Daly City congregation honors Ninoy Aquino on 40th year since his murder

A big congregation heard Mass honoring Ninoy Aquino was led by Fr. Rey Culaba (in red vest). INQUIRER/Jun Nucum

DALY CITY – In the biggest attendance at a commemoration of assassination of Senator Benigno Ninoy Aquino Jr., the “Friends of Ninoy” remembered the 40^th anniversary of his martyrdom with an ecumenical Mass last Monday, Aug. 21 at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church.

Fr. Rey Culaba, with four other priests, officiated as some 200 Filipinos and their friends filled the church’s activity hall.

Videos recalled the life and struggles of Aquino, with musical interpretations of songs dear to him, particularly “Impossible Dream,” “Bayan Ko” and the patriotic “Anong Pag-Ibig Pa” leaving many wiping tears from their faces.

Culaba’s homily spoke of Ninoy’s sister Lupita sharing that “in jail Ninoy found God when he did his hunger strike and read His scriptures, and he prayed and prayed Ninoy found God, who, of course, always there for Ninoy.”

“Ninoy, giving giving up his very life itself, was ready to give his life for God and for his neighbor,” stated Culaba.

Veteran Bay Area KTVU journalist Lloyd LaCuesta, on behalf of his wife, Lisa Yuchengco, introduced Ninoy’s brother-in-law veteran network journalist Ken Kashiwahara who was with the senator on his fateful flight from exile back to Manila.

Kashiwahara read a letter he would have sent Ninoy recalling, among other things, their nerve-wracking travel through Singapore and Taiwan’s airport immigration checks and the anger he felt as he heard the shots that killed his brother-in-law at the Manila airport.

“Your faith in God gave you strength. I understood that when I turned to talk to you on the plane and you were deep in prayer, head bowed, fingering your rosary beads. You hoped for the best but settled for what God gave you: a ‘victory’ if we just landed, you said. After all you’d been through, I thought, it would be indeed,” read Kashiwahara.

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He recalled the events immediately after Ninoy’s death, including the hundreds of thousands that viewed Ninoy’s body at Time’s Street and then at Santo Domingo Church and the 11-hour final journey to Manila Memorial Park attended by millions along the way.

Kashiwahara revealed that then-U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Michael Armacost asked him whether Ninoy had concerns about local Communists. When Kashiwahara’s answered no, Armacost replied, ‘then Marcos is guilty of criminal negligence at the very least.’ That was the beginning of the end of America’s support for Philippine dictatorship.”

Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara (center in black and maroon top), Attorney Rob Bonta (to Lupita’s left) and Ken Kashiwahara (seated extreme left) after the Mass commemorating the 40th death Anniversary of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. INQUIRER/Jun Nucum

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who was only 11-years-old at the time of the assassination, said that he needed to be with the Filipino American community for the commemoration: “We need more people to be like Ninoy and stand up and fight and give everything they have for what’s right and what’s for the good of the people here and in the Motherland.”

From the younger generation, Daly City Vice Mayor Juslyn Manalo remembered “when my grandfather brought home People Power shirts to the United States and how important it was for him to impart what happened and also the unity in the Philippines. We need to continue to fight for democracy and for the needs of the people.”

Immigration lawyer Lou Tancinco was then still a freshman at UP College of Law and joined the line at the wake in Time Street and Santo Domingo Church.

“It is good the community is still commemorating the death anniversary. It is relevant in reminding us how much we love our country, how much we need to sacrifice to do more. It is never enough. We’ll see now that another Marcos is in power,” Tancinco said.