Filipinos in SF mark 33rd anniversary of Aquino assassination

Fr. Arnold Zamora officiating at the Mass in remembrance of Sen. Benigno Aquino. INQUIRER.NET

SAN FRANCISCO – Filipinos marked the 33^rd anniversary of the assassination of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino at the Philippine Consulate Aug. 23, with a Mass followed by a luncheon.

Father Arnold Zamora, who officiated, said in his sermon that it struck him that “Ninoy was wearing all white” when he returned from exile and was assassinated at the Manila International Airport tarmac.

“White is the color of purity, the color of heaven. So I believe Ninoy was prepared” to meet his fate for the sake of his people, Fr. Zamora said.

Consul General Henry Bensurto Jr. said, “Not everyone can do extraordinary things, like Ninoy did, that awakened the Filipinos. But we can work extraordinarily hard doing ordinary things in the service of others.”

Aquino’s brother-in-law, veteran TV journalist Ken Kashiwahara, who accompanied him on his fateful return trip to Manila, thanked the people in attendance.

He said that after Aquino’s funeral, when he and his wife, Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara, where flying back to San Francisco, their airplane taxied past the exact spot on the tarmac where Aquino fell. “We vowed right then never to forget him and what he did for his people, and to make sure people never forget.”