WHY did many people like me demonstrate after the assassination of Sen. Ninoy Aquino 40 years ago? Many had much more at stake and more to lose than 24-year-old me who had nothing to gain, yet we did so. I assume that, like me, they felt two overwhelming emotions that logic, calculation and self-interest could not overcome. Shame for having been collectively cowed and cowardly when many rights we at least ostensibly had were taken away long beyond any reasonable justification for it. Let's not forget that, to Senator Aquino's chagrin, the people did not rise when martial law was declared 51 years ago, and it was actually very popular at the start. Collectively, many felt the pre-1972 system was falling apart and minus false nostalgia for that era (second richest in Asia when reality was with $200 GDP per capita, we were for a time merely among the less poor). We were already falling behind our neighbors economically (worse was to come, alas). Add student unrest and social tensions, and many felt we needed discipline, order and effective government. Don't think pre-martial law governance was anything exemplary. Think traffic is bad today? Before martial law, there were jeepneys on EDSA and all main roads. Many attempts to remove them failed and only martial law enabled them to be moved to secondary roads.
The second overwhelming emotion was outrage. That our country had come to that where not just opponents, but the leading political opponent could be assassinated and under those circumstances. For all the claims of political opportunism and populism prior to martial law that dogged Senator Aquino, his incarceration and sacrifice made him more than he was before and a talisman.
I am not going to reprint the data I previously published on our population growth during the period. So much for the demographic dividend. Look at Vietnam's growth from just 2005 when their GDP was about half of ours and now exceeds ours. All that in less than 20 years, having had to overcome the challenge of reunifying a country, shifting from communism and let's not forget times were so bad there were the numerous refugees termed the 'boat people.
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