Benigno "Ninoy" Simeon Aquino Jr. (November 27, 1932–August 21, 1983) was a leading opposition politician in the Philippines during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos. He was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (now renamed in his honor) on returning home from exile, and widow Corazon Aquino became the focus of the opposition and eventually replaced Marcos as president. Benigno Aquino Jr. ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Ferdinand Marcos Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (September 11, 1917–September 28, 1989) was the tenth President of the Philippines, serving from 1965 to 1986. ... The Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA (IATA Airport Code:MNL) is the international airport that serves Manila, in the Philippines, and its surrounding metropolitan area. ... PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES Corazón Aquino Corazón Cojuangco Aquino (born January 25, 1933), widely known as Cory Aquino, was President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992. ...

Biography

Ninoy was born in Concepción, Tarlac to a family of hacienderos (landlords). His grandfather was a general in the revolutionary army of Emilio Aguinaldo while his father, Benigno Aquino Sr. was a prominent official in the World War II Japanese-organized government of Jose P. Laurel. His father died while Ninoy was in his teens, and amidst a lingering cloud of distrust owing to his alleged collaboration with the Japanese during occupation. Ninoy took law at the University of the Philippines, where he became a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi. He interrupted his studies however to pursue a career in journalism. In early 1954, he was appointed by president Ramon Magsaysay to act as personal emissary to Luis Taruc, leader of the Hukbalahap rebel group. After four months of negotiations, he secured Taruc's unconditional surrender. He became mayor of Concepción in 1955 at the age of only 22. In the same year he married Corazón Cojuangco. Concepcion is a 1st class municipality in the province of Tarlac, Philippines. ... Tarlac is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. ... Order 1st President of the Philippines (President of the 1st Republic) Term of Office January 23, 1899 – April 1, 1901 Vice President Mariano Trias (1897) Predecessor None Successor Manuel Quezon Born March 22, 1869 Cavite El Viejo (Kawit), Cavite, Philippines Died February 6, 1964 Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines Emilio... World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons like the atom bomb. ... PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES Jose P. Laurel José Paciano Laurel y García (March 9, 1891 - November 6, 1959) was the president of the Japanese-sponsored Republic of the Philippines from 1943 to 1945. ... The University of the Philippines (Unibersidad ng Pilipinas in Filipino) or U.P. is the premier state university of the Philippines. ... Seal of the Upsilon Sigma Phi When individuals are thrown together often by circumstances, discover and share common interests, and fell identical aspirations, they eventually revolve in a circle into which only those akin gain admittance. ... 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Order 7th President of the Philippines (4rd President of the 3rd Republic) Term of Office December 30, 1953 – March 17, 1957 Vice President Carlos P. García Predecessor Elpidio Quirino Successor Carlos P. García Born August 31, 1907 Iba, Zambales, Philippines Died March 17, 1957 Mt. ... Luis Taruc (1913 - May 4, 2005) was a Philippine Communist political figure and revolutionary. ... The Hukbalahap was the militant arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), formed in 1942 to fight the Japanese occupation in the Philippines during World War II. The term is a contraction of the Filipino term Hukbo ng Bayan Laban sa mga Hapon which means Army of the...

He became governor of Tarlac in 1961, then he became secretary-general of the Liberal Party in 1966. In 1967 he made history becoming the youngest elected senator in the country's history.-1... 1967 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

When President Marcos declared martial law in 1972 Aquino was imprisoned on charges of murder, illegal possession of firearms and subversion. He was found guilty of subversion and sentenced to death in November 1977. This was commuted into exile to allow medical treatment in the United States in 1980, accompanied by his wife. Martial law is the system of rules that takes effect (usually after a formal declaration) when a military authority takes control of the normal administration of justice (and usually of the whole state). ...

Even as Senator Aquino was recognized as the most prominent of President Marcos's political opponents, he was regarded by many in the years prior to martial law as a representative member of the entrenched traditional political system. While atypically telegenic, he was not known to be immune to the ambitions, excesses or abuses associated with the ruling political class. However, his years of imprisonment, including periods of solitary confinement, had a profound, life-changing effect on his character. He drew strength from traditional Catholic devotions and renewed inspiration from the writings of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. As a result, the remainder of Aquino's personal and political life would undertake a noticeable evangelical sheen. He became an outspoken proponent of non-violence as a means of combatting the Marcos regime. Some remained skeptical as to Aquino's redirected spiritual focus, yet this aspect of his life has had an apparent effect on his wife's subsequent political career, and somewhat eased the subsequent emergence of Senator Aquino as a modern-day martyr. Martial law is the system of rules that takes effect (usually after a formal declaration) when a military authority takes control of the normal administration of justice (and usually of the whole state). ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी), called Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of Indias independence from British colonial rule to world attention. ... Martin Luther King Jr. ...

