Aquino home after 12-day EU tour, US nostalgic trip

MEMORIES ARE MADE OF THESE President Aquino with his former neighbor, Rebecca Vallete, a professor of Boston College. Vallete waited until she finally talks with the President at the facade of Aquino’s former house in Commonwealth Avenue, Newton, Massachusetts on Sept. 22. EDWIN BACASMAS

MANILA, Philippines–President Aquino returned to Manila Thursday night after a 12-day tour of Europe and the United States, bringing home pledges of investment from foreign businesses and possibilities of “making dreams come true.”

Aquino and his entourage arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 2 at 10:20 p.m. on a special Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight.

The President’s four-country tour of Europe and the United States cost the government P31.9 million.

But the country stands to reap big returns as a result of Aquino’s pitching for the Philippines as a destination for foreign investors.

Speaking to reporters at the airport, Aquino reported that his trip secured $2.3 billion in pledged investments after his discussions with business leaders in Spain, Belgium, France and Germany.

“We were gone for 12 days but we made the most out of those days,” Aquino said.

The President said he had 94 engagements and met top leaders of countries and institutions in Europe and the United States.

His top priority, he said, was winning support in Europe for the Philippines in its territorial dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea.

Spain, he said, offered to be the Philippines’ voice in the European Union in its efforts to resolve the dispute with China peacefully through international arbitration.

“It is clear from our meetings with various leaders, including with think tanks, that they they understand our position in our territorial dispute with China,” Aquino said.

After Europe, Aquino proceeded to the United States and visited Boston, where his family lived in exile during dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ martial rule in the Philippines.

He also went to New York and spoke at the United Nations Climate Change Summit.

Making a snowman

Aquino’s visit to Boston was personal, but he shared with reporters his memories of the place and gave them a rare glimpse of the tight bond between him and his father, the late former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

Once he tried making a snowman that came out looking triangular and a bit malnourished.

“What do I know about building a snowman? Then my father arrived. He saw that it was just plain snow. So he got a leaf, put a pair of eyes and mouth.

“Someone gave him a scarf that he didn’t like. He put it around the snowman’s neck. He had a cap he didn’t like. He put it on its head. After which he called my mother and told her to take our picture,” the President said, smiling.

They cleaned their station wagon together—in the dead of winter. Toward the end of the chore, the President said he wanted to ask his father if they could just bring the car to the car wash instead.

In the small den, which his father used as his office, they listened to music together, Aquino said. “We both liked listening to music.”

One time, when he was shoveling snow in the driveway, his father went out of the house to tell him to get some rest.

“I told him I was OK and I wasn’t feeling tired. But he told me to feel my pulse. ‘Feel your pulse because you are exerting effort and that’s the way to combat the cold,’” the President said.

As he toured the house, Aquino saw the dining area where his father, the opposition leader, held meetings with his guests. Beside it was the small living room where he watched on TV the news that his father had been shot dead.

“I was asked if I wanted to go up to my room,” the President said, which was near his parents’ bedroom.

At that point, seeing the place where he first heard the news of his father’s death, then the room where his mother and sisters waited for word about their father’s fate, still evoked painful memories for the President. He chose not to see his room.

He summarized his recent homecoming to Boston with a Filipino adage that emphasizes the role of the past in shaping one’s future.

“It’s nice to remember all those times because we have a saying: ‘Para makarating sa paroroonan, kailangan lumingon sa pinanggalingan, (To get to your destination, you have to look back to the past)’” the President said in a media briefing on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning in Manila) at his hotel in New York.

The three years he spent in Boston was the point in his life when he was molded into becoming the person and the leader he is today.

Last weekend was the first time in 31 years that he returned to Boston, fitting in his personal journey with his four-day working visit to the United States.

By coincidence, his homecoming took place on the 42nd anniversary of martial law, the very reason the President and his family found themselves in self-exile in the United States.