The BSA Tradition

Our battered Philippine Peso will have a facelift when Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas issues new series towards the end of 2010. It will have a new design with upgraded security features. More importantly, we expect that the new series of our Philippine Peso will now bear the signature of P-Noy as the new President.

The full name of Noynoy is Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III. However, as a tradition started 3 generations ago, Noynoy has been using Benigno S. Aquino III in all his legal, commercial and personal transactions. Now that Noynoy is P-Noy, he will continue to use Benigno S. Aquino III as his official name in all public documents. The practice in the Philippines is that we use the surname of our mother as our middle name, but in the case of Noynoy, he uses his second name, Simeon, as his middle name.

Ninoy, father of Noynoy, used Benigno S. Aquino Jr. as his official name. “S” stands for Servillano, the second name of Ninoy which was taken from the name of his lolo. When Ninoy returned to Manila on 21 August 1983 where he was shot and killed by a single bullet, his polo shirt bore the initials of “BSA”. On that fateful day, Ninoy’s was carrying a passport bearing the name Marcial Bonifacio – which he probably coined from Martial Law and Fort Bonifacio, the cause and the place of his incarceration.

Igno, the father of Ninoy and the lolo of Noynoy, was the original Benigno S. Aquino. Igno’s mother was a Quiambao but Igno used “S” as his middle initial which was short for Simeon, his second name. When his first wife died in March 1928, Igno married his third cousin, Aurora Aquino with whom he had seven (7) children—Maria Aurora (Maur), Benigno, Jr. (Ninoy), Maria Gerarda (Ditas), Maria Guadalupe (Lupita), Agapito (Butz), Paul, and Maria Teresa (Tessie).

It is now a challenge for Noynoy to continue the “BSA” tradition. Should P-Noy eventually marry Shalani, and will have a son, he does not need to think of a second name starting with letter “S” for his son to continue the said tradition. The son could simply adopt the surname of Shalani – which is Soledad – as his middle initial, and the BSA tradition continues (Benigno Soledad Aquino IV). At the same time, the BSA tradition would now be in accord with the practice in the Philippines.

Kaya naman pala, ang mga naging girlfriends ni Noynoy, mga letrang “S” ang kanilang mga apelyido – e.g., Korina Sanchez, Bernadette Sembrano and now, Soledad Shalani.