Senate pays tribute to Butz Aquino

MANILA, Philippines - The only son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos stayed away, but his colleagues in the Senate were present for the first-ever mass held at the chamber’s session hall, to pay tribute to a former member: Agapito “Butz” Aquino.

Senate President Franklin Drilon led the Senate in paying tribute to the man who played a crucial role in summoning millions to EDSA for a popular revolt that toppled the Marcos regime in February 1986.

Drilon had a roll call of Aquino’s colleagues in the 8th and 9th Congresses who were present during simple ceremonies, signifying how the former senator was loved by his colleagues.

A Senate resolution expressing condolences was presented to the Aquino family after the mass.

Present at the session hall were former senators Letty Ramos-Shahani, Nikki Coseteng, Nene Pimentel, Sonny Alvarez, Rene Saguisag, Santanina Rasul, Rodolfo Biazon (now congressman), Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and Sen. Vicente Sotto III. 

“I don’t know if there is a quorum but these are the colleagues of Butz in the 8th and 9th Congress,” Drilon said.

Sen. Gregorio Honasan, who played key roles in the coups during Corazon Aquino’s administration, also came to extend his condolences to the family. Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., only son of the former president, was conspicuously absent.

Addressing Aquino’s wife Popsy, Drilon recognized anew Aquino’s role in the restoration of democracy after martial law.?“I was told that Senator Butz did not want any wake. However, at yesterday’s session, we decided to overrule your husband, and therefore today, we are gathered in this august chamber, bound by immense grief over the loss of an honorable man who once dazzled our nation with his courage and principle,” Drilon said.

“We have overruled Butz, and for the first time, in my 18 years in the Senate, this is the first time that we are holding mass in the session hall. That’s how we love your husband,” the Senate president said.

He remembered Aquino for his audacity to lead protest action after Ninoy Aquino was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983. 

“He devoted himself to the struggle to lead the nation to freedom and democracy,” he said.

Aquino’s brother Paul, father of Sen. Bam Aquino, kept a low profile but former and incumbent senators approached him to express their sympathies.

Aquino’s wife and their children, in-laws and grandchildren were also present during the mass, a first held and celebrated right inside the Senate plenary session hall.

Military Bishop Leopoldo Tumulac celebrated the mass.

Roxanne, one of Butz’s daughters, received the resolution which the Senate passed on Tuesday in honor of Butz.

Apart from anecdotes about the former senator, Roxanne shared a poem about her father, describing him as “the friend of man, the friend of truth, the friend of age and a guide of youth.”