Cory monument inaugurated in Manila

On the day marking her 77th birthday, a monument built for the late President Corazon Aquino was inaugurated at the Rizal Park in Manila on Monday. A GMA Flash Report said Mrs. Aquino’s son, presidential candidate Sen. Benigno Aquino III, led the inauguration with Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, a staunch ally of the late Philippine leader. The monument was beside the statue of her husband, martyred hero Benigno Aquino Jr., the report said. Meanwhile, Mrs. Aquino’s three daughters – Ballsy Cruz, Pinky Abellada, and Viel Dee – went to the her tomb at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City to offer prayers. Their youngest sibling, actress Kris Aquino-Yap, was not with her sisters.

A Mass would be celebrated later in the day at the Church of the Gesu at the Ateneo de Manila University campus in Quezon City. On Sunday, a Mass was held at the Edsa Shrine wherein Mrs. Aquino's children said that while they still feel the sadness of losing their mother, they are grateful to the multitude of their mother's supporters who joined them in the event. "What gives me consolation, and courage to overcome the emptiness, is the realization that I am not alone in my grief. There are many others, like you, who felt the loss of a truly phenomenal woman," Noynoy said in his speech. [See: Mass held for Cory on eve of 77th birthday] Mrs. Aquino passed away last Aug. 1, 2009 after fighting colon cancer for over a year. Days after her death, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered that a statue be built in honor of the democracy icon. Mrs. Aquino rose to power in February 1986 through a popular street uprising in Edsa that toppled then strongman Ferdinand Marcos. - Sophia Dedace/RSJ, GMANews.TV