Aquino expresses sympathy for ‘home’ city

President Benigno Aquino III. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—President Aquino has condemned the perpetrators of what is increasingly being seen as another terror attack on the United States, and sent a personal message of sympathy to the victims of the bomb attack on the Boston Marathon as well as to the US city to which his family has a special affinity.

“The Boston Marathon is an annual celebration of the human spirit: of endurance, friendly competition, and community celebration. We condemn those who dared defile this event and who have cast such a pall of loss and suffering in the city of Boston and the entire United States,” Aquino said in a statement released through his spokepersons.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the President “personally conveys a message of deep sympathy, concern, and solidarity with the people of Boston, where he and his family had found refuge during martial law, and which so many Filipinos call home.”

She said Aquino had fond memories of Boston where he lived with his family for three years, when his father, the martyred opposition leader Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., had exiled himself during the Marcos dictatorship.

The late senator brought his wife, Corazon, and their five children to Boston, where he spent his time giving speeches and lectures at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and other US universities.

The exiled Aquinos lived on 175th Commonwealth Avenue, just a few blocks away from Copley Square, where the blasts occurred.

In his statement, Aquino said he expected the Bostonians to rise above the attacks that have turned the famed Boston Marathon into a carnage.

“Boston is a city of bravery, openness, and liberty: This tragedy will not change these essential truths, and points of pride, for this great city,” he said.

Aquino said his administration joined the international community in extending “our deepest sympathy to those who have lost loved ones in the bombing of the Boston Marathon… We offer our prayers and best wishes for their recovery.”