Thousands pay respects to Philippine's Aquino

MANILA, Monday

Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, many chanting “Cory! Cory!” and tossing confetti in the air, jammed pavements in Manila today to bid farewell to revered former President and democracy icon Corazon Aquino.

Office 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 her body 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.

Patriotic songs

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. (Reuters)