(this article first appeared on news.abs-cbn.com)

If Bonifacio cried in Catanduanes, no one would have heard him. If Jose Rizal had been shot in Dapitan, the shots would not have echoed. If the battle had not been for Manila, the war of independence would not have started. If Ninoy Aquino landed in Davao, he would not have been shot. He would be a banana farmer. But the cry was in Balintawak; the shot was in Luneta; the exchange of gunfire was in Sta. Ana; and the last carpet of incendiary bombs was unrolled by America across Manila, burning everything the bombs already destroyed—and killing a lot of those the Japs failed to massacre. And the second shot was on a tarmac of the Manila International Airport.
Published in Commentaries