Family, nation bid farewell to Cory Aquino
MANILA — (Updated 2:01 p.m.) Former President Corazon Aquino’s body is making its final journey through Manila Wednesday to be buried next to her assassinated husband in a culmination of grieving for the icon hailed as the example of moral leadership.
Cory Aquino 1993-2009
As the flatbed truck carrying Mrs. Aquino’s flag-draped coffin slowly makes its way to Manila Memorial Park, where she will be buried next to next husband Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., huge crowds chanting “Cory” line Manila’s rainy streets and walk behind her casket as the procession, lashed by winds, inches closer to her final resting place. Yellow confetti showered the roads.
Aquino’s daughter Kris said in her tearful farewell to her mother during the 9 a.m. requiem mass at the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros that she was grateful for the privilege of being Cory Aquino’s child and promised to lead a life that would make her mother proud.
Kris Aquino-Yap said her mother’s last words were “take care of each other,” but that this message is intended not only for the family but for all Filipinos.
“You have given our family great honor. For my family, the Filipinos are worth it,” she added, as she thanked her countrymen for the outpouring of prayers and support during the family’s time of bereavement.
In his homily during the requiem mass, Fr. Catalino Arevalo said Mrs. Aquino always had the welfare of the country in mind. He said the order of former President’s priority was: God, country, the people, and family.
Mrs. Aquino was the “only true queen the people had” and the “source of our faith,” added Arevalo. “She made this world much safer and less cruel for us.”
Arevalo, who delivered the homily in accordance with Mrs. Aquino’s wishes, thanked her children for sharing her with the country. “They never had their parents to themselves,” he said.
Kris added in her eulogy that she always felt she was her mother’s favorite because she was most like her father, the late Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, and he was her mother’s one and only love.
She apologized to her mother for lying by saying the family would be okay, explaining they wanted her to be free from the pain and not to worry over them. “Mom, it will take a lifetime for us to be okay,” she said.
Kris also thanked her sisters Balsy, Pinky, and Viel, and her brother Senator Noynoy Aquino, whose political career she promised to support although she asked him not to get married. “You are Josh’s security blanket, his protector now that mom is gone,” Kris told Noynoy.
A few hours earlier, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was at odds with the former president, visited the wake of Mrs. Aquino. She was met by Noynoy at the left side of the Manila Cathedral.
Arroyo cut short her US trip to pay her last respects to the former President. She stayed less than 10 minutes at the Manila Cathedral. Arroyo no longer attended the funeral mass for Mrs. Aquino.
The requiem mass for former President Aquino started at 9 a.m. and was punctuated by performances of famous artists like Lea Salonga, Sarah Geronimo, Apo Hiking Society, Erik Santos, and Piolo Pascual, among others.
After the mass, which ended at 11 a.m., Mrs. Aquino’s casket was brought out of the Manila Cathedral for the funeral motorcade while a military band played “Bayan Ko.” As the casket was slowly carried out of the cathedral, people stood up and clapped.
Outside the cathedral, honor guards gave the former commander-in-chief military departure honors.
Over the last five days, hundreds of thousands of mourners have filed past Mrs. Aquino’s open casket. Family, friends, and former aides crowded into the Manila Cathedral late Tuesday to eulogize the accidental opposition leader who led the 1986 “people power” uprising and drove away the 20-year repressive rule of Ferdinand Marcos.
Aquino, the 11th Philippine president, died Saturday at age 76 after a yearlong battle with colon cancer.
Her successors Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada, the latter deposed in a second popular uprising in 2001 on corruption allegations, together with East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta, attended Wednesday’s requiem Mass.
“We never saw any wrongdoing on her part,” said housekeeper Edith Sabas.
At the simple white-painted tomb at the family mausoleum, interior designer Merly Querubin, wearing a baseball cap adorned with a yellow ribbon, said her country had two kinds of leaders.
“One who we follow out of fear, and one who we follow out of respect. We have lost a leader so respected.”
In a highly symbolic gesture, the late Marcos’ two children paid their last respects Tuesday to the woman who toppled their father. It was unlikely, however, to reconcile the families’ bitter rivalry.
Aquino’s brother-in-law, former Sen. Agapito “Butz” Aquino, welcomed them at the wake saying the family had “no fight with the children” of Marcos.
Aquino rose to prominence after her husband was assassinated in 1983 as he returned from U.S. exile to oppose Marcos. Hesitant, she inherited his mantle and agreed to run against the strongman in 1986.
Marcos claimed an election victory over Aquino, but the polls were widely seen as fraudulent. A group of military officers rebelled against him, triggering “people power” protests by hundreds of thousands that finally toppled Marcos.
In office, Aquino struggled to meet high public expectations. Her land redistribution program fell short of ending economic domination by the landed elite. Her leadership, especially in social and economic reform, was often indecisive, leaving many of her closest allies disillusioned by the end of her term.
She faced down seven coup attempts -- most staged by the same clique of officers who had risen up against Marcos and felt they had been denied their fair share of power.
Aquino stepped down in 1992, refusing to seek another term and reminding people that her mission -- the restoration of democracy -- had been completed.
Despite her “serious flaws” in office, left-wing Rep. Teddy Casino expressed gratitude to Aquino for reminding “the world that there is perhaps a Cory in every Filipino looking for a way to become manifest.” (AP/Sunnex)
