‘Thank you for loving Mom’

That was the brief message Pinky Aquino Abellada gave to those who trooped to the Manila Memorial Park last Aug. 1 to hear Mass and pay their respects to the late former President Cory Aquino on her fourth death anniversary.

The former President died of colon cancer four years ago and in her hospital bed, she told her spiritual adviser and her physician that she was offering her suffering for the Filipino people.

Ballsy Cruz, President Noynoy and Viel Dee all voted to have Pinky speak on behalf of the Aquino family after the Mass, and Pinky had no choice but to follow the presidential decree. (Kris, according to Pinky, was in the Holy Land, trying to make the journey Cory so wanted to embark on in her final months, but didn’t have the strength to anymore.)

Pinky said her mom, whom many of us knew to be self-effacing and selfless, would have surely said to those who gathered by her grave last Aug. 1, “Nakakahiya na ito. You don’t have to do this. You already have filled your quotas (of loyalty) every Aug. 21 (Ninoy’s death anniversary).”

Cory Aquino would say on several of Ninoy’s death anniversaries, when relatives, friends and former co-workers in government would troop to his grave to join her and her children in remembering him, “When I go you don’t have to do this for me anymore.”

But the so called Cory faithful were all there for her fourth death anniversary memorial Mass, organized by PCSO chairman Margie Juico and the Yellow Ribbon Movement. As always, sunny weather (we used to call it “Cory weather” when we were at Malacañang, and the skies would clear whenever President Cory was scheduled to have an outdoor engagement) prevailed.

Thus, an emotional Pinky, fighting to hold back her tears, told the hundred or so who had gathered at Cory’s gravesite, “Thank you for loving Mom.”

Pinky was especially grateful to those who had health challenges but still went to the memorial Mass, like Tessie Campillo, who just had a medical procedure   .Also present, aided by a nurse, was former Tourism Secretary Tony Gonzales.

The Mass was concelebrated by Fr. Catalino Arevalo, S.J., Fr. Manny Domingo, Fr. Manoling Francisco, S.J., Fr. Arnold Abelardo and Fr. Joy Tajonera.

As he and his late mother Mely have done since Ninoy’s first death anniversary, PCSO GM Joy Rojas lovingly decorated both Ninoy and Cory’s simple white tombs with vibrant yellow blooms. (The Rojases would also blanket Ninoy and Cory’s tombs with yellow flowers on their birth anniversaries.)

The Aquinos’ only son, President Noynoy Aquino, honored his parents with a giant wreath of yellow orchids and stargazers.

The President was wearing a casual black short-sleeved polo shirt, khaki pants and black Adidas rubber shoes. He stood at the sidelines, throughout the Mass, leaving the VIP seats under the canopy for Vice President Jojo Binay, Senate President Franklin Drilon and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, whom Pinky paid tribute to by saying, “We are all alive today because of Secretary Gazmin.” Gazmin protected Cory and her family throughout her term, especially during the seven coup attempts against her.

I remember my former boss, the late Press Secretary Teddy Benigno as recounting once: “Magpapakamatay talaga si Voltz para kay Cory” during the most bloody of the coup attempts, the 1989 putsch.

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In his homily, Fr. Manoling Francisco, S.J. drew parallels between the simplicity of Pope Francis and President Cory.

Father Manoling said that like Cory, Pope Francis refused his palatial quarters, preferring to stay in a guesthouse in the Vatican meant for visiting priests. As most everyone knows, Cory refused to hold office or live in the main Palace, preferring to hold office instead at the Premiere Guesthouse. For the duration of her presidency, she lived at the Arlegui Guesthouse a few meters down the road from the Palace. She said working and living in guesthouses reminded her that she was just a “guest” at Malacañang, and not meant to be its tenant forever.

Father Manoling also recalled how selfless Cory was till the end, donating one of the last paintings she completed to the Pink for Life Foundation, to help fund the chemotherapy of indigent breast cancer patients. The painting raised over P500,000 in an instant.

After the Mass, Cory’s former Agriculture Secretary Sonny Dominguez told me a little known piece of information: Cory also donated a painting to raise money for the Philippine Eagle Foundation for the eagle sanctuary in Davao, and it was bought by a businessman from Iloilo for P750,000.

Also after the Mass, I saw Ballsy approach Sister Consuelo Varela, ICM of St. Theresa’s College, who was seated far away from the VIPs in the main tent, and say, “Thank you for coming, Sister.”

I would later learn from Margie Juico that Sister Consuelo, along with another Theresian nun Sister Nechtilde Alabanza, ICM, would courageously “smuggle” out Ninoy’s correspondence from Fort Bonifacio, especially when he was being tried for treason and sentenced to death by musketry by a military kangaroo court in 1977. The nuns would not only spirit out Ninoy’s writings, they would also type and mimeograph them and boldly distribute them during rallies. More than 30 years later, the Aquinos have never forgotten the acts of courage of the sisters.

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