A garrison state in the make and other speeches

In Ninoy Aquino’s exposes — ominous indeed and prophetic now sound — was there an exact, as it turned out, prognosis of what Mr. Marcos was up to. Unfortunately, such philippics were chiefly enjoyed for their titillation. The danger signals Ninoy defined excited thrills rather than concern and he was cheered being so bold an oppositionist, so shrewd a fiscalizer, when he should have disquieted as a stormy petrel voicing omens of impending ill. After the blow had fallen on the nation, Ninoy’s words would be recalled with a pang — no ,longer as delicious scandal mongering but as an oracle’s auguries that, alas, went unheeded. The tragedy was that the people failed to realize that his onslaughts were directed against a very imminent and actual danger. Thrilling entertainment was all they saw in the series of exposes he made, exposes that should have affrighted as omens of the petrel.