August 21, 2016, marks the 33rd death anniversary of Senator Benigno Simeon Aquino Jr, and to Filipinos mostly called as Ninoy.

He is the husband of the later former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino and the father of former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, who was gunned down as he was walking down the tarmac of the Manila International Airport now known as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA on August 21, 1983.

His assassination jolt the opposition and make wide-spread support from Filipinos around the country, following in a People Power revolution in 1986 which also put an end of President’s Ferdinand Marcos 20-years ruling.

Aquino was a native of Tarlac and served as a senator under the 7tih Congress and was known as the President Marcos’ political rival.  He was also the first who was arrested upon the abolition of Congress following Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law in 1972.

Aquino was placed under military trial and was accused of murder, illegal possession of firearms and subversion. To protest the said charges against him, he went on a hunger strike for 40 days from April 4 to May 13, 1975.  In 1977, the military tribunal sentenced him to die but the execution was never pushed through.

The former senator Ninoy Aquino’s grave is laid at Manila Memorial Park where his wife Cory grave was.