MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang apologized to the Aquino family yesterday for the apparent “misunderstanding” regarding the pullout of former President Corazon Aquino’s security detail.
The Palace also confirmed that President Arroyo would still visit the wake of the former leader even if her children said they were not looking forward to seeing her.
“We appeal for understanding and we appeal that this be not politicized. We would like to apologize for any inconvenience or misunderstanding,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said in a radio interview.
Responding to the apology, Mrs. Aquino’s only son, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, said the recall of the two security escorts could not have been possible without clearance from Malacañang.
He added that the “slip-up” was only a “convenient excuse” and that he did not know if it was meant to irritate them or to pressure them.
There was no response from Malacañang to Senator Aquino’s bigger reason for being cool to a visit by President Arroyo: the release of all the soldiers convicted of the assassination of his father, Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.
Noynoy Aquino had earlier explained to The STAR their family’s opposition to a pardon for the soldiers. There were two crimes on Aug. 21, 1983, he said: the killings of his father and alleged communist hit man Rolando Galman, and the cover-up the crime. No one has been punished for the second crime, Noynoy told The STAR.
He said bruises sustained by his father indicated Ninoy was still alive when tossed from the airport tarmac into the van, and the soldiers had finished him off as the van took a circuitous route before finally going to Camp Crame, where Ninoy was pronounced dead.
Corazon Aquino and her children had wanted the convicted soldiers to tell the truth about this. The soldiers never changed their version of the assassination.
In an emotional interview with co-host Boy Abunda in the afternoon show “The Buzz” last Sunday, Mrs. Aquino’s youngest daughter Kris said she was hurt when the government ordered the two members of her mother’s security detail to return to their mother units, ostensibly “for accounting purposes.”
All former presidents are accorded security details.
Kris said the escorts, Mel and Cris, were like family and that the late Mrs. Aquino even asked her eldest daughter Ballsy to make sure to take care of them when she was gone.
The two – Melchor Mamaril and Crispin Corpuz – were constant companions of the former president when she went for hospital check-ups, and were also with her when she had surgery.
Mamaril and Corpuz are members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Presidential Protection Unit (PPU) under the Presidential Security Group (PSG) at Malacañang.
PSG chief Col. Jonas Sumagaysay told The STAR his unit has operational control over the PPU but its personnel are under the administrative supervision of the PNP- Police Security and Protection Group (PSPG).
Sumagaysay said that based on the explanation given by the PNP-PSPG there was no pullout of the security detail but only a regular accounting of the unit’s personnel.
Chief Superintendent Lina Sarmiento, PNP-PSPG chief, said the security escorts were never pulled out and they continued to perform their duty until her dying moments.
“We are just trying to account for all the police personnel deployed to secure VIPs. As former head of state, President Aquino was entitled to a security detail and the PSPG provided her three close-in security personnel,” Sarmiento told The STAR.
She said a similar accounting was made on the security details for former president Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada.
A ‘convenient excuse’
But Sen. Noynoy Aquino believes that Malacañang and not the PNP-PSPG should explain the pullout.
“We recognize the possibility that the act of removing personnel assigned to a former president would not have been done without the permission of Malacañang,” he said.
As for the apology made by Secretary Remonde, who also said that the Palace was not aware of the removal of the security detail, Noynoy said, “I understand that Secretary Remonde has a job to do and I do not consider him as one of the less desirable in the cabinet. I would take it at face value.”
A senior Palace official said it was unfortunate that a “simple administrative move” was given political color.
GMA to visit wake
Aside from the apology, the Palace confirmed that President Arroyo had ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon said he may also initiate a Senate probe.
The President cut short her trip to the United States and will be back in Manila before dawn tomorrow. She is expected to visit the wake before the burial.
“When a friend and, for that matter, a leader dies – and definitely she is not only a leader but reputed to be the best and greatest Filipino president of all time – it is only incumbent upon anybody, especially President Arroyo, to pay her last respects to her,” Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a news briefing.
“If you go to a wake it is not by invitation, but you go there out of your own free will and volition to pay your respects and to extend your sympathies and prayers to the members of the family of the late President Cory Aquino,” said Bello, who also served under Mrs. Aquino as justice secretary. “You will go there because you recognize her as a great mother and leader of the country,” he said.
Mrs. Aquino had supported EDSA II but called for President Arroyo’s resignation in 2005 amid the “Hello, Garci” vote-rigging scandal.
The Palace has yet to announce details of President Arroyo’s visit to the wake. While in New York, she had offered Mass for Mrs. Aquino.
Acting Executive Secretary Gabriel Claudio also led a Mass at the Palace grounds yesterday morning attended by officials and employees.
Bello brushed aside observations that members of the Aquino family were kinder to the Marcoses and former President Joseph Estrada when the latter visited the wake at La Salle.
“The passing of a great leader, a national treasure, could be an occasion for all of us freedom-loving Filipinos to unite and reconcile. Let us use this occasion as a moment of reconciliation of the entire nation so we should not take notice of that. This is an appeal to our countrymen not to politicize the death of our dear former President Cory Aquino,” he said.
“It seems to me the Aquino family are gracious enough to welcome some of the Marcoses’ family because they are well-bred and well-born people. We should expect them to be no less gracious when it comes to welcoming someone like the President,” Presidential Economic Spokesman Gary Olivar said.
Bello claimed that despite the widely publicized differences between Mrs. Arroyo and Mrs. Aquino, the two leaders have actually remained friends.
He gave no details.
He pointed out that many of Mrs. Aquino’s relatives are also close to the President or members of her official family.
“The fact is they belong to opposing political positions, but I think they remain be friends,” Bello said. “Political and personal relationships are different and I know they are friends and they love each other, one being a former president and the other an incumbent President.”
‘Ninoy killers grieve’
Meanwhile, chief public attorney Persida Rueda- Acosta claimed Ninoy Aquino’s convicted killers wept upon learning of the death of Mrs. Aquino.
Acosta, who worked for the release of the convicts, said the former president was “very special for them (soldiers) because it was her forgiveness that was key to their freedom.”
“President Cory (Aquino) wrote a letter to the Board of Pardons and Parole on Dec. 7, 2007 in connection with the application of the soldiers for pardon. In that letter, she said she has forgiven them,” she said.
According to Acosta, the convicted soldiers were thankful for this.
“In their hearts, President Cory will always be the country’s loving mother who would never stand the suffering of her children in the nation,” she stressed.
Acosta said she also cried after learning of the death of President Aquino.
Three of the 15 soldiers have died. – Evelyn Macairan, Edu Punay, Mike Frialde, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Paolo Romero
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