Filipinos paid tribute yesterday to democracy icon and former president Corazon Aquino, who helped lead a 1986 “people power” revolt that ousted a dictator and whose death last year became a springboard for her son’s triumphant run for the presidency.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III led one of several tributes to his mother, calling on Filipinos to continue her struggle for democracy by helping him confront his nation’s illnesses, including poverty and pervasive corruption.
“The clamor of our people for change is so deep,” Aquino said during a memorial Mass for his mother at a suburban Manila gymnasium used as a venue for many pro-democracy protests. “None of us can afford to be bystanders.”
“We can only end poverty if we fight corruption, and this is where everyone has a major role to play,” he said.
“It can be done in simple ways, by showing common courtesy to strangers, by paying taxes, by following traffic rules and by disposing of our waste properly,” he said.
“We can do even more by reporting any wrongdoing that might be brought to our attention. Let us challenge ourselves and our leaders to brave the straight path,” he said.
He called his late mother “one extraordinary woman,” who remains deeply beloved a year after she died following yearlong battle with colon cancer at 76.
Her death spurred a massive outpouring of national grief that prompted her only son, a quiet lawmaker and bachelor, to run for the presidency, winning by a landslide margin on May 10.
Throngs of people offered prayers, flowers and lit candles t her white tomb guarded by soldiers yesterday. Masses were held across the predominantly Roman Catholic nation in her honor.
A giant photo mosaic of her smiling image was unfurled by her son at Manila’s Rizal park on Saturday. Its makers were considering submitting the mosaic — the size of about 10 basketball courts and made from about 3,200 pictures — to Guinness World Records for its size.
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