FILIPINO activists held an information drive on Sunday to commemorate the death of democracy icon Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.

His death on Aug. 21, 1983 led to a popular street uprising that toppled the regime of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos less than three years later.

Ninoy’s death upon his arrival from US exile was an “act of defiance against fake news and widespread deception,” said Akbayan Party President Rafaela David, whose group held a program dubbed “Historyahan” at a Makati City monument of the Filipino hero.

“Without memory, all that remains is a hollow democracy,” she said in a statement. “While we no longer live under Martial Law, the constant attempts to distort the truth are the gravest threats to democracy in the country.”

The presidential palace under President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. had yet to issue a statement about Ninoy Aquino Day, which is a nonworking holiday under the law.

“In 1983, they assassinated a brave and selfless man,” Ms. David said. “In 2022, they tried to assassinate history using our own democratic elections, but no bullet can kill the truth.”

The group vowed to preserve the country’s collective memory of the February 1986 uprising that sent the late dictator and his family into exile in the US.

“Through our storytelling, and the preservation of collective memory, we will keep the truth alive, and it will have its day.”

Critics have said President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. benefited from a well-organized presidential campaign last year that sought to whitewash the country’s history under his late father and namesake.

Fact-checking organization VERA Files in a Dec. 2021 report said election-related online disinformation that year benefited Mr. Marcos the most.

It noted that out of 120 election-related false information propagated in 2021, 52 “either promoted Marcos… or distorted facts about his family’s ill-gotten wealth cases and the atrocities committed under the administration of his father.”

During Sunday’s program, Kiko Aquino-Dee described Mr. Aquino, his grandfather, a “boy wonder” who became a hero for making himself “one with the country and its suffering.”

“When we become one with our country’s suffering and its struggles, it can create a huge impact,” he said in Filipino.

“That is the lesson of the EDSA People Power Revolution,” said Mr. Dee, who is also the deputy executive director of the Ninoy & Cory Aquino Foundation.

The death of Mr. Aquino, who was assassinated moments after deplaning from Manila’s international airport, led to the creation of a movement named August Twenty-One Movement or ATOM.

The group organized mass mobilization campaigns that drew hundreds of thousands during Mr. Aquino’s funeral parade in different parts of the country.

ATOM, which has been revived by young Filipinos seeking to preserve the country’s history under the senior Marcos, is set to lead a motorcade on Monday “that will trace back the route of Ninoy’s burial march.”

Public outrage over Mr. Aquino’s death catapulted his wife Corazon into the limelight, with many pushing her to challenge the elder Marcos’ rule.

Private and unofficial counts by watchdogs led by the National Movement for Free Elections showed that Ms. Aquino and her running mate won the 1986 snap election. 

On the last of the four-day People Power uprising, Ms. Aquino took her oath as the first female president of the Philippines.

“Ninoy’s death will inspire a large segment of Filipinos who have remained apathetic to the abuses of Martial Law to finally break their silence and join the cause to break free from the chains of the Marcos dictatorship,” ATOM said in a statement. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atenza

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