Former Pres. Cory Aquino abandons all medical treatment

July 2, 2009

Former President Corazon Aquino, who is battling colon cancer, has decided to forego further chemotherapy or any other medical treatment, her spokesman was quoted yesterday as saying.

The 76-year-old Aquino, who led the Philippines from 1986 to 1992 after the fall of Ferdinand Marcos, was admitted to the Makati Medical Center last week and is reportedly being fed intravenously.

“The country’s icon of democracy is fighting the hardest battle of her life,” spokeswoman Deedee Siytangco wrote in a regular broadsheet column.

Makati Mayor and United Opposition president Jejomar Binay yesterday asked the Makati community to offer prayers for the former President Aquino.

Binay, who was appointed by Aquino as acting mayor of Makati immediately after the February 1986 Edsa Revolt, urged residents to hold prayer vigils for Mrs. Aquino.

He also requested employees at the Central Business District (CBD) and private sector to offer their prayers for Aquino, who is still confined at the Makati Medical Center.

“President Aquino has given so much for the country. The least that we can do is to pray for her,” he said.

Presidential deputy spokesperson Anthony Golez, meanwhile, said that the Palace is also urging the nation for constant prayer for the recovery of Mrs. Aquino.

President Arroyo, who has been observing a quarantine procedure for ten days starting with check-in consultation at the Asian Medical Hospital since Wednesday, also joined the nation in praying for the recovery of Aquino and for her entire family to have faith in this trying time, Golez remarked.

Reports from relatives of Aquino said that she refused to be fed through tube apparatus and that she has chosen this in her strong belief that she will recover from this illness which presently makes her unable to take food because of loss of appetite.

Mrs. Aquino, according to reports, is able to talk from time to time with the people at her bedside in the hospital.

Siytangco said Aquino had been moved to a private room, in a decision “she and her children made in consultation with her doctors.”

Family members have rushed to her bedside, she added. “She is no longer receiving any chemotherapy or any other medical interventions,” she said, quoting a family member.

Members of the Aquino family and the former president’s doctors were not immediately available for comment. Reporters who converged at the hospital were asked to leave, an AFP photographer said.

Aquino has largely remained out of the public eye in recent months, with doctors fearing she may contract infections in her fragile state.

She had been undergoing chemotherapy and was previously hospitalized from March to May.

She is regarded as a symbol of the country’s return to democracy, although her six-year term was marked by several bloody coup attempts.

Aquino is also known as a moral crusader — after her term ended in 1992, she continued to fight for various causes, including anti-corruption efforts.

Aquino helped mobilize street protests against president Joseph Estrada, who was ousted in 2001.

She reconciled with Estrada last year, and both of them joined street protests against current President Arroyo, whose family has been accused of massive corruption.

Two of the bitterest critics of Aquino’s during her incumbency, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, have joined those praying for her recovery.

“I’ve had my political differences with Cory during her time as president but that is a part of our role in society, nothing personal about it. On a personal basis, I’ve always had a high respect for her,” said Enrile.

“I would pray for her and hope that the Lord will embrace her, if it should come to that and if there’s any way for a miracle to happen, I wish that it would happen,” he said.

“We join our colleague (Sen. Benigno) Noynoy Aquino in asking for prayers for former Pres. Aquino,” said Honasan.

“Public interest demands na we all go through an act of forgetfullness para humilom na ang mga sugat. Pag hindi natin ginawa ito, back to the same vicious cycle,” he added.

After almost two decades, Honasan and the former president’s crossed path during the proclamation of Sen. Aquino in 2007.

Honasan said he took the initiative to approach the former president to greet her.

“I approached her and congratulated for having a son in the Senate,” he said.

Both Honasan and Enrile said whatever differences they’ve had with the former president in the past, no longer matters now.

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