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Early life
Benigno Simeón Aquino Jr. was born in Concepcion, Tarlac, on November 27, 1932, to Benigno
Aquino Sr. and Aurora Lampa Aquino[6][7] from a prosperous family of hacienderos, the original
owners of Hacienda Maling, Hacienda Sawang and Hacienda Murcia.[8]
His grandfather, Aquino, was a general in the revolutionary army of Emilio Aguinaldo, the officially
recognized first President of the Philippines.[9]
He received his elementary education at the basic education department of De La Salle College and
finished at the basic education department of Saint Joseph's College of Quezon City. He then
graduated at the high school department of San Beda College. Aquino took his tertiary education
at Ateneo de Manila University to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree, but he interrupted his
studies.[10]According to one of his biographies, he considered himself to be an average student; his
grade was not in the line of 90s nor did it fall into the 70s. At age 17, he was the youngest war
correspondent to cover the Korean War for The Manila Times of Don Joaquín "Chino" Roces.
Because of his journalistic feats, he received the Philippine Legion of Honor award from President
Elpidio Quirino at age 18. At 21, he became a close adviser to then Defense Secretary Ramon
Magsaysay. Aquino took up law at the University of the Philippines Diliman, where he became a
member of Upsilon Sigma Phi, the same fraternity as Ferdinand Marcos. He interrupted his studies
again however to pursue a career in journalism. According to Máximo Soliven, Aquino "later
'explained' that he had decided to go to as many schools as possible, so that he could make as
many new friends as possible."[10] In early 1954, he was appointed by President Ramon Magsaysay,
his wedding sponsor to his 1953 wedding at the Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Pasay with Corazon
Cojuangco, to act as personal emissary to Luis Taruc, leader of the Hukbalahap rebel group. After
four months of negotiations, he was credited for Taruc's unconditional surrender[11] and was given a
second Philippine Legion of Honor award with the degree of Commander on October 14, 1954.[12]
He became mayor of Concepcion in 1955 at the age of 22.[13]

Political career
Benigno Aquino Jr. (right) with Ramon Magsaysay in August 1951.

Aquino gained an early familiarity with Philippine politics, as he was born into one of the Philippines'
political and landholding clans. His grandfather served under President Aguinaldo, and his father
held office under Presidents Quezon and Jose P. Laurel. As a consequence, Aquino was able to be
elected mayor when he was 23 years old. Five years later, he was elected the nation's youngest
vice-governor at 27 (the record was surpassed by Jolo Revilla at 25 in 2013). Two years later, he
became governor of Tarlac province in 1961 and then secretary-general of the Liberal Party in 1966.
In 1968, during his first year as senator, Aquino alleged that Marcos was on the road to establishing
"a garrison state" by "ballooning the armed forces budget," saddling the defense establishment with
"overstaying generals" and "militarizing our civilian government offices."[14][15]
Aquino became known as a constant critic of the Marcos regime, as his flamboyant rhetoric had
made him a darling of the media. His most polemical speech, "A Pantheon for Imelda", was
delivered on February 10, 1969. He assailed the Cultural Center, the first project of First Lady Imelda
Marcos as extravagant, and dubbed it "a monument to shame" and labelled its designer "a
megalomaniac, with a penchant to captivate". By the end of the day, the country's broadsheets had
blared that he labelled the President's wife, his cousin Paz's former ward, and a woman he had once
courted, "the Philippines' Eva Peron". President Marcos is said to have been outraged and labelled
Aquino "a congenital liar". The First Lady's friends angrily accused Aquino of being "ungallant".
These so-called "fiscalization" tactics of Aquino quickly became his trademark in the Senate.[16][15]

Early martial law years

It was not until the Plaza Miranda bombing however on August 21, 1971 that the pattern of direct
confrontation between Marcos and Aquino emerged. At 9:15 pm, at the kick-off rally of the Liberal
Party, the candidates had formed a line on a makeshift platform and were raising their hands as the
crowd applauded. The band played, a fireworks display drew all eyes, when suddenly there were
two loud explosions that obviously were not part of the show. In an instant the stage became a
scene of wild carnage. The police later discovered two fragmentation grenades that had been thrown
at the stage by "unknown persons". Eight people died, and 120 others were wounded, many
critically.
As Aquino was the only Liberal Party senatorial candidate not present at the incident, many
assumed that Aquino's NPA friends tipped him off in advance.[17] Years later, some former
communists claimed responsibility and accused Aquino of being involved, but the party leadership
has dismissed this as absurd. No one has ever been prosecuted for the attack.[18] Most historians
continue to suspect Marcos as he is known to have used false flag attacks as a pretext for his
declaration of martial law at this time.[19][20]
Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972 through Proclamation No. 1081[21] and he went
on air to broadcast his declaration on the midnight of September 23.[22] Aquino was one of the first to
be arrested and imprisoned on trumped-up charges of murder, illegal possession of firearms and
subversion. He was tried before Military Commission No. 2 headed by Major-General Jose Syjuco.
On April 4, 1975, Aquino announced that he was going on a hunger strike, a fast to the death to
protest the injustices of his military trial. Ten days through his hunger strike, he instructed his
lawyers to withdraw all motions he had submitted to the Supreme Court. As weeks went by, he
subsisted solely on salt tablets, sodium bicarbonate, amino acids and two glasses of water a day.
Even as he grew weaker, suffering from chills and cramps, soldiers forcibly dragged him to the
military tribunal's session. His family and hundreds of friends and supporters heard Mass nightly at
the Santuario de San Jose in Greenhills, San Juan, praying for his survival. Near the end, Aquino's
weight had dropped from 54 to 36 kilos. Aquino nonetheless was able to walk throughout his ordeal.
On May 13, 1975, on the 40th day, his family and several priests and friends, begged him to end his
fast, pointing out that even Christ fasted only for 40 days. He acquiesced, confident that he had
made a symbolic gesture. But he remained in prison, and the trial continued, drawn out for several
years. On November 25, 1977, the Military Commission charged Aquino along
with NPA leaders Bernabe Buscayno (Commander Dante) and Lt. Victor Corpuz, guilty of all
charges and sentenced them to death by firing squad.[23] The death sentence was never carried out
as Aquino's death sentence was commuted by President Marcos in May 1980.[24]