Butz Aquino dazzled nation with courage, principles – Drilon

FOR the first time on Thursday, the Senate hold a Mass inside the session for the late senator Agapito “Butz” Aquino, who was described by her daughter as a person who does not only love to entertain but who also loved the truth.

“I was told that Senator Butz did not want any wake. However at yesterday’s session, Popsy, we decided to overrule your husband,” Senate President Franklin Drilon said in his message after the Mass. Popsy is the wife of the late senator.

“And therefore today, we are gathered in this august chamber bound by immense grief over the loss of an honorable man who once dazzled our nation with his courage and principles.”

“Yes, we have overruled Butz and for the first time in my 18 years in the Senate, this is the first time we’re holding Mass in the session hall. This is the first time. That’s how we love your husband,” Drilon said.

The Senate leader said Aquino would always be remembered for his “audacity” to lead protest actions after the assassination of the latter’s brother, former Senator Benigno “Ninoy’ Aquino Jr.

In response, Butz’ daughter, Roxanne shared how her father loved to entertain and how he loved the people he had worked with.

“My father’s initials were AAA. First name, Agapito and he used to tell us in a boastful manner that he was named after Agape which is the highest form of love,” she said.

The daughter then talked about her father’s love for his staff, when he was in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“Second thing I’d like to say is that Agapito loved to entertain. He loved to sing, ewan ko kung nagkakaraoke kayo. He performed on stage even before he went into politics and he liked telling jokes and his timing was perfect,” said Roxanne.

“ And I think he shared that talent even in the Senate because he told us that he would start the session by praying and saying Lord, please grant humility and he would name the names of the senators whom he felt needed that humility and he could get away with it. You know he was that type,” she said.

Roxanne said her father also loved the truth.

She then recalled that when she was in grade school, she would come home crying, saying that somebody said something about her.

“He said, totoo ba? And I said, well hindi naman and then he said so, kung totoo then you own up to it kung hindi totoo e there’s no problem,” she said.

“And even to his many special friends, they’d say Butz tell me the truth. But can you really handle the truth and that was the challenge. And I’d like to say that he lived his life very true to his beliefs.”

Roxanne said her father loved his God and it was “ironic,” she said, that it was him, who has brought Mass into the Senate session for the first time.

“He’s probably smiling, saying son of a gun,” she said in jest.