An alliance of labor groups in Negros Occidental is vehemently opposing the proposal to rename the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) into the Ferdinand E. Marcos International Airport.
Rep. Arnolfo Teves Jr. (Neg. Or., 3rd District) filed House Bill No.610 on June 30 seeking the renaming of the NAIA.
Wennie Sancho, General Alliance of Workers Associations (GAWA) secretary general, said on Thursday, July 7, that it is another attempt to rewrite if not distort history.
“The people are the authors of our history and not the politicians. NAIA was named after former Senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr., who was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983 on this airport which now bears his name sprinkled with his blood and a martyr’s death that had institutionalized the name NAIA,” Sancho said.
“Ninoy was a symbol of the opposition against the dictatorship at that time. To change the name of NAIA for someone else is to demean the heroism and martyrdom of Ninoy Aquino as immortalized in his words that ‘The Filipino is worth dying for’. The greatness of a nation is measured by the quality of the men and women it honors and Ninoy Aquino deserves our accolade,“ he added.
“For any nation or country to honor a scoundrel, tyrant or oppressor would be doing a great injustice to the history of that nation,” Sancho said.*