The Philippines: A Mass Requiem in Manila

Aquino is buried amid outpourings of mourning and militancy

For days, hundreds of thousands of mourners had filed past his glass-covered coffin in suburban Manila. Countless tears had been shed; calls for insurrection had been voiced. Finally, there were only simple things left to say over the body of the murdered folk hero before it was laid to rest. Jaime Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila, knew that well as he stood in front of a quiet crowd of mourners in the Quezon City Church of Santo Domingo. The prelate gazed upon the remains of Philippine Opposition Leader Benigno ("Ninoy") Aquino Jr., and announced the theme of the funeral oration that would be carried across his troubled nation. It was a single word: "Peace!"

Sin's invocation was first of all a prayer for the soul of the bloodied corpse before him: the earthly remains of the country's most famous and charismatic opponent-in-exile of the authoritarian rule of visibly ailing President Ferdinand Marcos, 65. Long regarded as Marcos' presidential successor before the country's strongman declared martial law in 1972, Aquino spent 7½A years in Philippine jails on charges of murder, illegal possession of firearms and subversion, and three more years of exile in the U.S. Ignoring innumerable threats and an official death sentence against him, Aquino returned home on Aug. 21. Within 30 seconds of his arrival at Manila International Airport, he was murdered by a single shot from an assassin's .357 Magnum revolver.

Sin's funeral refrain was also intended as a call for reconciliation in the populous (53 million) Philippines, which may face its worst political crisis in decades because of Aquino's murder. The assassination seared the country's consciousness and may have dealt a mortal blow to the idea of a nonviolent and nonmilitary succession in the Philippines after Marcos. The prospect of upheaval, in turn, threatens vital U.S. interests in the strategic islands.

Few Filipinos were yet concerned with the broader consequences of the Cardinal's plea for social peace. Their concern was with Aquino. Nonetheless, after days of public viewing of the martyr's corpse, the crowds respected the Aquino family's wish for a relatively private funeral. Among the nonfamily members present at the service were officials of the U.S. (Ambassador Michael Armacost), Japan, Canada, Australia and the European Community, which sent representatives despite the Philippine foreign ministry's disapproval. No one from the Marcos regime came to the funeral.

After the ceremonies were over, Aquino's plain wooden coffin, draped with the Philippine national flag, was carried out of the church by 16 pallbearers amid cheers and chants of "Ninoy. Ninoy." When the coffin was placed atop the flower-bedecked platform of a flatbed truck, a crowd that had gathered before dawn went wild. Police estimated that, despite torrential rains, more than 1 million people had gathered along the 19-mile route between the Santo Domingo Church and the Manila Memorial Park cemetery.