‘What a great gift we’ve lost’
Corazon C. Aquino, 1933-2009
By Beverly T. Natividad, Christine Avendaño
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:18:00 08/02/2009
MANILA, Philippines—Her doctors said several times that she had only 72 hours to live, but a member of the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters (also known as the Pink Sisters) predicted she would go on a First Saturday because of her devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.
The nun’s prediction, made to family and friends of the cancer-stricken Corazon Aquino, was proved correct. A longtime Marian devotee, the former President passed on in the early hours yesterday, the first Saturday of the month.
Aquino, 76, died “peacefully” at 3:18 a.m. at the Makati Medical Center, according to her son, Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who made the announcement at 5 a.m.
“She would have wanted to thank each and every one of you for all the prayers and your continued love and support. It was her wish for one another and for our country,” the senator told reporters.
The body now lies in state at the La Salle Green Hills gymnasium on Ortigas Avenue in Mandaluyong City, where it will remain for public viewing until Monday morning.
A private funeral is scheduled on Aug. 5, the senator said. He said his mother would be laid to rest next to his father, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City.
Asked whether it was his mother’s wish to have a private funeral, Noynoy Aquino said the former President had been “a private citizen since stepping down” from power in 1992.
“To a degree, we would want to spend as much time as possible as a family with her,” he said, pointing out that both his parents had been “public property.”
Devotion to Our Lady of Fatima
In his homily at a Mass held at the Edsa Shrine at noon Saturday, Fr. Catalino Arevalo, SJ, said Aquino was a gift to the Philippines.
“Which other country has a Cory Aquino? Tayo lang (Only us),” said Arevalo, the former President’s spiritual mentor and close friend.
“What a great gift the Lord gave us in her. What a great gift we have lost,” he said.
Arevalo narrated his conversation with the Pink Sister on Friday: “The doctors kept on saying she had 72 hours, but she continued to live. Until this nun, who is a friend, said, ‘She will die tomorrow. She will have to go on a First Saturday because of her devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.’”
Marian devotees commit themselves to the First Saturday devotion in accordance with the promise of Our Lady of Fatima to Sister Lucia that those who do so will have a happy death.
Arevalo assured those present at the Mass that Aquino had “a very peaceful death.”
“She went in her sleep,” he said.
The assembly shed tears as Arevalo narrated anecdotes on Aquino’s last hours.
He said that during the Mass he celebrated for Aquino on Friday at the hospital, which was attended by family and close friends, he noticed that Makati Representative Teddyboy Locsin had disappeared.
He said Locsin, who wrote Aquino’s speeches as President, was later found at the stairwell of the hospital “crying his heart out.”
“Everybody loved her. People felt nothing but love for her because of all the love she gave to people,” Arevalo said, his own voice breaking.
People from all walks of life, many clad in yellow shirts, braved rain and heavy traffic to attend the Mass for Aquino at the historic Edsa Shrine, which was built as a memorial to the 1986 Edsa Revolution.
“Cory loved this church. This place is especially dear to her,” Arevalo said.
A Quarant’Ore—a 40-hour prayer vigil before the Blessed Sacrament—was held for Aquino at the Edsa Shrine starting on July 30 until noon Saturday.
Goodbye
At a news conference later Saturday at the Jose Cojuangco and Sons building in Makati City, Noynoy Aquino said he and his four sisters each said goodbye to their mother last week, before she was administered morphine for pain management.
He said doctors had told the family “to [tell her] everything that we wanted to say, because after having morphine in her system she would be asleep most of the time and would not be [able] to respond.”
Asked how his sisters had taken their mother’s passing, he said, his voice cracking: “Of course, it’s an emotional moment, but we’re all together drawing strength from each other. I think we got even closer.”
Noynoy Aquino said there were no last instructions from his mother, whom he recalled as vocal about certain things, “even going to the extent of critiquing the barong (Tagalog) that I normally wear.”
He said his mother never complained about her suffering while in hospital, and that even when she was at the intensive care unit last month, she expressed concern over whether he and his companions had eaten.
No state funeral
The senator, along with his mother’s spokesperson Deedee Siytangco announced the schedule of the memorial services and the interment.
Public viewing at the La Salle gym started at 5 p.m. on Saturday, to end at 4 a.m. Sunday and resume at 7 a.m.
The public is advised to use Gate 2 of La Salle to enter and exit the premises.
On Monday morning, the body will be taken to the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila, where it will stay until Wednesday, the day of interment.
Noynoy Aquino said there would be no state funeral for his mother.
“I have not talked to anybody there, nor am I waiting to talk to anybody there,” he said in reference to officials of the Arroyo administration.
But he said he understood that honor guards would be posted at the La Salle gym.
According to the senator, the family chose the La Salle gym for the wake because it was a “sizable venue.”
He said the Edsa Shrine had been offered to the family but that the La Salle gym was bigger and, thus, “more appropriate.”
But Arevalo said the Edsa Shrine, a part of the four-day People Power Revolt, was also a favorite place of worship for the Edsa I icon.
Beginning and ending
The La Salle gym was also significant in his mother’s life, Noynoy Aquino said.
For one, it was where the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections counted the votes in the 1986 snap presidential election.
For another, it was the venue of his mother’s “current fight”—an apparent reference to the former President’s support for NBN-ZTE whistle-blower Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada.
“It’s like there was a beginning and ending there [for her],” he said.
The senator also said an organizing committee led by a cousin had been working out the memorial and interment preparations since a week or two ago.
He said his mother had planned to be buried next to his father “from the very start.”
It was his mother who decided to bury his father at Manila Memorial Park, he said, adding that the latter had wished to be buried in a mountain in his hometown of Capas, Tarlac.
“And my mom said, ‘Ninoy, maybe it’s okay here [at Manila Memorial Park] because I am here,’” he recalled his mother as saying in Filipino.
5th sorrowful mystery
Aquino died of cardio-respiratory arrest 20 days before her husband’s 26th death anniversary.
“Before she died, her children were around her, praying the fifth sorrowful mystery of the rosary … That was when she drew her last breath,” TV host Boy Abunda, a close friend of Aquino’s celebrity daughter Kris Aquino, told reporters at the hospital lobby at around 5:40 a.m.
Relating the first few moments of mourning, Abunda said the family and close friends heard Mass in the former President’s hospital room.
“They were quietly sobbing, except for Kris who was very quiet … She was just showing such courage,” Abunda said.
While the former President’s condition had ranged from stable to guarded and back in the past month, Abunda described her passing as “unexpected.”
“You don’t expect things like this. She’s been fighting cancer bravely for the past months,” he said.
The body was moved to The Heritage Park Mortuary and Crematorium at Fort Bonifacio at around 5 a.m., where it was prepared for public viewing at the La Salle gym.
Relatives and friends trickled into the mortuary for a private gathering, passing tightly secured gates manned by police and Special Weapons and Tactics teams.
Only those whose names were on a prepared list were allowed to enter. With a report from Tarra Quismundo
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