in the scholarly realm by setting up the Marcos Presidential Center 30 years ago and publishing books.
03:53 She did it by investing in the latest technologies.
03:57 That is the evolution of getting messages out to people, Facebook, YouTube, leapfrogging over the usual gatekeepers, the media, the historians, academe.
04:09 When you're talking about the social media, the direct viewership base there, the ones who follow are the youth, the millennials and the gen Zs.
04:19 Every generation. I think the whole sort of tactic was you lost the generation that kicked you out of power.
04:30 But there is a never-ending production of new generations.
04:34 The Marcos is very early on set out to get all those generations because, after all, everyone who was still alive 40 years ago is now a minority in our society.
04:46 But does the youth of today still continue to believe in the work and sacrifice of Ninoy Aquino?
04:51 I think you will find that perhaps many more do than would make the Marcos' comfortable at night or even other critics of Ninoy Aquino or the democratic movement.
05:04 I think that there is the problem that everyone on all sides confronts, which is once our society makes up its mind about something and the expression of this is a holiday or an observance, then it's very hard to sort of abolish that.
05:23 And the president, I think by his statement that you keep coming back to, proved that it's not a fight worth getting into, all things considered.
05:34 So, Manolo, what must we remember about Ninoy Aquino in our lives 40 years later and how we vote for our future leaders?
05:46 I think there's a difference there. Over time, the question of Ninoy and what he represented got tied in too much with the individual political faith of members of his family,
06:03 who were, of course, trying to represent and continue what he fought for, but it became personalized.
06:11 For those who were around 40 years ago and were shocked by what happened, it became not a question of Ninoy Aquino versus Ferdinand Marcos, which is the story the Marcos has liked to push up to today.
06:24 It became the Filipino people versus Ferdinand Marcos. That is why on August 20, 1983, Marcos was unbeatable. Starting August 21, 1983, Marcos could not win.
06:37 So, over time, it got mashed together. With the removal of the Aquinos from active political office, I think you have a greater chance and opportunity to reappreciate what he stood for and what it can do for future generations.
06:58 As what he has said, the Filipino is worth dying for. If there were three values that you would like to impart to the youth about Ninoy Aquino, what are these values?
07:07 I think the first is that soul searching does produce results, that people can change. The whole question of Ninoy is can a person change because he was no saint in the beginning, and yet he transcended so many things.
07:21 The other thing is we focus too much on assigning blame to individuals, such as this obsession of who actually is the mastermind. Well, it doesn't matter because the whole system created the necessity of murdering him, and we forget the necessity of covering up that murder up to today.
07:42 And finally, the third.
07:43 The third is being frank with friends and foe alike. Ninoy was very un-Filipino in that he was direct, and I think that is something we need a lot more in all aspects of our lives.
07:58 Manolo Quezon III, thank you so much for joining us and for remembering the former Senator Ninoy Aquino.
08:08 Thank you.
08:09 Thank you.
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