page_title: Benigno Aquino Jr.
section_title: 1978 election, bypass surgery, exile
hierarchical_section_title: Benigno Aquino Jr. / 1978 election, bypass surgery, exile
caption_attribution_description: English: This is where Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. was detained from August 27, 1973 until his exile to the US in 1980. President Benigno S. Aquino III visited this 4 x 5 meter room of Building No. 2 inside the Legazpi Compound in Fort Bonifacio, Makati. In his visit, the President recalled happy and sad moments during their family visitation hours. (Photo by Gil Nartea/Malacanang Photo Bureau)
context_page_description: Benigno "Ninoy" Simeon Aquino Jr., QSC was a Filipino politician who served as a Senator of the Philippines and governor of the province of Tarlac. He was the husband of Corazon Aquino—who, after his death, eventually became President of the Philippines—and father of a later President, Benigno Aquino III. Aquino, together with Gerardo Roxas and Jovito Salonga, formed the leadership of the opposition towards then President Ferdinand Marcos. Shortly after the imposition of martial law, Aquino was arrested in 1972 along with others associated with the New People's Army's armed insurgency and incarcerated for seven years. He founded his own party, Lakas ng Bayan and ran in the 1978 Philippine parliamentary election, but all the party's candidates lost in the election. In 1980, he was permitted by Marcos to travel to the United States for medical treatment following a heart attack. During the early 1980s he became one of the most notable critics of the Marcos regime, and enjoyed popularity across the US due to the numerous rallies he attended at the time.
context_section_description: In 1978, from his prison cell, Aquino was allowed to run in the 1978 Philippine parliamentary election. As Ninoy's Liberal Party colleagues were boycotting the election, he formed the Lakas ng Bayan party. The party had 21 candidates for the Metro Manila area, including Ninoy himself. All of the party's candidates, including Ninoy, lost the election.
  In mid-March 1980, Aquino suffered a heart attack, mostly in a solitary cell. He was transported to the Philippine Heart Center, where he suffered a second heart attack. ECG and other tests showed that he had a blocked artery. Philippine surgeons were reluctant to do a coronary bypass, because it could involve them in a controversy. In addition, Aquino refused to submit himself to Philippine doctors, fearing possible Marcos "duplicity"; he preferred to go to the United States for the procedure or return to his cell at Fort Bonifacio and die.
  His request was granted and Ninoy was allowed to go to the US for surgery, together with his entire family. This was arranged after a secret hospital visit by Imelda Marcos. This "emergency leave" was set up when Ninoy supposedly agreed to the conditions that, first, he will return, and second, he will not speak out against Marcos in the US. Ninoy was operated on by Rolando M. Solis, a Filipino American and the longest-practicing cardiologist in Dallas, Texas, where the operation took place. After the surgery, Ninoy made a quick recovery, after which he decided to renounce the agreement, saying, "a pact with the devil is no pact at all".
  He, Cory and their children started a new life in Massachusetts. He continued to work on two books and gave a series of lectures while on fellowship grants from Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His travels across the US had become opportunities for him to deliver speeches critical of the Marcos government. Throughout his years of expatriation, Aquino was always aware that his life in the U.S. was temporary. He never stopped affirming his eventual return even as he enjoyed American hospitality and a peaceful life with his family on American soil. After spending seven years and seven months in prison, Aquino's finances were in ruins. Making up for the lost time as the family's breadwinner, he toured America; attending symposiums, lectures, and giving speeches in freedom rallies opposing the Marcos dictatorship. The most memorable was held at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, California on February 15, 1981.
caption: The room where Aquino was detained from August 1973 to 1980
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