US Sen. Richard Lugar hails election of Noynoy

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Richard Lugar, the US Senate’s most senior Republican and longest-serving senator in Indiana history, hailed yesterday the election of Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III as the Philippines’ 15th president.

“We’re so proud and happy that Sen. Aquino won. That man is going to do a good job for your country. And we’re all going to be working alongside with and behind him. The Philippines has always been very special to me,” he told Jan Chavez-Arceo at the sidelines of the Jefferson Awards at the National Building Museum in Washington. The awards, founded by former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1972, honor volunteerism in America. Chavez-Arceo, who was invited by awards executive director Robert Ford, is representing the Philippines in the awards.

She is the only non-American speaker/panelist for one of the activities called the Champions Workshop and delegate to the first ever JA National Report on Volunteering and Service in America to the US Senate and the White House.

Later today Chavez-Arceo will meet with US Vice President Joe Biden to make the report.

Lugar, who has received the Philippines’ Order of Sikatuna award, is recognized for his “steadfast friendship with the Philippines and his determined advocacy for a strong Philippine-American alliance; for his principled and consistent support for Philippine freedom, which was invaluable in securing the return of democracy to the Philippines in 1986,” was one of the speakers in the Jefferson Awards.

The Indiana senator and Democratic Sen. John Kerry headed some 30 distinguished Americans assembled to go to all parts of the Philippines to observe the snap elections of 1986, which he described as “indelible in my memory.” That election in February of 1986 was covered by more press than any other election, save elections in the United States.

In a speech during the conferment of the Fulbright award to the late President Corazon Aquino in 1996, Lugar recalled those historic polls.

“Let me just say that the election was one in which our intelligence people told me before I went that President Aquino would be the winner if, in fact, all the votes were counted – at least it was beyond what we call now in our election campaigns the margin of error. But, they indicated to me, she would not be the winner. I had to understand the realpolitik of the situation. It was simply not in the cards, given the nature of the way the election was going to be conducted, despite all of our best efforts to observe and to editorialize... We were prepared for the challenge. We were not prepared, I suspect, for the aftermath.”

Initially US President Ronald Reagan said there appeared to be fraud and abuse on both sides.

“Without going through everything that occurred subsequently, let me just say that by Saturday President Reagan had come to a different evaluation, that the election had been fraudulent, indeed, to a grave extent and set in motion events which led to President Marcos being spirited out of the country through Hawaii and President Aquino being sworn in as president.”

He called her eventual victory “magnificent.”

Chavez-Arceo is with a social enterprise called Why Not Forum and works with president-elect Aquino’s first cousin, Bam Aquino.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newark, New Jersey Mayor Cory Booker and 13 others were honored with the Jefferson Awards Tuesday night in Washington.

The three-term New York City mayor was cited for his leadership after 9/11 and for his personal philanthropic donations totaling more than $1.4 billion. Booker was cited for working to set a national model with Newark’s transformation. – With AP