Ninoy’s wedding ring stolen

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — The wedding ring of the late Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. and a commemorative gold coin from his wife Corazon’s presidency have been stolen from their respective glass-encased stands at the Aquino Center and Museum at the Hacienda Luisita in San Miguel, Tarlac.

"Of course she is very upset," Mrs. Aquino’s spokesperson Deedee Siytangco said yesterday of the former president, who spearheaded the construction of the center. The Center was completed in September last year, and houses memorabilia of the Aquino couple and mementos of the Aquino presidency.

The wedding ring, along with Ninoy’s wristwatch, black leather books, rosary and eyeglasses were among the personal belongings returned to the Aquino family by the military when they claimed his body from the morgue of the Fort Bonifacio Hospital in Makati City, hours after he was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983.

Tarlac Police director Senior Superintendent Mario Sandiego said authorities from the Aquino museum called his office and informed him that the wedding ring of the late senator and a gold coin were missing.

Sandiego said that Gregorio Ebrio, 30, of Barangay Pando, Tarlac City, a janitor at the museum, told probers that while going about his duties, he discovered that the Aquino-Reagan Presidential Gold Coin, a memorabilia of Corazon Aquino’s visit to the White House in 1986, was not in its display area.

At about 9 p.m. of the same day, a security officer of the museum identified as Enrique Manalo discovered that the wedding ring of Ninoy on display at another portion of the museum, was also gone.

Sandiego said that he has dispatched a team to conduct a thorough probe on the missing memorabilia.

As of yesterday police still had no suspects for the theft.

Ninoy Aquino’s assassination sparked an outrage that led to the downfall of his arch rival, dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. His widow Corazon succeeded Marcos to the presidency after a peaceful people power revolution.