My fondest memory of Cory Aquino was this one.....In September 1986, former Philippine President Corazon Aquino delivered a speech before a joint session of the United States Congress which was interrupted by applause several times, and which then U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill hailed as "the finest speech I've ever heard in my 34 years in Congress." Above the din of cheering officials, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole then said to Mrs. Aquino, "Cory, you hit a home run." Without missing a beat, Aquino smiled and shot back: "I hope the bases were loaded".....
We will surely miss her.....our guiding light....our hope for freedom and democracy....
President Cory Aquino's historic speech before the U.S. Congress
Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, many chanting ''Cory! Cory!'' and tossing confetti in the air, jammed pavements in Manila to bid farewell to revered former President and democracy icon Corazon Aquino.
ReplyDeleteOffice workers skipped lunch to join students and ordinary residents waiting hours to catch a glimpse of her flag-draped coffin passing slowly through the streets on a flat-bed truck after her death from colon cancer on Saturday.
Television reports described the crowd as the biggest since a million people came out in the 1986 ``people power'' revolution that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos and catapulted Aquino to power.
``I was here more than 20 years ago to fight for what I believe was right and moral,'' said Norman Hernandez, a lawyer at a mining company in the Makati business district.
Aquino, he said, was inspiring Filipinos after her death to guard against new attacks on democracy. ``I thought that was over, but she is inspiring us to carry on the fight.''
Many in the street were clad in yellow, the colour associated with Aquino's drive to entrench democracy.
Aquino's family was moving the body of the late president from a school gymnasium to the Manila Cathedral for memorial services late on Tuesday.
As the cortege passed through Makati, well-wishers waved yellow balloons and banners and flashed the ``L'' hand sign, her trademark during the revolution.
Office workers, many too young to have joined the uprising known as EDSA One, took videos and snapped photos from mobile phones as patriotic songs popular during the revolt blared through loudspeakers.
''I didn't experience EDSA One,'' said Jen David, a publishing house employee. ''I am the EDSA Dos generation. I only heard stories from my parents, so I wanted to feel what was their experience in the 1980s.''
Aquino will be buried on Wednesday beside her assassinated husband Benigno at a private cemetery in southern Manila.
She will be accorded full military honours as a former president and commander-in-chief, but her children have declined state honours.
''The honor should come from the Filipino people,'' Aquino's youngest daughter, Kris, told national television. ''It shouldn't be a Malacanang decree,'' she added, referring to the presidential palace.
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I am so proud to be a Filipino and like millions of other Filipinos we will never forget our beloved president Corazon C. Aquino for she has been so selfless in serving the Filipino people..She's one in a million..We are so proud of her..May she rest in God's love^^
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