Cory's final wish: To go home
By Joanne Rae Ramirez (The Philippine Star) Updated January 25, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Corazon Aquino’s last birthday wish was not for herself.
Today would have been the 78th birthday of the former President. In an interview with The STAR, her eldest daughter Elena “Ballsy” Cruz said Cory did not wish for a longer life during her last birthday celebration on Jan. 25, 2009, some six months before she died of colon cancer.
The family and a few close friends heard Mass celebrated by Fr. Catalino Arevalo in a small chapel in Makati, after which the small group had lunch in Rockwell prepared by chef Jessie Sincioco.
“In fact she kept saying, I have outlived dad (Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.) for more than 25 years,” Ballsy said. “And then people were saying those who are nearing death are torn because the family here say, ‘Don’t, don’t, don’t leave us.’ Those who went before us are (reportedly) telling the person, ‘let’s go, let’s go’.”
After Cory died on Aug. 1, 2009 after 18 months of battling cancer, her children went through her things, hoping they would find letters with her personal instructions to them. Filipinos call this “bilin.” Their father Ninoy, before his death, had written them all letters. But they found no such letters from Cory.
Millions believe Corazon Aquino’s life was her legacy, and that she no longer had to put her instructions down on paper.
According to Ballsy, Cory had always told her children, “When you’re a public servant, especially when you’re president, you’ve got to be totally self-giving.”
In the weeks before her death, Cory had one express wish: to go home.
“She was telling Noynoy (then Sen. Benigno Aquino III), ‘I want to go home. I just want to go home’,” Ballsy recounts in the same sunny yellow conference room in the late president’s Makati office. Asked whether “home” meant the family home on Times St., or Ballsy’s home, where Cory lived in the months prior to her confinement in June 2009 at the Makati Medical Center, Ballsy says they weren’t always sure. One of their spiritual advisers, Bishop Socrates Villegas, told them that “home” to the deeply spiritual Cory could have meant, “home to the Father.”
Going home wasn’t a fleeting wish for Cory, even if she was told she had to bring home with her some medical equipment to make her more comfortable. But Cory had difficulty breathing, so she had to stay longer in the hospital. The family thought Cory had given up on going home, till one day she said again, “I really want to go home already.”
“And then the following morning she kept waking up and asking if her driver Norie had already arrived,” Ballsy continues, “I said, ‘Mom it’s only 3 a.m. Norie will come later, he’s still asleep’.”
But Cory kept on telling her eldest daughter, “‘But don’t forget ha, don’t forget.’ She was just so excited. She also asked me to remind Norie to bring the van, for all her things.”
Ballsy said yes to all her mother’s requests, but Cory felt dizzy on the very day she was supposed to check out of the hospital. It was then, believes Ballsy, that her mother stopped asking to be discharged from the hospital. In her delicate condition, she didn’t want to be a burden to her children at home, even if she had a private nurse.
“She was always thinking of us,” Ballsy says.
When they were told that the end was near for Cory and that she may be just valiantly holding on for the sake of her children, the youngest Aquino sibling Kris volunteered to assure her mother that the family would be okay even after she was gone.
“That night, I think Kris was trying to say, ‘Mom we’re really all okay, we’ll help one another. All of us will help one another. Even if you’re no longer here, we will make things easier for each other.’ And then it was as if Mom was calling Dad, ‘O, Ninoy!’”
Cory Aquino died about a week after that, assured that her loved ones on earth were going to be alright, assured that her loved one in heaven was waiting for her and certain that it was her time “to go home to the Father.”
Those who love her, and know her well, believe that Cory’s last birthday wish was for her country, and for her children.
A window at the Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral with the "colart" image of the Baptism of Christ.
Prof. Rolando Borrinaga as he delivered his messages during the program which reopened the Fr. Cantius Kobak, OFM - Samar Archeological and Cultural Museum. 
Prof. Rolando O. Borrinaga, PhD.
School of Health Sciences
University of the Philippines, Manila
Palo, Leyte
They (the group of Fr. Cantius) even went to Homonhon, the island where Ferdinand Magellan landed centuries ago. Unfortunately it was fiesta and there was no opportunity for diggings, albeit the priest and the people received them with wonderful hospitality.
Back to Guiuan, they explored the high mountains believed to have protected the place from the treacherous waves of the Pacific Ocean. They found hundreds of pieces of shell bracelets that are both broken and in perfect shape.
On November 18, 1968, they visited Laoang, Batag and Kahayagan in Northern Samar. In Barangay Burabod in Batag Island, the people presented them with large burial jars with stone lids. In a little hill in another barangay of Batag Island, inquiries from old folks led them to finding “a small Chinese stoneware bowl”. Since it looked broken, Fr. Cantius took off a large portion and it revealed as small skull in deteriorated state. Digging gently further, longer arms or wrist bones with five shell bracelets appeared, all indicative of a child burial. Other archeological items were also found: rusted daggers, ancient agong (bell), beads and a golden earring.
On December 28, 1968, they found some fine treasures in Capul, Mungulbungol (now San Vicente), Dalupiri (now San Antonio) and Samputan Islet, west of Capul. A kind individual in Mungubungol gave them a blue and white Chinese burial urn with lid, small jars, beads, bracelets and carnelian gemstones. It was a child-burial jar of a Datu (class). In Dalupiri, the group was given a fine precious celadon dish.
On February 1969, Fr. Cantius requested the Filipino friar who was with him in Batag Island to go back and see. The said priest went to Batag and came back with two sacks of broken stoneware, earthenware, porcelain dragon jars and other archeological recoveries. When as family cleared a hill for two hectares, broken recoveries were given to the friar while the good ones were sold. Fr. Cantius was happy even with the broken recoveries. He restored three dragon jars and a lot of porcelain and earthen wares.
The CKC Museum was established. While recoveries were being made, a large hall (at the CKC campus) was allocated for the planned museum. At that time some Professional American Archaeologists heard about the finds and came to Calbayog to see it. They dated, labeled and described all the materials recovered from burial sites.
In 1969, the Christ the King College Archaeological Museum was formally opened for public viewing. It was temporarily closed in 2005 when the Padua Building was renovated.
The Museum’s Second Spring. In November 2009, two months after the 5th death anniversary of Fr. Cantius, the City Council of Calbayog passed a Resolution declaring him as “An Honorary Samarnon and Adopted Son of the City”.
Before the end of 2010, it was deemed fitting that in its reopening the CKC Museum be named in his honor, he who was known as the Historian of Samar and the Bisayan region.
The 'primera calle' as seen from Rosales bridge.
The road leading to the pier. On the right are the stalls where vendors made a killing on firecrackers just days ago.
The 'paradahan' and the Cosoy Rosales Public Market.
A streetsweeper does her job at the public market area.
