If President Benigno Aquino is feeling somewhat dejected these days, it’s not just because of the unexpected loss of two relatives recently but also because the second death anniversary of his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, is just around the corner.
The 51-year-old Mr. Aquino made this surprising admission on Wednesday at the start of his speech at the 2011 National Science and Technology Week celebrations at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.
Greeting his audience a good morning “even if the weather was not that fine,” he confided that he woke up Wednesday feeling “a little bit” sad.
“You know that in five days’ time, it will be my mother’s second death anniversary and of course I still miss my mother,” he said.
Cory Aquino died on Aug. 2, 2009 after losing her battle with colon cancer.
He recounted his heartbreak over the loss of his uncle and aunt, Pedro Cojuangco and Josephine Cojuangco-Reyes—both siblings of his late mother—in the span of a few days.
“Yesterday (Tuesday), we had a funeral mass for an uncle, my mother’s elder brother, and we were adjusting to that situation when unfortunately an aunt followed,” he said.
Reyes died suddenly on Tuesday after she collapsed at the funeral service for her older brother at the Sanctuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati. Reyes was delivering a eulogy for her brother, who died last week, when she fainted and never regained consciousness.
But even with this sadness, the President said he was glad he went to Tuesday’s event.