MANILA, Philippines—The book of former President Corazon Aquino, written by her friends as a gift on her 76th birthday, sold 305 copies in two hours, easily a bestseller by Philippine standards, bookstore manager Ma. Mercedes Pastrana said Wednesday.
The book, “Cory Aquino: An Intimate Portrait,” edited by Aquino’s former appointment secretary Margarita P. Juico, sold that many copies during its launch Tuesday night at the Bestsellers Bookstore in Robinson’s Galleria Mall in Quezon City, a festive yet sentimental gathering by Aquino’s friends.
The former President herself was not at the launch. According to her son, Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, her doctor advised her to “avoid crowds.”
Ms Aquino is recovering from cancer of the colon.
Pastrana said the high sales only showed that Ms Aquino “has many fans and followers.”
‘Parang Barack’
Last month, the bookstore also launched Benjamin Pimentel’s “Parang Barack: Filipinos in Obama’s America,” a book on then President-elect Barack Obama and the growing Filipino community in the United States.
The book was launched just after the US election, with much of the US still in euphoria over the victory of a first black president in the USA.
Pastrana said less than 200 copies of Pimentel’s book were sold during the launch. An average of 80-150 books are usually sold during a launch, she added.
Juico said the idea of a book on Ms Aquino was firmed up after the former President was diagnosed with cancer last year. It was intended to be a birthday gift to the well-loved former President, from people who had worked in the Aquino administration from 1986 to 1992.
“This is our birthday gift to her, and for the Filipino people, so they could realize what a gem of a person Cory Aquino is to the people who know her, and how fortunate we all are for having the gift of Cory Aquino,” Juico said.
The book will also serve as a reminder to that glorious episode of Philippine history, when an ordinary wife toppled a very-powerful and seemingly invincible dictator.
Rallying symbol
After the assassination of her husband in 1983, Ms Aquino became the rallying symbol of resistance to Marcos rule. Her followers transformed a failed coup by a faction of the military into a four-day “people power” revolt in February 1986 that sent the 14-year dictator fleeing under the cover of darkness to exile in the United States.
“Certainly, we will not forget,” said Philipp Juico, Margie Juico’s husband who also served as secretary of agrarian reform from July 1987 to June 1989.
“She stepped into legend, and she took us with her,” Makati Rep. Teddy Locsin Jr. said, describing how it was like working for Ms Aquino as adviser and speechwriter.
“It was like living in a movie, Exodus Meets Indiana Jones in Camelot.”
‘Among the immortals’
“We got lucky. We served President Aquino, it was better than getting rich,” Locsin added.
“President Cory, may you live for as long as you want, and you will never want for friends and admirers for as long as you live, and indeed even beyond, for you are among the immortals,” said Rene Saguisag, former presidential spokesman and legal counsel.
Himself recovering from a vehicular accident that killed his wife Dulce last November 2007, Saguisag made this rare public appearance especially for the book launch.
Miguel Perez-Rubio, former chief of protocol, remembered “the day at the Club Filipino, when President Aquino took her oath and blessed us all with her leadership.”
-from:inquirer
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