This week, the Upsilon Sigma Phi pays tribute to hero and martyr, fellow Benigno "Ninoy" S. Aquino, Jr. '50 (November 27, 1932 - August 21, 1983) on the occasion of his 40th death anniversary. The Upsilon Sun will be reprinting articles about him and tributes to him written by his fellow Upsilonians.

The eulogy reprinted below was delivered by fellow Ponciano G.A. Mathay '48 (+) during Ninoy's necrological rites at the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice in U.P Diliman on August 24, 1983.

We gather tonight in this chapel of the Holy Sacrifice in tribute to a regular fellow of the Upsilon Sigma Phi, a noble son of the University, a martyred hero of the nation. In time, the life story of Fellow Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. 1950, will be faithfully told in the still unwritten history of the race.

Men have called him a Jeffersonian Democrat, a soldier of freedom, the conscience of his time. Let us remember him tonight as a brother and a friend.

In remembering Ninoy, let us recall the words of the poet William Wordsworth:

"What though the radiance

Which was once so bright

Be now forever taken from my sight

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendor in the grass

Of glory in the flow'r

We grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind."

For as we remember Ninoy tonight, those among us who were with him in the fraternity more than half of a lifetime ago cannot but recall his zest for living, his utter joy in being alive in the here and now, of how he could always "fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run."

Then, he seemed to be always in perpetual motion, a bit bored with formal schooling, but always inquiring, seeking, learning.

I remember in March 1950, when we both participated in the U.P. Open Oratorical Contest then held at the Little Theatre of Benitez Hall. His oration was entitled "Clio Laughed, "and even then, at 17 years old, he believed in historical imperatives, that when Clio, the muse of History writes, she writes without heed to the pleas of men and without regard to the importuning of nations.

Like another martyred prince, he understood with the ancient Greeks that life is a perilous adventure, that men are not made for having done what men could, man suffers what men must.

Still, those of us whose lives he touched remember him also for his gentle nature, his little acts of kindness specially to the young.

I had not seen him for many years and yet in Boston, two Decembers ago, he refused to allow my son, who was then studying there, to be alone, far away from home, during a harsh New England winter on Christmas Day, and insisted that the boy have Christmas dinner with him and his family at his Newton home.

Gentle, kind, heroic, steadfast, brave and true, he has made each one of us proud to be an Upsilonian.

Let us remember him tonight not in grief but in celebration of a life well spent.

A few years ago, Ninoy wrote,

"A minute of Heroism
is better than decades
of useless life."

No words of ours, I know, can ever half-console his family, his wife, his children, his. mother.

Perhaps, we can only quote Aeschylus, that "Even in our sleep pain that cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom by
the awful grace of God."

It is but small consolation, we know yet the life of Ninoy Aquino will be a beacon light to all peoples in all climes for all time.

And so tonight, as we take leave of him, we can only echo the Bard:

"Goodnight sweet prince and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

"Ponciano G.A. Mathay '48 (1930-2014) was a lawyer, orator, former illustrious fellow of the Upsilon Sigma Phi and former president of the U.P. Alumni Association (UPAA). Noted for his brilliance and eloquence, Pon surpassed himself in this stirring eulogy." - The Upsilon Sun, September 1985