Kamag-anaks in bleachers: Ninoy, Cory would have been proud

MANILA, Philippines - While virtual territorial wars were fought to gain access to the hallowed ground that was President Aquino’s row at the Quirino Grandstand for his inaugural yesterday, his relatives were happy to be quietly in the bleachers of the grandstand’s south wing.

Three tiers away from the front row of the south wing, and several meters away from where the President’s sisters took their seats, members of the Aquino and Cojuangco clans sat quietly and unobtrusively.

A close family friend told The STAR that it was a signal that the new President wanted no preferential treatment for his relatives, and that his relatives were only too happy to oblige.

“Our sister would have been very proud of Noynoy today,” smiled the late former President Corazon Aquino’s oldest sister Josephine Cojuangco-Reyes, whose family owns Far Eastern University. Their youngest sister Passy Cojuangco-Teopaco sat misty-eyed beside her. Amidst the throng, they simply looked like two matrons who wanted to be witness to yesterday’s historic inaugural.

Mrs. Aquino’s brothers Pedro Cojuangco and former Tarlac Rep. Jose “Peping” Cojuangco were also in the bleachers with them.

Paul Aquino, the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino’s youngest brother, who was also seated in “South Pole” section of the grandstand, so to speak, said, “My brother Ninoy must be smiling from heaven today.”

By not giving his relatives the “best place in the house,” inaugural committee co-chair Maria Montelibano, herself a second cousin, said the new President wants to walk his talk, even if it means keeping those close to him in the sidelines.

Even Rafael Cojuangco Lopa, the President’s first cousin and one of the prime movers of his campaign, was sitting quietly in the bleachers with his wife Didi. Also seen in the south wing was the President’s second cousin Lisa Cojuangco Cruz, daughter of tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr.

Also sitting almost incognito in the audience was Mr. Aquino’s paternal aunt Tessie Aquino Oreta, who reconciled with Cory Aquino shortly before the latter’s death.

Seen in the top row of the central portion of the grandstand was former Valenzuela councilor Mon Soledad, second father to Valenzuela Councilor Shalani, who was seated three rows behind her boyfriend, the President.