Ninoy Aquino admirer reminds Filipinos of debt of gratitude for his hero’s sacrifice 

Former youth leader and U.S. Navy veteran Donny de Leon speaking against the Marcoses’ attempts to revise history. CONTRIBUTED

SAN FRANCISCO – Some Filipinos who lived through the years their country was under military rule seem to have forgotten about Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., named the Philippines’ only other National Hero after Jose Rizal. But not Donny de Leon, a Californian since 1979.

Every year around this time, the U.S. Navy veteran reverts to the eight-year-old Barrio Balutu, Tarlac schoolboy stretching his neck toward the sky, eyes squinting at the blazing sun while watching a helicopter touch down to deliver in person the man he had long revered, whose hand he craved to shake, whose “courage and selflessness” he sought to emulate.

Now retired and living in San Francisco, de Leon is heading the event to commemorate the 40^th death anniversary of his hero “Ninoy” Aquino, who was shot dead Aug. 21, 1983 upon his return home from political exile in the US.

That most tragic moment in contemporary Philippine history drove Filipinos everywhere to pour their grief into protest to demand justice for the martyred defender of democracy.

Each year, in the San Francisco Bay Area, Aquino’s younger sister, Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara, gathers confidantes and allies to celebrate her brother’s life with a holy Mass followed by recollections and a reception.  She calls it “Friends Meeting Friends of Ninoy.”  The tradition will be honored for the 40^th year at 5:30 p.m., on Monday, Aug. 21, at Our Lady of Mercy Church Hall on 1 Elmwood Drive in Daly City, California.

“This year has sparked extremely high interest among those who remember Ninoy and what he stood for,” Lupita told INQUIRER.net.  “Ninoy believed the Filipino was worth fighting for.  Four decades later, this is our way of proving he was right by honoring his sacrifice that freed our country from the oppression of dictatorship.”

Fr. Rey Culaba will preside at the liturgy. Community advocates Cynthia Bonta and Rodel Rodis will present the offering.  Philanthropist-publisher Lisa Yuchengco will introduce Lupita’s husband, retired ABC news reporter Ken Kashiwahara, who will recall the final moments of his brother-in-law.

Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara tapped former youth leader Donny de Leon to lead the gathering to commemorate the 40thanniversary of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. CONTRIBUTED

Manzel dela Cruz planned the program, and Jeannette Vivez produced the video tribute. Members of Akbayan, Filipino American Human Rights Alliance and Concepcion Community Association will reunite at the event.

Ninoy Aquino Movement stalwart Goya Navarrete is coordinating refreshments. Overseeing the milestone event is the one Filipino American who has adulated Ninoy the longest – Donny de Leon.

“I could think of no one better to lead our annual gatherings commemorating Ninoy’s assassination,” the retired film director lauded de Leon.

“Donny and Ninoy were townmates, both calling Concepcion, Tarlac home. Donny stills remember first seeing Ninoy arriving at his hometown in a helicopter. Today, Donny has become a real people gatherer.  He could be our next great elected official,” she praised the activist whose community engagement began in 1983 while still with the USN.

Childhood hero 

The young Donny had heard stories of Aquino’s remarkable qualities from his father Pol de Leon, who was Rice & Corn Administrator in Mountain Province and a barrio captain with the Liberal Party.

The senior de Leon habitually called his 12 children “around the transistor radio at two in the morning,” Donny told INQUIRER.net, to listen to Aquino’s speeches typically aired last as representative of the opposition party.

Donny was mesmerized by Aquino’s eloquence and even more by his fearless condemnation of what he saw as the abuses of the administration.

Coming face to face with then-Governor Aquino in 1967 is seared in de Leon’s psyche, inspiring him to become a community organizer and political activist.

Sixteen years later on August 21, 1983, de Leon’s paragon landed yet again on another flight, this time from exile in Boston. No sooner had the China Airlines jet’s door opened and men in military uniform entered the aircraft when shots rang out, screams filled the air and confusion erupted.

The worst-case scenario occurred: Aquino knew an assassination was possible and that it also would be the greatest mistake of those to whom he posted the gravest threat.  He left his chances to fate.

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Aquino was executed and left lifeless for hours in the scorching Manila sun.  Who actually fired at him and who had ordered the hit is still a matter of debate for many.

“I was at home in Daly City, with my family, when the news reached me,” de Leon said.  “My initial reaction was one of shock and disbelief. Then my family gathered together, mourning as if we had lost a member of our own family. We cried.”

Their incredulity escalated to “deep-seated anger at the murder carried out brazenly” on the airport tarmac, de Leon said, punctuating his recollection with an emphatic: “I will never forget that day.”

Live like Ninoy

By then a hospital corpsman with the United States Navy at Vallejo’s now defunct Mare Island, de Leon was already fulfilling his aspiration to live like Ninoy — purposeful, bravely, selflessly — always giving his best.

A radiologic technologist, he became assistant director of imaging at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland.

His community engagement began when he sat on the board of the Filipino American Political Association – San Mateo County upon invitation of community leader Alice Bulos.

San Francisco Chronicle captured him in an evocative February 1986 photo denouncing Pres. Ferdinand Marcos on a bullhorn at a demonstration outside the Philippine Consulate General.

At age 30, he was elected president of the Filipino American Youth Involvement of San Mateo County. Politics, economics and education topped their agenda, but the new leader stretched his advocacy mantle by attending the “Aryan Woodstock” in Napa to confront racism.

Ninoy Aquino chatting with brother-in-law Ken Kashiwahara on their fateful flighto to Manila. CONTRIBUTED

With his cohort in Akbayan North America and Filipino American Human Rights Alliance, he roared back to the Consulate General in San Francisco to decry the extrajudicial killings in Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.  The anti-immigrant pronouncements of former President Trump, he said, also “reawakened” his activism.

Never too far from home in his heart, he is active with Concepcion Community USA, providing scholarships for the town high school students in need and outstanding college students.

Ninoy would have been impressed, even without knowing of de Leon’s bout with stage 2 cancer and ensuing procedures he says “nearly killed” him, but which he has overcome with early detection, faith and a loving family including David Swanson, his husband of 33 years.

On Monday, Aug. 21, de Leon will retell the story of how he met his hero, in hopes of inspiring the values Ninoy instilled in him and building a connection with the new generation he believes owes Aquino a debt of gratitude.