Nonie Uy: Cory’s Cebuana pal

this is about Cory's Cebuana friend.


Nonie Uy couldn’t sleep. The widow from Cebu City was just asked to be one of 19 speakers in the necrological rites for former president Corazon Aquino on Aug. 4, a day before Aquino’s burial at the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque City.

It was an honor but Nonie was daunted by the task: how could she express in a three-minute speech how she loved and would miss the woman, an icon of democracy, whose simplicity and sincerity touched her life?

Their relationship started with their husbands, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino and Cebu businessman Victor Uy in the 1960s.

In his bachelor days, Victor would drive Ninoy around Cebu whenever the senator was in town. Ninoy later stood as godfather in baptism to the Uy couple’s son.

The couple was later introduced to Cory by Nancy Cuenco, wife of now Cebu City South Dist. Rep. Antonio Cuenco, during the opening of a Ninoy Aquino memorabilia exhibit held in a university in Cebu.

Nancy was close to Cory as both were considered “congressional wives” of husbands who used to be members of the old Batasang Pambansa.

Victor asked Cory if she could be the godmother in the confirmation of their eldest son.

However, fate had other plans and anti-government protests intensified, leading to a bloodless people power revolt in 1986 that ousted president Ferdinand Marcos and installed Cory as the first female president of the Philippines.

When Victor repeated the family’s request through Nancy, the late president did something the couple did not expect.

She asked them to hold the confirmation, a Catholic sacrament for those who are baptized and have reached the age of reason, in the church near the Palace and to hold the reception in Malacañang.

The couple felt honored. “It was a very big thing for us,” said Nonie.

When Victor died in 1993 Cory, who was on her way to Rome, dropped by the wake in Cebu City to pay her respects.

“(It was) the turning point of my eternal gratitude for her. I was hers for life. I told her and everyone, it was like a 21-gun salute for a very simple albeit good man, my husband Victor,” she added.

When Cory received the Ramon Magsaysay award, Nonie was the only non-family member invited to the ceremony in Manila.

“When we were together, we did girl talk…more on chika. No politics, no hidden agenda. I never asked for anything. What we had was just friendship,” said Nonie.

Cory liked shopping for small, inexpensive trinkets - “butingting,” “borloloys”. Nonie once took her to a Japanese store that sold items for P50 and below.

Cory’s favorite dishes here were Cebu lechon (roast pig) and danggit (smoked fish).

Nonie would bring her lechon each time she visited Cory in her house on Times Street in Quezon City.

She said Cory tried to persuade her to try her new pastime, painting. When that didn’t prosper, Cory sent her paintings set in canvas, fans, bags and scarves which are all displayed in Uy’s modest home in barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.

She read in the newspapers that Cory was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer last year.

When she learned later that Cory had started to eat, she called her up and asked if she wanted lechon.

“She didn’t say no. Sometimes she would say ‘wag na wag na’ but this time, she didn’t say anything. So I brought her lechon. She prepared lunch for us in the house of Ballsy (Aquino Cruz, Cory’s eldest daughter),” Nonie said.

The former president was in a house dress when she welcomed Nonie.

“How do I look? How does your friend look?” Cory asked with a smile. Although she lost a lot of weight, she didn’t look weak, remembers Nonie.

Then Cory ‘s condition worsened and she fell into a coma.

Nonie said she visited Cory at the Makati Medical Center and held her frail hand to tell her she loved her.

Still, Nonie hoped for a a miracle especially after a text message announcing Aquino’s death turned out to be a false alarm.

Last Aug. 1, Nonie was at the Edsa Shangri-La when she received a text from the daughter of a friend who worked at Makati Medical Center that Cory had died.

It didn’t sink in immediately. She said she only cried when she saw Cory’s pictures and realized her friend was gone.

The next day, a Sunday, Nonie said she was shocked to receive a call from TV celebrity Boy Abunda who said the Aquino family had asked her to be one of the 19 close friends of Cory who would give a eulogy.

She was told to keep the speech within three minutes, to submit a draft at 4 p.m. on Monday and show up at the Manila Hotel coffee shop at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, two hours before the memorial service at the Manila Cathedral where Cory lay in state.

Nonie was able to finish her seven-paragraph speech near the deadline.

The 19 eulogy speakers met at the coffee shop where they were briefed. They had to bow first to the altar, go to the podium to speak and then return to their seat.

In her tribute, Nonie promised that Cory’s “children and grandchildren will always have a home and a family in Cebu.”

After her speech, Nonie said she could not help but speak privately to her departed friend.



more here: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/news/view/20090816-220567/Nonie-Uy-Corys-Cebuana-pal