The real Kris Aquino

Who dared fight a dictator at a very tender age of seven? Where were those who criticize her now, while Krissie campaigned for democracy? This niece of my husband, who gave up her earnings from endorsements to contribute to her brother’s kitty, should be thanked. I’m defending her with history to back me up as I browse through a Facebook page inspired by a “promise” Kris made on national television.

Kris said on TV Patrol World last March: “I told Noynoy, if I’ll be the cause of ruining your political career and become an issue week after week while you’re in Malacañang, don’t worry. I’ll leave the country and I’ll work in The Filipino Channel abroad.” Noy said, “Are you practicing your teleserye script on me? We’re just having dinner.”

Kris has always been the candid and too much of a self-revealing woman yet she gets away with anything she bubbles about. In spite of her confidence or putting up a brave front, it hurts being a mortal. To quote her, “They went through a nonstop assault on my person.” Nine thousand plus members joined the fake despedida party bidding Kris goodbye. But some fans expressed their disapproval over her departure. Count me in as a fan. I think we need Kris as a barometer of public approval or disapproval. She also brings excitement and amusement for our yayas and her cousins. Whichever, here’s my story on her, based on truthful past events I witnessed.

In 1978, the LABAN opposition party of Ninoy fielded 21 candidates against Marcos’s KBL (Kilusan ng Bagong Lipunan). Ninoy led the opposition but being unable to campaign because he was incarcerated on trumped-up charges, the LABAN ticket suffered a setback. 

At one meeting in Cory’s house a small voice interrupted the conference. “If they won’t let Daddy out, why don’t I just campaign for him?” No one minded Kris. The thought of a child campaigning under the watchful eyes of the military every night was unsafe. Yet the idea began to grow until Lupita thought that Kris’s campaigning for Ninoy just might work. 

Kris would only have to recite the names of the 21 candidates and deliver a short message on her Dad’s behalf. Cory consented. “Ninoy was in Fort Bonifacio right? For once, I became the boss,” Cory said, and radio commentator Doy del Castillo offered to coach Kris in Tagalog.

Kris’s nightly sorties for the LABAN assemblymen began like this: “I am Kris Aquino and I’m seven years old. It’s almost six years since I was separated from my Daddy, Ninoy Aquino. Tulungan ninyo ang Daddy, si Ninoy Aquino, para makapiling na muli kami! Please help return him to us, so we his children and our Mommy can enjoy his company again.” 

Ninoy was tickled pink. “Okay, let the child go around for me,” he said, “as long as she enjoys it…” And she memorized and rattled off the names of 21 candidates!

Cory said, “It was me who took Kris from miting to miting, though usually I stayed in the car. Jake, our Cojuangco radio room operator, or a Luisita guard carried Kris on his shoulders. Upon reaching the stage, whoever was speaking stopped and yielded the stage to Kris because she had to go to other sorties or to bed.”

Next came another instruction for Kris, who’d bring tears to everyone’s eyes. At the end of her speech she’d raise a clenched fist. Senator Soc Rodrigo said to Cory, “I don’t think it looks good for a child to wave a clenched fist. I know our name is LABAN, but maybe it would be better if Kris, instead of clenching a fist, merely flashed the letter L with her thumb and forefinger. Anyway, the clenched fist is the traditional communist salute and we’ve been accused of pirating it.”

When Kris began flashing the L sign, it quickly caught on as the salute of the anti-Marcos forces. There you have it, Kris introduced the LABAN sign first, and Ninoy reminded his wife. “You know, Cory, in this world you are admired if you do what others don’t dare to do.” Millions were so scared of Marcos then and yet here was this little girl, standing up against a president labeled as a tyrant.

On another occasion, Pinky was asked by the UP Economics Society to address them regarding the Batasan elections. Pinky was about to say no when she remembered her little sister Kris. Pinky offered to bring Kris with Ate Balsy. Cory said, “I did not accompany Kris because when I’m with her she can get away with murder, whereas she obeys her elder sisters.” 

Charito Planas and Trining Herrera welcomed Pinky and Balsy with sampaguita garlands. On arriving there, Kris told her sisters, “I don’t want to speak anymore.” Flustered, Balsy and Pinky reminded her of their promise to buy her toys if she made a speech. And they asked Kris why she abruptly changed her mind. “Because I don’t have flowers like them,” pointing to Charito and Trining’s leis. Charito overheard Kris and took off her lei and put it on Kris. And Kris said at once, “All right, now I’ll join the program!” She spoke and was such a big hit.

In fact, it was a blow to Kris when she came down with the mumps and had to be out of the campaign for over a week and everyone missed Kris onstage. “Wala ba si Kris?” And all Kris ever said was, “give me back my Daddy.”

It surely wasn’t applause all the time. Kris, then in Grade 1 came home from school looking sad. She said to Cory: “Mom, today our teacher asked us what our fathers do and you know I’m so glad she didn’t call on me. How could I say my father was in jail, a prisoner?” For my poor Kris, Cory said, “Being just a child, to her a prisoner was somebody who did wrong and therefore went to jail. Good people do not go to jail. Only bad people do. I tried to explain to Kris that her father was a political prisoner fighting a dictator for injustice. But how could a child distinguish between a criminal prisoner and a political prisoner? I told her if Daddy won, he would be attending sessions at the Batasan and we would have access to him.” She told this to author Isabelo Crisostomo in his book Cory.

 “Of all my children, Kris is really most like Ninoy,” Cory told me. “She likes crowds. She loves the limelight. She enjoys talking, and she is at home onstage. I guess it’s Ninoy’s genes. She has also his charisma. She is as articulate as her Dad and can talk on and on like him.”

“I see myself in her,” Ninoy said, “including my militancy.”

And so, Kris is leaving? Yes, for an overdue respite and a brief vacation in Disneyland with her kids. Taking a break is a person’s due. Free to travel anywhere at anytime. A big difference from the 1970’s to the 1980’s when our side of the Cojuangcos was curtailed of our freedom to travel. Without any pending cases against us we were all on the hold-order list — from Peping to baby China and every Jose Cojuangco descendant during martial law because we were Ninoy’s relatives.

Intrigues? Kris can take them, coming from brave parents. Besides the Filipino can be so adolescent at times. We expect persons — or just her — to make mistakes and learn from them and connect with our souls through a tube. For the amount of time she spends rehearsing, dressing, dying her hair, doing her makeup, planning, joking under the hot lights to earn a living, Kris manages to read, read, and read and still remember to shop, buy expensive presents with a caring eye for her favorite cousins Rina and my daughter Liaa, her sons’ pediatrician.

Kris can smile all the way to the bank with her honest earnings or be beside her protective brother’s favorite charity projects by being herself, truthful.