Celso leads Zamboangueños in tribute to Cory
Clad in yellow shirts and wearing yellow ribbons, Zamboangueño residents led by Mayor Celso Lobregat paid tribute to the late President Corazon Aquino in a memorial mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral in La Purisima Street.
Simultaneously held with the requiem mass at the Manila Cathedral, the mass in Zamboanga, offered jointly by the Archdiocese and city government, was part of the mourning activities of the Zamboangueños, as the late Mrs. Aquino was laid to rest at the Manila Memorial Park yesterday.
“Today is a holiday and I am sure many of you would have preferred to stay home to watch (the proceedings of Mrs. Aquino’s interment) the television but you are here attending the mass,” Mayor Lobregat said in a message after the mass. “As a community, we, the Zamboangueños feel very sad on the passing of (former) President Cory because we saw how she galvanized the opposition in toppling the leadership of then late President Ferdinand Marcos”.
Archbishop Romulo Valles officiated the mass, the second offering by the city government and the Archdiocese of Zamboanga. The first was held Monday, August 3, at the Fort Pilar Shrine.
The Archbishop in his homily recalled the good deeds as well as contribution of the late president, billed as Asia’s icon of democracy, to the country. He urged the residents to reflect on the examples of the late Mrs. Aquino.
Mayor Lobregat initially planned to fly to Manila to personally and officially pay his last respects to the late president and to join the funeral but decided to initiate local activities as a tribute to the Mrs. Aquino.
Watching television the last few days, specifically, the necrological services at the Manila Cathedral Tuesday afternoon, Lobregat said he could not help but recall the time when he and his siblings mourned the passing of their mother, the late Mayor Maria Clara Lobregat.
Like in case of the late Mrs. Aquino, the Church in Zamboanga also broke tradition when it allowed the remains of the late Mrs. Lobregat to lie in state for public viewing at the Metropolitan Cathedral in 2004. “I could not help but remember too the endless line of people (who came to have a last glimpse at the late Mrs. Lobregat) and the outpouring of support to us, children, when Ma’am Caling passed away.”
“And so to the late President Aquino, we say goodbye, Godspeed, muchas gracias y Dios te bendiga,” the mayor concluded his message.
People who attended the mass both at the Fort Pilar Shrine last Monday and the Metropolitan Cathedral yesterday had only good words for the late Mrs. Aquino. They said Mrs. Aquino is the symbol of democracy and freedom.
Meanwhile, other agencies also initiated activities to pay their last respects on the late president. The 3rd Air Division of the Philippine Air Force at the Edwin Andrews Air Base in Sta. Maria fired cannons at 11 a.m. yesterday in honor of their late Commander in Chief.
Other private groups also initiated their own activities such as the distribution of yellow ribbons to people, as a tribute to the late president. (Sheila Covarrubias)