Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 28) — Columnist Manuel “Manolo” Quezon III, who was once a speechwriter of former President Benigno Aquino III, remembers how it was to work for the man fondly called PNoy.
“Now that we have come to the point where we have to look back on his life, it tells us in many ways that he was a man way ahead of his time and of our society,” Quezon said in an interview with CNN Philippines on Monday.
Quezon recalled how Aquino dealt with challenges that happened during his presidency and said how Aquino reacted to these proved that the former president had the “steeliness” to handle his job.
He also recalled how the public reacted toward Aquino in the aftermath of the Mamasapano incident where 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force were killed in an encounter with Moro rebels in Maguindanao despite a ceasefire.
Quezon called it a “traumatic divorce” with the Filipino people.
“He felt he owed it to the families to give them space to grieve and to give them answers about what would happen to them now that their loved ones were gone. The public interpreted this very differently because the public rallied to his father when it was almost a crime to go and condole after Ninoy Aquino was killed,” he said.
He said people are now able to reflect on what Aquino did and were able to see why it was done.
“The passing of an Aquino on the eve of another election, as Randy David said, we don’t know precisely what it means but it must mean something,” said Quezon.
Aquino died on June 24 at the age of 61.