In exile, Aquino remained a major leader of the opposition. On August 21, 1983 he returned to the Philippines, fully aware of the dangers that awaited him. He wished to return to suffer alongside his people and to appeal directly to Marcos to step down and seek a peaceful regime change and reformation. August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Despite the presence of his own security guards and government troops on the tarmac, he was fatally shot in the head as he was escorted off the airplane at Manila International Airport. The government claimed, unconvincingly, that he was gunned down by Rolando Galman, who was immediately shot dead by troops. The Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA (IATA: MNL, ICAO: RPLL) is the international airport that serves Manila, in the Philippines, and its surrounding metropolitan area. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Aftermath of Assassination

It was never officially established why or even whether Galman had done it, though many suspected that Galman was just a fall guy. Even more suspicions arose on who ordered the assassination. Everyone from the CIA to the Communist Party of the Philippines to First Lady Imelda Marcos was accused of having conspired for the hit. It must also be noted that President Marcos was gravely ill and in very poor shape during this time, as he was at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute recovering from his kidney transplant on August 7 when this incident occurred—he was in no shape to run the government. Conspiracy theories arose as to who was in charge and who ordered the hit when Marcos was in his sickbed recuperating. President Marcos then ordered an independent body, the Agrava Commission, to investigate the assassination. High-ranking military officials were indicted, including Gen. Fabian Ver, the Armed Forces Chief and known as Marcos's enforcer, but were soon acquitted. The military team on the tarmac at the time are currently serving life sentences at Bilibid Prison. They have filed a recent appeal to have the sentences reduced after 22 years, claiming that the assassination was ordered by Eduardo "Danding" Cojuanco, a Marcos crony and Corazon Aquino's cousin. The CIA Seal The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one of the American foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, and individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. Government. ... The New Peoples Army, or NPA, is a communist-based revolutionary group in the Philippines, formed in December 1969. ... Imelda Romualdez Marcos (born July 2, 1929 in Tacloban City) is the former First Lady and a political figure in the Philippines. ... August 7 is the 219th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (220th in leap years), with 146 days remaining. ... Fabian Ver (January 20, 1920 - November 21, 1998) born in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, was a former General and the former Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos. ...

His funeral procession on August 31 lasted 12 hours, from 9 am, when a funeral mass attended by the Catholic Archbishop in the country, Jaime Cardinal Sin, was held in Sto. Domingo Church, to 9 pm, when he was interred in the Manila Memorial Park. Two million people lined the streets during the procession, and millions more listened on the Church-sponsored Veritas radio station, the only station that dared to cover the procession. The funeral itself afforded a rare public expression of anger at the Marcos regime, but was relatively calm and even retained moments of good humor. Famously, when rain started pouring in the midst of the funeral procession, hundreds were dissuaded from opening their umbrellas with the chant, "Only Imelda (Marcos) uses an umbrella!" Another notable moment from the funeral was when the procession reached Rizal Park, and the crowd forcibly brought the Philippine flag down at half-mast. August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining, as the final day of August. ... Jaime Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila, Philippines (1974-2003) Jaime Cardinal Sin, also Jaime Lachica Sin (August 31, 1928–June 21, 2005) (Chinese name: 辛海梅; 辛海棉), was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. ...

The assassination of Ninoy transformed the opposition movement overnight from a small isolated movement to a mass movement involving people across all classes of society in Metro Manila. The middle class was involved, the lower class was involved, and business leaders whom Marcos irked during martial law supported the movement. The assassination showed the increasing incapacity of the Marcos regime—Ferdinand was mortally ill when the assassination occurred while his cronies mismanaged the country in his absence—and outraged Aquino's supporters that he would allow the assassination of a key figure of the opposition to happen. The mass discord caused by the assassination put the Philippines on the map for the United States. Attention was brought to the Philippine Crisis, and exposes on Imelda's extravagant lifestyle and "mining operations", as well as Ferdinand's dictatorial excesses emerged. US President Ronald Reagan became fearful of a full scale, destabilizing and bloody revolution that could only spell disaster for US interests in the Philippines, as well as the regional stability. Reagan would denounce the assassination—but never renounce his friend Marcos. Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). ...

The assassination also thrust Ninoy's widow, Cory into the popular eye. Cory Aquino went on to campaign furiously in the 1986 snap elections called by Marcos to satiate public discontent with his regime. On the 57 days of campaigning before the February 7, 1986 election, Aquino’s UNIDO party took to the roads, visiting all but a few of the Philippine provinces. On the campaign trail, Aquino was greeted by throngs of people throwing confetti and cheering her on, "Cory! Cory! Cory!". Despite the Commission on Election's (COMELEC) declaration that Marcos had won the election, Cory and her supporters refused to accept the allegedly fraudulent outcome, prompting the People Power revolution that drove Marcos into exile and placed Cory in power as President. February 7 is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... The EDSA Revolution, also referred to as the People Power Revolution and the Philippine Revolution of 1986, was a mostly nonviolent mass demonstration in the Philippines. ...

Ninoy Aquino is depicted on the 500-peso bill

In Ninoy's honor, the Manila International Airport has been renamed as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and his image is printed on the 500-peso bill. Download high resolution version (950x387, 72 KB)Front side of the 500-Philippine peso bill. ... Download high resolution version (950x387, 72 KB)Front side of the 500-Philippine peso bill. ... The Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA (IATA: MNL, ICAO: RPLL) is the international airport that serves Manila, in the Philippines, and its surrounding metropolitan area. ... Philippine peso bills are issued by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) for circulation in the Philippines. ...

His son, Benigno Aquino III, is a congressman representing the 1st district of Tarlac and his daughter, Kris Aquino, is a TV and movie actress. Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (born 1960), also known by his nickname, Noynoy, is a Philippine politician and son of Benigno Aquino Jr. ... Tarlac is a landlocked province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. ... Kris Aquino Kristina Bernadette Cojuangco Aquino (born February 14, 1971 in Quezon City) is a prominent television and movie personality in the Philippines. ...