The Philippines observes on Saturday the 27th anniversary of the martyrdom of the late opposition senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Junior but his son and namesake who is now the country’s president, has requested that he be allowed to have “private moments” to mark the occasion, a Malacanang official said on Friday.
Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Group said Aquino is to attend a solemn mass after which he will share private moments with his four sisters and their families.
Aquino and his siblings are also scheduled to visit the tombs of their father and their mother the late global democracy icon president Corazon Aquino in a private cemetery in suburban Paranaque City, Metro Manila, Carandang said.
He added several public events have been organized by concerned groups to observe the death anniversary of Aquino’s father. But he admitted he has no knowledge on whether the President would attend any of these events.
August 21 has been declared a non-working holiday even during the administration of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Senator Aquino, an outspoken critic of the martial law regime of the late president Ferdinand Marcos, was assassinated at the tarmac of the then Manila International Airport upon his arrival from the US on August 21, 1983.
His assassination resulted in a series of protest movements that culminated in the ouster of the Marcos dictatorship by the military-backed civilian revolt known as the Edsa 1 People Power Revolution in February 1986.
The Marcos ouster also led to the instal
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