Despite the rains, around 175,000 Filipinos from all walks of life took to the streets on Wednesday to show their support and love for former President Corazon Aquino as she was laid to rest, police said Thursday.
National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) spokesman Superintendent Rommel Miranda said about 100,000 people filled Intramuros to Quirino Avenue in Manila alone to get a glimpse of the “democracy icon’s” cortege.
Around 30,000 stood by along the stretch of Osmeña Highway from Quirino Avenue in Manila to Buendia Avenue in Makati, while 10,000 more gathered at the Sucat Interchange in Parañaque.
At the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque where Mrs. Aquino was laid to rest beside her husband, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., at least 35,000 people waited. According to police, 20,000 waited for hours outside the cemetery, while another 15,000 more managed to sneak in despite tight security.
The funeral procession for Mrs. Aquino, which began at the Manila Cathedral at around 11:30 a.m. and ended at 7:20 p.m., took almost eight hours.
The convoy crawled all throughout the procession because of the large number of people who had come to pay their final respects to Mrs. Aquino, but reporters who covered the event noted that the convoy seemed to move slowest around Sucat Road, right before it entered the Manila Memorial Park.
GMANews.TV photo editor Joe Galvez, who covered Ninoy’s funeral procession in 1983 as a photojournalist for the defunct publication Mr. and Ms. Special Edition, noted that unlike in Ninoy’s funeral procession – wherein the procession participants were filled with anger over the senator’s assassination – Cory’s was filled with expressions of deep love and appreciation.
“Ang tao noon galit (The people then were angry),” Galvez recalled the procession for Ninoy, who was gunned down at the Manila International Airport (now Ninoy Aquino International Airport) upon his return to the country on Aug. 21, 1983.
But Galvez noted similarities in the coverage, in that it was raining on both occasions. “Nabasa kami noon, nabasa kami ngayon (We got wet because of the rain then, we got wet now). It’s like deja vu,” he said.
And the thousands of Filipinos who went out to display their support for Mrs. Aquino did not just stand there in the rain.
Like in the 1986 People Power Revolution that propelled Mrs. Aquino to power, those who came out to show support for her on Wednesday sang patriotic songs such as Magkaisa and Bayan Ko. Many of them sported yellow shirts with the pictures of Ninoy and Cory, as well as ribbons and caps; flashed the “Laban (fight)” sign, Mrs. Aquino’s trademark gesture during the tumultuous Marcos era; and chanted “Cory, Cory, Cory” over and over.- Johanna Camille Sisante, with reports from Kimberly Jane Tan, GMANews.TV
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