(Excerpts from the Homily of Jaime Cardinal Sin at the

mass celebrating the 5th death anniversary of Ninoy

Aquino)
 a. What is Ninoy’s gift? How should the Filipinos show
“gratitude” for this gift?
 b. What does the “truest motto of our people” mean?
 c. How have we transformed the ideal?
 d. What is the significance of the allusion to the three
monkeys to our “national pastime?”
 e. In what way “must we criticize in order to be free?”
 f. When does our criticizing degenerate into self-
destruction?
 g. What does Cardinal sin mean by “our national
game, an anarchic free-for-all- in a ‘basket of
crabs’?”
 h. How does the other meaning of K.K.K. negate the
moral order that must be addressed vigorously?
 i. What does he mean by our need as citizens “to go
into an action mode ourselves?”
 j. Where should change start?
 k. What qualities are reflected by the motto, “Bayan
muna, bago and sarili?
 a. Of the four versions of K.K.K., which, do you think,
is most applicable to our people and government
today? Why?

 b. In what ways is the motto, “Bayan muna, bago ang

sarili” a non-operative ideal even today?

 c. Would you agree with the Cardinal that the saying,

“Every man for himself” is a “formula for disaster”?

 d. Who is Chino Roces? Is his call for a moral order in

1988 still applicable today?

 e. Why must we begin change with ourselves?

 f. Given our socio-political problems today, do you

think “Bayan muna, bago ang sarili” would be the best
motto that we can adopt to make us ranscend our
selfish ways, our social and political problems?
 a. Why does the homily start with an allusion to the gift of Ninoy
to the Filipinos? What does he achieve by this reference?
 b. Why does he bring up the four parodies of the true meaning of
KKK if these were a far cry from the ideal?
 c. What is the importance of his allusion to the three monkeys
who see, hear, and speak no evil?
 d. In the next paragraph, he quotes Ninoy, “We must criticize in
order to be free…” What is the effect of this exhortation-
quotation on the idea of the preceding paragraph?
 e. Again, what is the significance of the pun on what KKK stands
for in Par.7? Why is it juxtaposed with the allusion to Chino Roces
and his call for a renewed moral order?
 f. Do you agree that “our President [at that time, Cory Aquino] is
bent on pursuing the battle against corruption forcefully?”
 g. To make the guideline, “Bayan muna, bago ang sarili” operative,
we must start with ourselves… and implement it for a year;
otherwise, we would be dreaming an “impossible dream” and not
“follow the star.” What is gained from borrowing from the popular
song?
 JOAQUIN “CHINO” ROCES (1913-
1988) was publisher of the Manila
Times, the country’s leading
newspaper throughout the postwar
era where Ninoy began his journalism
career as a reporter and later on an
international correspondent covering
the Korean War. Following the
declaration of Martial Law, the Times
was shutdown and Roces was
detained, together with Ninoy and
others critical of the Marcos regime,
in Fort Bonifacio. In the run up to the
1986 snap elections, Roces
spearheaded a movement to collect
one million signatures to convince
Corazon C. Aquino, Ninoy’s widow, to
run against Marcos. She lost but
massive indignation led to the EDSA
revolution, the toppling of a
dictatorship, the return of democracy,
and the ascension of Mrs. Aquino to
the Presidency.
 The following excerpt was taken
from “Memories of a Hero” by Cynthia
Sycip.