Noy, Rody ties date back to Davao ‘Yellow Fridays’
DAVAO CITY – When President Duterte paid tribute to former president Benigno Aquino III, who succumbed to renal failure due to diabetes last Thursday, he was actually honoring and expressing his deep respect for a long-time friend.
The Aquinos and the Dutertes have ties dating back to the “Yellow Friday” movement here in Davao City, which was led by Duterte’s mother Soledad. His late mother, fondly known as “Nanay Soling,” was at the time the most prominent “yellow” activist who fought the Marcos dictatorship.
“(Noy) sought out Rody many times. They would talk. The late president would also ask Rody for advice. They talked many times. They were friends,” Miguel Ayala, son of the late Chito Ayala, liaison officer of former president Corazon Aquino, told The STAR.
Whenever he came to visit Davao City, then-president Noynoy or “PNoy” never failed to visit Ayala and his wife Fe at their residence. The elder Ayala was like a father to Aquino.
During those visits, Duterte always attended the dinner or lunch that the Ayalas hosted for Aquino even when the latter was still a congressman and then senator.
Aquino and Duterte were also together in the House of Representatives in 1998.
When Aquino ran for president in 2010, Duterte who was mayor of Davao City and his daughter vice mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio went all-out in campaigning for him.
“Tell Noy, do not campaign here in Davao anymore. I will take care of him,” Duterte once told a friend to relay the message to Aquino.
However, former president Joseph Estrada topped the votes in Davao City especially in villages populated by the so-called “masa” or masses.
Aquino was the last presidential candidate of the Liberal Party to set foot in this city to campaign. A bailiwick of the Dutertes, Davao did not host any other presidential candidate or political party when Duterte ran for president in 2016.
Duterte has acknowledged in his earlier speeches that it was Aquino’s mother Corazon who paved the way for his political career when his mother, Nanay Soling, begged off from assuming the post of “officer-in-charge” vice mayor of Davao City, following the 1986 people power revolution.
It was Duterte’s mother who suggested to Cory her eldest son Rodrigo to become the OIC vice mayor.
Last Saturday, the live coverage of the funeral of the late president was a cooperative effort between the communications team of Aquino, led by former assistant secretary Rey Marfil, and Radio Television Malacañang and the Presidential Communications Operations Office teams under Duterte.
The RTVM deployed its crew and equipment before dawn Saturday to make sure that everything would be smooth in delivering to the nation the live coverage for hook-up by all stations and even on social media.
The live coverage that the RTVM/ PCOO carried out gave the nation a clear view of the funeral rites for Aquino and a fitting tribute and send-off to the 15th president of the Philippines.