When the daughters of icons meet

MANILA, Philippines — They were born to parents who were larger than life, and who endured as legends beyond their death. International airports are named after their respective fathers: the JFK International Airport in New York and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.

Kennedy was credited for winning the peace in the face of a nuclear war in 1962, Aquino was a freedom fighter whose assassination sparked the restoration of democracy in the Philippines.

Children of former presidents and charismatic figures, former ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy met yesterday with three of the daughters of the late democracy icons former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. and former president Corazon Aquino: Ballsy Cruz, Pinky Abellada and Viel Dee at the US embassy in Manila.

“Thank you for seeing me,” Kennedy, only surviving child of the late US president John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, told the Aquino sisters as they exchanged pleasantries in a room that had sweeping views of Manila Bay. The youngest Aquino sister, Kris, was not well and was thus unable to join them.

“She had no airs at all,” Cruz told The STAR.

Cruz told Kennedy how she would memorize JFK’s speeches in school and recalled how their mother had met with Sen. Edward Kennedy in Washington and had fond memories of a reception Caroline hosted for her in 1986 at the JFK Library and Museum by the Charles River in Boston.

Mrs. Aquino, then on an official visit to the US as president, was given a bust of JFK by his daughter.

“We told Caroline that the JFK Library was our mother’s inspiration for building the Aquino Library in Tarlac,” Abellada, for her part, said. She added that when they were living in Boston, their father would take all their Filipino visitors to the JFK Library and to the Kennedy home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

“She was very humble,” Abellada said of the former ambassador to Japan.  Kennedy told the Aquino sisters that people in New York City, where she lives, “don’t mind me” and she can go around without security.

Kennedy also expressed interest in the indigenous tribes of the Philippines when she learned that the third Aquino sister Viel Dee worked for a foundation that promoted their welfare.

After receiving a book on the Philippines, Kennedy told the Aquinos she wished she could bring her children to the Philippines some day. Caroline and her husband Edwin Schlossberg have three children – Rose, Tatiana and Jack.

With young poets

Earlier yesterday, Caroline met 35 young poets from the St. Scholastica’s College in Manila for the launch in the country of her International Poetry Exchange Program (IPEP), which aims to “bridge differences” among young people from different cultures. The program was launched in Japan during her stint as ambassador.

St. Scholastica’s College officials, led by its president Sister Mary Frances Dizon, teachers, staff and over a hundred students, mostly Grades 8 to 10 attended the event.

Caroline said working with students across Japan was one of the most rewarding parts of her work and she wanted to meet Filipino students during her visit.

“Our countries have been connected for centuries and we hope that those bonds of friendship will grow stronger in the future,” Kennedy said in a brief speech.

“Poetry turns out to be a wonderful way of bridging our differences, learning about each other, sharing our innermost thoughts and feelings and dreams for the future,” she said.

At the end of her speech, Kennedy handed the school officials a copy of her book titled, Poems to Learn by Heart.

Kennedy also authored the New York Times No. 1 bestseller, A Family of Poems, a collection of poems for children. IPEP also includes schools from South Korea and the US.

 The program aims to provide opportunities for students to meet and get to know about each other’s culture. - Helen Flores