Political Overtones Surround Aquino Funeral

Political Overtones Surround Aquino Funeral
By SETH MYDANS

MANILA — Recalling the “people power” outpourings she inspired more than 20 years ago, more than 100,000 people thronged the streets of Manila as the body of former President Corazon C. Aquino was driven slowly through swirling winds and rain for burial on Wednesday.

In the days since Mrs. Aquino, 76, died of cancer on Saturday, crowds of mourners converged on her coffin as it passed through the streets and lay in state at Manila Cathedral.

The banners, the tears, the clouds of yellow confetti and the familiar chant of her name — “Cory! Cory! Cory!” — went beyond mourning to political statement, as the Philippines continues to wrestle with the democratic processes she restored when she came to power in 1986.

Among the many banners with slogans like “Auntie Cory we love you” were those with political messages like “Cory, a symbol of clean politics” and “Continue the fight against tyranny.”

“It is a political movement coming alive again to deliver a signal: Don’t tamper with that legacy,” said Amando Doronila, a veteran journalist and columnist.

As the current president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, nears the end of her term next year, one of the hottest issues here is whether her allies will succeed in extending her stay by amending the Constitution adopted under Mrs. Aquino in 1987.

Since the time of Ferdinand E. Marcos, whom Mrs. Aquino ousted as president after his 20 years of rule, Mrs. Aquino is the only president to have completed her term without trying to extend it through constitutional change.

Mrs. Aquino had spoken out against Mrs. Arroyo — and had led demonstrations calling for her resignation — and the bitterness between them remained so strong that Mrs. Arroyo found it politic not to attend the funeral Mass on Wednesday.

Instead, having cut short a visit to Washington for the occasion, she arrived at Manila’s international airport at 3 a.m. on Wednesday and drove through the dark directly to the cathedral. She entered by a back door, evading the mourners who continued to arrive to view the coffin through the night, and spent several minutes beside the bier.

“She knows the mood of the people,” said Randy David, chairman of the sociology department at the University of the Philippines. “She did not want to be in a situation where she would be heckled in front of the coffin.”

Vice President Noli de Castro was the only senior government official at the funeral Mass. Just as notable, two grown children of Mr. Marcos, Ferdinand Jr. and Imee, did make a brief, polite appearance at a service in the cathedral on Tuesday. “I don’t think we are seeing a reconciliation here of two powerful blocs of the political class,” Mr. David said. “The civility, the grace and the courtesies were superficial.”

The Marcos and Aquino clans have been rivals for many years. After a disputed election, Mr. Marcos was the target of Mrs. Aquino’s “people power” uprising, when hundreds of thousands of people blocked his tanks in the streets during a three-day standoff.

The Aquino family, for its part, blames Mr. Marcos for the assassination in 1983 of Mrs. Aquino’s husband, Benigno Aquino, who was his main challenger for power. That assassination was the spur to a movement that drove Mr. Marcos from office three years later. The appearance of the Marcos children carried a peculiar irony. Mr. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989, and although his body has been returned to the Philippines, it remains unburied. It lies embalmed in a crypt in his hometown as his widow, Imelda, waits for permission to inter him in an official “heroes cemetery” in Manila. Although Mrs. Marcos did not attend Mrs. Aquino’s funeral, she did express her condolences and desire for reconciliation.

Mrs. Aquino’s family, on the other hand, spurned an invitation by the government for a state funeral. Her coffin was carried not on a military vehicle, but on the back of a flatbed truck, and she was buried in a family plot beside her husband. There were gestures of reconciliation from other political antagonists from her years as president, when she survived at least six coup attempts.

One man who seemed to be involved in most of those, a retired navy commodore named Rex Robles, apologized, saying, “On hindsight, it wasn’t the best thing to do.” “It was hard not to like Cory,” he told The Philippine Daily Inquirer. “You couldn’t possibly hurt her. She was well-mannered and she was very sincere. She was brave in a very quiet way.”

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I'm sure Tita Cory already have forgiven the Marcoses. RIP Madam President, we'll see you soon.

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