Remembering Bonifacio, Quezon, Aquino and Fernando Poe

A few weeks ago, I went to the place in Maragondon Cavite where Andres Bonifacio was tried. I was expecting a dinky, little house but what I saw surprised me. The place was a bahay na bato, with the Katipunan logo emblazoned on its doors and gates. 

This was the place, I said to myself, that changed the course of the 1st Katipunan revolution. This was the site where the first traitors of the revolution condemned the Supremo to satiate their lust for power. 

I told myself, what if the Supremo outlasted these traitors and he, himself, led the first Republic? Ano kayang mga polisiya ang ipatutupad ng Supremo?

I'm writing this because the same questions flashed in my mind when remembering Manuel L. Quezon, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino and Fernando Poe Jr. We are remembering these three heroes this month--one celebrating his 130th birth anniversary, the other, his 25th year of death while FPJ celebrated his 69th birthday. These three share the same fate---they did'nt live long enough to see what had become of their beloved country. 

Quezon was instrumental in building the Commonwealth but died due to tuberculosis. He did'nt see the fruits of his labors. Ninoy could have been president. Same as Fernando Poe. The former died with a broken heart while the latter was brutally killed by the minions of a discredited dictatorship. Like Bonifacio, these three could have made monumental changes in our society had Fates gave them the chance. All of them died without seeing the light.

Come to think of it...the Fates had its reasons. If Quezon lived to become the first post-war president, would he had the strength to rebuild a war-torn country, given his frail health? If Ninoy continued on, the outcome that is EDSA would not have happened. And if FPJ lived, he would have succumbed to become a trapo, like his buddy Erap. The Fates saved them from a brutish society and even glorified them with their deaths.

Their legacy lives on though. The very same reasons why society created these glorious sons, Bonifacio, Quezon, Aquino and Poe remain the same. The same problems that beset Bonifacio's time, the trapo politics of Quezon's era, the weakness of the opposition in Ninoy's age and the apathy of Poe's milieu are still with us. 

The monumental monsters that these heroes fought against still exist and even worsened. These men watch us in the heavenly Patheon of martyrs with heavy hearts. Who will stand up and continue their revolutionary work?