Espiritu to VP Sara: ‘Your father was a murderer, Ninoy fought for human rights!’
Labor-leader Atty. Luke Espiritu stressed the alleged differences between former President Rodrigo Duterte and former Senator Ninoy Aquino after Vice President Sara Duterte’s statement that her father might do the same thing to the former senator if he were to return to the Philippines.

It can be recalled that in her speech at the meet-and-greet event organized by Duterte supporters in The Hague, Netherlands on Sunday, March 23, VP Sara shared that whenever she visited FPRRD at the ICC detention center, he always asked if he would be sent back to the Philippines. But she warned him that he might do the same thing to Aquino if he were to return to the country. Espiritu, however, refuted VP Sara’s statement through a Facebook post on Monday, March 24.

The nerve! Your father ran away, ran to China, not only was he not given a chance, Ninoy faced the bullets of the Marcoses,” insisted Espiritu, who is a senatorial candidate in the 2025 midterm elections.

“Your father was a murderer, Ninoy fought for human rights. Your father buried Ninoy’s killer in the grave of heroes,” he added. According to the labor leader, FPRRD was allegedly “instrumental in the Marcoses’ return to power,” while Aquino was the one who “became instrumental in their downfall.”

“When your father was killed, that was called justice, when Ninoy was killed, that was called injustice,” Espiritu said. “It takes a special quality and an extraordinary level of boldness for you not to notice the contradiction in what you are saying.”

Aquino, who was known as an outspoken critic of PBBM’s father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was shot dead at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in August 1983 after spending three years in exile in the United States.

Meanwhile, FPRRD is currently in the custody of the ICC after being arrested on March 11 on charges of “crimes against humanity” related to his administration’s bloody war on drugs.