21 AUGUST

Spanish colonial soldiers execute Filipino revolutionaries

1896 - Two days after the Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang  manga Anak nang Bayan (KKK) is discovered by Spanish colonial authorities, Supremo Andres Bonifacio y de Castro and Emilio Jacinto y Dizon decide to use numbers instead of letters in changing the revolutionary society's code that has earlier been cracked by the enemies during the opening phase of the Philippine Revolution against Spain; during the same day, revolutionary and Mason Faustino Villaruel is arrested and imprisoned at Fort Santiago as some 500 revolutionaries leave Balintawak for the neighboring Kangkong hamlet where Katipunero Apolinario Samson provides them lodging and food.  


1983 - Opposition leader ex-Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino II is assassinated at the tarmac of the then-Manila International Airport after arriving from the United States where he was allowed by Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos to undergo medical operation for his heart condition following his incarceration for seven years and seven months during Martial Law; the blame for the murder will be pinned by the succeeding administration of Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, Ninoy's widow, on the Marcoses although one of the soldiers convicted for the murder will later point to businessman Eduardo "Dangding" Cojuangco, Ninoy's cousin, as the real mastermind for the dastardly killing. 


Photo credit: http://josepherdon.blogspot.com/2008/12/andres-bonifacio.html