They came for their 3rd Aquino funeral

FINAL RESPECTS Supporters of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III wave the Philippine flag and flash the “laban” (fight) sign as they await the funeral convoy for the departed leader to pass by. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — Two women became new friends in an unexpected setting — the burial of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on Saturday.

Espie Lopez, 72, and Angela Oliveros, 56, said they did not want to miss the funeral of their idol P-Noy, the nickname that Aquino went by as the country’s 15th President.

Lopez and Oliveros met outside the gates of Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City where the urn containing Aquino’s ashes was brought, to be placed next to the tombs of his parents, former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino and former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

Oliveros said she saw Lopez alone, looking lost amid hundreds of others who wanted to pay their final respects to the departed former President.

Walk together

“The guards did not allow her to walk alone because it would be a 2-kilometer walk from the gates to the Aquino family mausoleum,” Oliveros said. “So I volunteered to help her get there.”

During their walk together, they learned about each other’s admiration for the Aquinos.

Both women attended the respective funeral processions of Aquino’s parents — the funeral march for Ninoy Aquino on Aug. 31, 1983, following his assassination 10 days earlier, and the procession for Cory Aquino on Aug. 5, 2009.

Ninoy’s funeral procession became a spontaneous protest action against the regime of his rival, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, as a million mourners accompanied the slain senator’s body to his grave, according to a New York Times report which cited the crowd estimate of the police itself.

Cory’s funeral procession in 2009, held amid growing public disenchantment with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose resignation she had called for, eventually led to a clamor for her son, Noynoy Aquino, to run for president on an anticorruption platform.

Aquino won the presidential race the following year, assuming the role taken by his mother three administrations earlier.

Oliveros remembered that she was in college when she joined Ninoy’s funeral and was even able to get close to the truck that served as the hearse carrying the senator’s remains.

Although Marcos had lifted martial law two years earlier, it was not until after Ninoy’s assassination that Filipinos staged more massive street protests.

Oliveros said: “I was not afraid, because I believed in the cause of Ninoy. We have to fight for our democracy.”

A resident of Parañaque, Oliveros said she has been visiting the Aquino family mausoleum on the birthdays and death anniversaries of Ninoy and Cory.

She said she hasn’t missed a single occasion and went there to the cemetery even by herself.

With Noynoy now joining his parents, Oliveros said she would visit the Aquino family mausoleum six times a year.

Lopez said she was at first afraid to go out and join the funeral for the former president. She said she was old and had not yet been vaccinated amid the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But this will be the last time that I will meet him,” she said of Noynoy. “Besides, I do not want to break the support that I have shown [for the Aquino family].”

Lopez traveled alone from San Mateo, Rizal, where she lived. Her first stop was Aquino’s home on Times Street, Quezon City.

“I know I would not get lost because I know where he lives — 25 Times Street in West Triangle, Quezon City,” she said with obvious pride.

Then she rode two buses and a jeepney to reach Manila Memorial Park.

More soldiers, police

Police estimated only around 400 turning up at the burial grounds. In contrast, there were 872 soldiers, police, and other force multipliers, including Metropolitan Manila Development Authority personnel and private security, deployed there to maintain security and enforce health protocols.

After all, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces, Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, and the chief of the Philippine National Police, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, were also at the cemetery to receive the Aquino sisters upon their arrival at past noon.

Six escorts, all of them generals, brought the urn containing Aquino’s ashes to his sisters who were waiting at a platform.

Twenty-one volleys were fired at Manila Memorial, as the sisters, led by the eldest, Maria Elena “Ballsy” Aquino-Cruz, then took turns passing the urn, until the last to receive it, Aquino’s youngest sister Kris, placed the vessel inside the vault at the right of Cory’s tombstone.

Tears fell on the sisters’ faces as “Bayan Ko” (My Country), the familiar protest anthem of the anti-Marcos movement more than three decades ago, played in the background. At 1:43 p.m. Aquino’s tomb was sealed.

“P-Noy’s burial was simple and more silent. But it did not diminish my love and support for him,” Lopez said.

She and Oliveros were asked why they admired the Aquinos. Both pointed out how the family “fought for our rights,” adding that they were “patriotic” and “pro-Filipino.”

Oliveros then accompanied Lopez to the bus station for her ride back home to San Mateo.

She said: “I need to make sure my new friend goes home safe.”

—WITH A REPORT FROM NIKKA G. VALENZUELA

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