Butz Aquino remembered in San Francisco

Portrait of the late ex-Senator Agapito “Butz” Aquino. PHOTO BY MARK/JACKIE AQUINO GAVINO

SAN FRANCISCO – Admirers of the martyred Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino also remembered his younger brother, former Senator Agapito Butz Aquino, who passed away on August 17, during the commemoration of Ninoy’s 32^nd death anniversary at the San Francisco Philippine Consulate last week.

At the “Friends Meeting Friends: Remembering Ninoy Aquino” memorial mass August 20, the consulate opened a book of condolences in the main lobby for those attendees who wanted to leave messages of sympathy to the family of Butz Aquino.

One of the first who wrote to send her sympathies was Edna Sanchez, the mother-in-law of Consul General Henry Bensurto, Jr.

Among those who were first to arrive at the memorial mass for her brother was Ninoy’s younger sister Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara, who was saddened when asked for a comment about their younger brother Butz, an actor in many television plays she directed.

Butz Aquino in the middle of a group of ant-Marcos demonstrators with Lorenzo Tanada, director Behn Cervantes, Tito Guingona, Lorna Verano-Yap among others.

“Ay naku si Butz, you know I have been grieving since I heard he died. I was here in the U.S. and I was trying to go home but by the time I would have reached home, he would have been cremated. He was a very simple guy, but at the same time he brought humor and joy and laughter to those around him always. He had that big voice, a loud, humorous voice that you’d know he is in the room,” Lupita was quick to say.

“But more than that,” she added, “he is an unsung hero. When you hear of the 1986 EDSA revolution People Power, you remember Cory (President Corazon Aquino, wife of Ninoy Aquino). How many remember Butz, the instrument that started it? He is an unsung hero as far as I am concerned that he was the one who carried the torch to keep the fire burning.”

Lupita recalled that Butz was an actor, but when Ninoy died, he took resulting political ferment seriously just as he did in all the things he endeavored, doing it professionally and very meticulously, “taking the baton and carrying the torch of Ninoy. He gave the perfect example on what to do when things go wrong again in our country – just keep moving on and stay in the streets and make everybody aware of what is going on.”

Butz Aquino’s modesty was not lost on Consul Bensurto, who regards the younger Aquino as another hero.

“He had full respect for his brother. He was a person who jumped into action immediately when the situation called for him. This is what Butz did. It was something he didn’t plan for, in fact, he tried to be obscure, perhaps because of what happened to the family. But at the certain moment when the situation called for him to do something, he was there. And he was able to show commitment, to continue the fire. Ninoy lit the fire; Butz made sure that the fire continued,” Bensurto said.

Mrs. Edna Sanchez, mother-in-law of Consul General Henry Bensurto Jr., signing the condolence book for Butz Aquino’s family, at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco. PHOTO BY MARK/JACKIE AQUINO GAVINO

In his message after the Holy Mass to acknowledge the guests, Lupita’s husband, Ken, included the messages of condolences offered for Butz Aquino as among the things the Aquinos are grateful for.

“Butz defied the dictatorship by leading the parliament of the streets and the August Twenty-One Movement (ATOM). They were blood brothers and brothers in arms linked by the common bond of restoring justice and human dignity to a country they both loved,” Ken told the crowd.

After his term in the Senate, Butz Aquino became active with cooperatives and was an advocate of cooperatives throughout his nine-year term in the Senate and many years as a congressman,” reported Lupita.

As a businessman, Butz Aquino was part of the former Mofire Company that supplied fiberglass materials and products that included chairs, tables and also protection shields for local enforcers–the same shields that were used against the street parliamentarians like Butz, former Senators Lorenzo Tañada, Jose Diokno, Rene Saguisag, Teofisto Gungona, student activist Lean Alejandro, movie directors Lino Brocka and Behn Cervantes and the indefatigable newspaper publisher, Joaquin Chino Roces, among others during the street protests.

Just as Butz was quiet especially in the last years and almost nothing was heard from him, his physical condition was also known only to those very close to him.

“He was not very healthy the last year. In fact, last Christmas we were told that Butz had ‘taning sa buhay’ or ‘bilang na ang panahon’ (just short time to live). He already had a triple heart bypass and was diagnosed with diabetes,” Lupita revealed. “But he carried on with it not spreading the word out that he was sick or dying. He was in and out of the hospital already for a while. It was all very quiet didn’t you notice? No fuss. It is because he was quiet person.”

The former firebrand and senator, who started his political career in the streets, was cremated immediately and did not even want to have a wake upon his death. Senate President Franklin Drilon even quipped that they had to “overrule” the late senator just so that his former Senate colleagues could pay him their last respects with a rare mass on the Senate floor.

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