Noynoy's strength

Presidential bet Sen. Noynoy Aquino would have not crossed the Rubicon, so to speak, without the love and support of the women who have loved him the longest — his sisters.

Next to his parents, the late Sen. Ninoy Aquino and former President Cory Aquino, the people who have known and loved Noynoy the longest are his sisters Ballsy Cruz, Pinky Abellada, Viel Dee and Kris Yap. Ballsy and Pinky, most especially, since they have known Noynoy since he was born (he being the third child).

(Noynoy’s girlfriend Shalani Soledad has also given him her full support.)

The only time Noynoy’s eyes welled with tears yesterday after he announced his presidential bid at the Club Filipino was when his Ate Ballsy went to the rostrum to affirm the family’s love and full support for his quest.

In fact, Noynoy said he only made the decision late Tuesday afternoon to announce his bid after, “the certainty that all of my sisters were ready.”

Yesterday Ballsy and Pinky told me they both were “at peace” with their only brother’s decision to run for president and their own decision to support him.

“Ang tatanda na namin but Noy told us that ‘I would like to do this with your blessings’,” Pinky recounted to me.

Viel, who is said to have been the last one to say “Yes,” for her part, said, “Originally I was very selfish and really felt our family has sacrificed enough. But eventually I was reminded of Mom’s line that she cannot forgive herself if she could have done something (for the country) but didn’t do anything.”

Though each of the Aquino children has a mind of his/her own, I think Ballsy is the glue that holds them together now that they have been orphaned of their parents. Ninoy once wrote to Ballsy, “I am very proud of you because you have inherited all the best traits of your mother. You are sensible, responsible, even tempered and sincere with the least pretenses and affectations which I vehemently detest in a woman.”

Yesterday, Ballsy told me that like their parents, Noynoy is fiercely patriotic. “Noynoy is willing to die for our country.”

“Noynoy has inherited Dad and Mom’s love of country before self. He is selfless and giving. I saw him going through what Mom went through after Dad’s assassination in 1983. I saw the same questions that went through Mom’s mind before she announced her own candidacy.”

Like a song’s refrain, their mom’s line (which Ninoy often invoked, too) that she could never forgive herself if she knew she could have done something for the country but didn’t, kept coming back to Ballsy as it did to Pinky and Viel.

Ballsy said she saw Noynoy’s sincere desire to serve the country and saw how the people, especially those who continue to visit their mother’s grave, expressed their desire to make Noynoy carry her torch.

The clamor was something Noynoy “couldn’t just brush aside,” said Ballsy.

She saw the agony Noynoy went through as he grappled between the call of duty and the family’s desire to retreat into a normal life. (Remember that in the past 40 years, they have been through their father’s incarceration, his military trial, his 40-day hunger strike, his assassination, the seven coup attempts during their mother’s presidency and their own ordeal as she battled colon cancer.)

But as Kris said in a TV interview, they asked Noynoy why he was seeking the presidency and he said it was for “country, Dad and Mom.”

“So bakit patatagalin pa ang announcement?” Ballsy replied when I asked her why Noynoy’s life-altering decision was made public yesterday.

She does not care about what critics will say and is prepared for the mudslinging. She has full confidence in her brother, whom she describes as “so simple and not at all materialistic.”

* * *

Two Sundays ago, even before Mar Roxas announced that he was withdrawing his presidential bid in favor of Noynoy, Pinky urged her brother to go on a retreat. It was the one major request she made of her only brother before she gave him her support.

“It was just the three of us talking, Ballsy, Noy and myself, in Mom’s living room in Times Street,” Pinky (whom Ninoy called “Double Mommie” because she is named “Aurora Corazon, “after his mother Doña Aurora and Pinky’s own mother Cory). “I told Noy, ‘Puwede kang mamatay dito, you are putting so much at stake. But if you are at peace with God in prayer, you know you have made the right decision.”

She recalled the arguments that were tossed to and fro whenever the family would meet, and at one point Noynoy told them, “Hindi ako bingi.”

Those constant discussions made Pinky realize that her brother had the “purest of intentions.”

A few days ago, their youngest sister Kris told Pinky she dreamt of their mother. Kris told Pinky that in her dream, their mother’s tomb was empty. In the dream, Kris was the one undergoing chemotherapy and Cory was the one holding her hand.

To Pinky, Cory’s message was: “Fear not. I’m here to help you.”

That message was so important to the family as Noynoy agonized over his decision.

Like Ballsy, Pinky admires Noynoy’s detachment from material wealth. If elected he will represent “hope and honesty.”

“His honesty will make him a transformer,” she believes. “I can look anybody in the eye and say, ‘Shoot me if my brother steals from you’.”

* * *

What Ballsy, Pinky and Viel (I was not able to personally interview Kris) finally realized was that in supporting their brother, they were in fact upholding the patriotism their parents lived and died for.

“What really helped me,” added Pinky, “were memories of those who lined up under the driving rain for seven hours just to pay their respects to Mom. I can’t forget what one of them told me, ‘Puwede pa ba kayong tumulong’?”

Ninoy and Cory’s children feel they cannot say, “Hindi na puwede.”

As Viel, who shared Cory’s room in the six years she was president and was privy to all she went through — including the bullets from the coup attempts — said after all was said and done: “If Noy is willing to take the challenge, then the least that I can do is to give Noy my full support.”

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