Cory: Strong Leader, Devoted Mother

Corazon “Cory” Aquino, the widow who led a bloodless revolution that inspired a wave of pro-democracy movements worldwide, is remembered by her children on her 10th death anniversary today as a devoted mother, and a woman who “remained strong no matter what cards were dealt her.”

“She was 40 when martial law was declared, her husband in solitary confinement for most of his seven years and seven months in prison, with five children from 19 months to 17 years — and yet she never complained,” said her second daughter Pinky Abellada.

The former president died at 76 after a two-year battle with colon cancer, and was accompanied to her final resting place at the Manila Memorial Park under the driving rain by hundreds of thousands, in a funeral march reminiscent of that of her husband former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s in 1983.

In one of her last interviews with The STAR in 2009, Cory said she never questioned God about her cancer and never considered her illness the greatest trial of her life, “Because it involved only me.”

She said her greatest trial was the incarceration of Ninoy in a military prison, which she said prepared her for the pain of his death. She shrugged off her own pain, saying, “Everybody has to experience suffering.”

According to the oldest Aquino sibling Ballsy Cruz, their mother, like their father, believed not many are given a chance to serve the country, and when called upon to do so, should take it as an honor.

Thus, says Ballsy, her mother was also ready to die safeguarding the presidency. “Buo ang loob niya.” (She was fearless.)

When Mrs. Aquino was named Time’s Woman of the Year in 1986, Pico Iyer wrote in the accompanying cover story, “In overthrowing (Ferdinand) Marcos, moreover, Aquino helped erase a whole volume of shibboleths. She showed that politics could be the art of the impossible; that force could speak softly and carry a small stick; that religion could be not be the opium but the stimulant of the masses; that nice guys, whatever their gender, sometimes finish first.”

Asked how he remembers Mrs. Aquino, her former speechwriter and minister of information Teddyboy Locsin, now foreign affairs secretary, said, “With deeper affection, deeper admiration for her courage, and greater grief over my loss.”

Aquino siblings Viel Dee, Kris Aquino, Noynoy Aquino, Pinky Abellada and Ballsy Cruz pose for a family photo with their mother, Corazon Aquino. Photo from Ballsy Cruz

24/7

Despite the pain of losing their mother, who stood as both mother and father to them most of their lives, Ballsy believes they never really lost her.

“Mom is always just there, 24/7,” Ballsy told The STAR on the eve of the former president’s 10th death anniversary. “We feel she is there any time we need her. Mom has never let us down. When we pray and ask for her intercession, soon after, a solution is found.”

Further reading: Family, millennials remember Cory Aquino

Pinky misses her mother’s presence during both happy and challenging times. “What would Mom have done? The lessons she taught us, mostly through example, will guide me forever.”

Pinky finds comfort that the 10 years since their mother’s death have not eroded the goodwill she left behind.

“After a decade since her passing, people still have good things to say about her. Recently, a friend was in Peru and when the local found out she was from the Philippines, the local

expressed admiration for Corazon Aquino! And mom never even got to visit South America,” Pinky revealed.

Sisters Viel Dee, Pinky Abellada and Ballsy Cruz join a mass for the 86th birth anniversary of their late mother, former president Corazon Aquino at the Manila Memorial Park on Jan. 25, 2019. Photo by Bernardo Batuigas, The Philippine STAR

‘I want to go home’

In the weeks before her death, Cory had one express wish: to go home.

“She was telling Noynoy (then senator Benigno Aquino III), ‘I wanna go home. I just wanna go home’,” Ballsy recounted in an earlier interview with The STAR. Asked whether “home” meant the family home on Times St. in Quezon City, or Ballsy’s own home, where Cory lived in the months prior to her confinement in June 2009 at the Makati Medical Center, Ballsy said they weren’t always sure. One of their spiritual advisers, Bishop Socrates Villegas, told them that “home” to the deeply spiritual Cory could have meant, “home to the Father.”

When they were told that the end was near for Cory and that she may be just valiantly holding on for the sake of her children, the youngest Aquino sibling Kris volunteered to assure her mother that the family would be okay even after she was gone.

“That night, I think Kris was trying to say, ‘Mom we’re really all okay, we’ll help one another. All of us will help one another. Even if you’re no longer here, we will make things easier for each other.’ And then it was as if Mom was calling Dad, ‘O, Ninoy’!” Ballsy recounted.

She said she also reminded her children Ballsy, Pinky, Noynoy, Viel and Kris, that despite everything, “We are luckier than most.”

Cory, a doting grandmother to eight, will soon be a great grandmother as her grandson Miguel Abellada and his wife Steph are expecting their first child.