Butz Aquino accorded fondest farewell

THE MAN WHO STARTED PEOPLE POWER Family members, including wife Popsy Mendez (4th from left), brother Paul Aquino (7th from left), son-in-law Mark Gavino (in dark glasses), grandchildren and daughter Jackie Gavino (partly hidden, extreme right), stay close to former Sen. and Rep. Agapito “Butz” Aquino shortly before his body was cremated on Tuesday morning at Arlington Memorial Chapel. Butz, President Aquino’s uncle and the younger brother of martyred Sen. Ninoy Aquino, called people to surround Camp Crame to protect the military faction breaking away from the Marcos dictatorship. He organized the August 21 Movement, which spearheaded daily protest rallies against Marcos. MANDY NAVASERO/CONTRIBUTOR

There was no anti-Marcos rally this time, but family, friends and comrades from the parliament of the streets gathered once more around former Sen. and Rep. Agapito “Butz” Aquino, as they bade him a final farewell.

Butz, an uncle of President Aquino and a younger brother of martyred former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., died of natural causes on Monday, Aug. 17. He was 76.

Aquino is best remembered for being the pillar of the August Twenty-One Movement (Atom), the political group that led protest rallies against the Marcos regime shortly after the 1983 Ninoy Aquino assassination by suspected Marcos men. Butz’s “call to arms” also set the wheels moving toward the February 1986 People Power Revolution that ousted the Marcos dictatorship.

After a thanksgiving and remembrance Mass, Butz’s remains were cremated at the Arlington Memorial Chapel following his instructions to keep the funeral “simple and without fanfare.”

Present at the cremation were wife Popsy, their children Roxanne, Jackie and Bobby, grandchildren, and other family members, including his sisters Ditas Valdez, Linda Vargas and Maur Lichauco, brother Paul Aquino, niece Viel Aquino-Dee and nephew Sen. Bam Aquino.

Named after ‘Agape’

Her father’s name, Agapito, came from the word “agape,” Butz’s daughter Roxanne said. “Agape is the highest form of love,” she added, noting that her father showed ‘abundant love” for family, friends and country.

Street parliamentarian Ramon Pedrosa agreed. “At the darkest hour of our country’s struggle against the (Marcos) dictatorship, Butz Aquino galvanized the nation. He invented Edsa,” he said.

Pedrosa recounted that Butz went to the Isetann department store in Cubao to call for people power against Marcos’ military men despite his mother’s admonition. The first 100 warm bodies who had marched to Camp Crame to show support for the military breakaway group led by then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos actually rendezvoused at Isetann, Pedrosa said.

Previously, Aquino’s Atom had led rallies against Marcos, including the landmark people’s “Lakbayan” protest march from Tarlac to Ugarte Field, part of the massive street protests that would eventually dismantle the Marcos regime and sweep Cory Aquino to the presidency, recalled Pedrosa.

But despite his pivotal role in the protest movement, Butz preferred to stay in the background. “So we will finally lay to rest this braggadocio, this dilettante,” Pedrosa said with a touch of irony.

Former Atom member ex-Sen. Nikki Coseteng said as much. “He was underrated, and undercredited,” she said of “Butz and his little caboodle who were right there in the center” of the struggle.

After the Edsa revolt, people urged Butz to run for president, but Butz said “he’d rather be mayor of Concepcion, Tarlac,” Coseteng said.

Father Arnold Abelardo, who officiated the thanksgiving Mass, remembered seeing Butz “in his famous long-sleeved shirt” marching on Edsa, “acting as a mediator for the country and for justice.”

‘Charming’

But Sen. Bam Aquino fondly remembered his uncle for a totally unpolitical reason. “(He was) charming,” he said.

Butz’s cousin, TV producer Maria Montelibano, former head of the Malacañang media group, said there was one thing she would miss about him most: “His laughter,” she said.

Journalist Kiyoshi Wakamiya wrote in his note of final goodbye to Butz a common sentiment among those who knew the former lawmaker. “Thank you for the memories.”

Wakamiya was among the journalists who were on the plane with Ninoy on his return flight to Manila on Aug. 21, 1983, the date that would inspire his younger brother Butz to form Atom. Fe Zamora, Social Media Editor

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