Website of Ninoy's speeches launched to mark his 91st birth anniversary

The Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation (NCAF) on Monday marked the 91st birth anniversary of former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. by launching ninoyspeeches.ph, a website where the public can access select speeches of the assassinated opposition leader.

In a statement, the NCAF said that ninoyspeeches.ph featured 19 of late Senator’s speeches originally published in the book titled “A Garrison State in the Make and other Speeches,” a compilation of former Senator Ninoy Aquino’s privilege speeches delivered on the Senate floor between 1968 and 1972.

“A Garrison State in the Make and other Speeches” was first published in 1985 or two years after Ninoy’s assassination and was published by the then Benigno S. Aquino Jr. Foundation that preceded NCAF.

“For most of these speeches, this is the first time that they have been made available for free in an official online site, making them accessible to the public,” the NCAF said in a statement.

One of the speeches that the public can now read in full is “Operation Sagittarius”. 

In this speech delivered on September 13, 1972, Ninoy revealed that then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. had planned to put Metro Manila and nearby provinces under Philippine Constabulary control as a prelude to the declaration of martial law. 

"It was Ninoy’s last speech on the Senate floor before he and other members of the opposition were arrested and jailed under Marcos’ authoritarian rule,” the NCAF added.

Among the other speeches on the website are “Jabidah! Special Forces of Evil?”, “The Bridge of San Juanico: Mr. Marcos’ Folly”, “A Pantheon for Imelda”, “When Law and Order Went Amok”, “Alternatives on our Economic Crises”, “The Tragedy of Tarlac”, “Mr. Marcos and Congress - A Black Cabal”, “Black Saturday, Plaza Miranda”, and “Liberty Shall Not Rest!”

The late Senator’s speech titled “A Carrot and a Stick for Mr. Marcos” reads, “We are called upon to show now responsibility to duty, fidelity to our mandate despite our political diversity. I know that for the majority this may be hard, for what is demanded of us is to place country over party, sanity over the twisted logic of our baser political instincts.”

“Ninoy’s messages in his speeches, delivered decades ago, remain true and timely to this day, a reminder that it lies in each one of us to defend and preserve justice, truth, freedom, and democracy,” said the NCAF. — DVM, GMA Integrated News