Boston welcomes back Noy

BOSTON – President Aquino received a warm welcome from the Filipino community here Saturday as he reminisced about his family’s days in exile before his father, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was assassinated in Manila in August 1983.

“It’s very emotional for me because when Benigno went home he really had very strong feelings about doing a good job in the Philippines,” recalled Leticia Hermosa, the national president of the Philippine Nurses Association of America.

She turned nostalgic upon learning of the visit of the only son of Ninoy and Corazon Aquino.

President Aquino will visit some friends, attend mass and deliver a policy speech at Harvard University.

“The unfortunate thing happened (Ninoy assassination), so I was very sad and from then on the Filipino community here in Boston has been looking forward to their visit,” Hermosa said.

“It started with Cory Aquino, we were looking forward to her coming back here. And of course, now with President Aquino, we are embracing him with warm welcome. Welcome to your home. This was his home when he was growing up,” she recounted.

Aquino, right after his graduation in March 1981 at the Ateneo de Manila University where he obtained his economics degree, joined his parents and siblings here when they were forced into exile by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, Ninoy’s arch enemy and fraternity brother.

Aquino was 21 years old then. He was 12 when Marcos declared martial law in September 21, 1972.

“As the President has spent many years in Boston with his family, the first few activities will basically be personal visits to old friends,” assistant secretary Maria Andrelita Austria of the Department of Foreign Affairs told a news briefing in Malacañang earlier.

“This is a good opportunity for them to touch base,” she said, in reference to Aquino’s scheduled meeting with Massachusetts Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, who extended to Aquino his invitation to visit Boston when he dropped by Manila recently.

Straight from Berlin after his four-nation European tour, Aquino arrived here late Saturday at the Boston Logan International Airport.

The Chief Executive will be attending today (Monday in Manila) a special mass at Boston College’s St. Ignatius Church before being ushered to the Robsham Theater where the traditional Filipino community gathering will be held.

Aquino will also present scholarships to the recipients of the Benigno and Corazon Aquino Scholarship Foundation during the same event that will be attended by about 550 Filipinos here.

Tomorrow (late Tuesday in Manila), he will meet with Kennedy who extended Aquino an invitation when he paid a courtesy call on him during his recent visit to Manila.

This will be followed by a series of business meetings with the chief executive officers of Conair Corp., Stanley Black & Decker, Inc., and FIS Global.

After which, Aquino will deliver a policy speech at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and he is also expected to grant an interview with its campus journalists.

Aquino will then depart Boston for New York City to attend the United Nations Climate Change Summit and pursue his other scheduled activities there before flying back to Manila.

Aquino will be joining on Sept. 23 other world leaders for the UN Climate Change Summit at UN headquarters. He is to deliver a speech about the negative impact of such weather disturbances, and highlight the vulnerability of all nations.

After that, Aquino will have a business roundtable with the US Chamber of Commerce, the US-ASEAN Business Council, and the US-Philippines Society.

On Sept. 24, he will depart – through his chartered flight – New York for San Francisco.

“This was supposedly only a technical stop but we have had requests from big business companies to meet the President. So we have arranged for at least two business meetings in San Francisco,” Austria revealed.

Aquino is expected to be back in Manila on Sept. 25.