OPPOSITION figures in Cebu City would have wanted to join the mass at the Carmelite Monastery in honor of former president Corazon “Cory” Aquino, had Mayor Tomas Osmeña not canceled it over a comment allegedly made by an Archdiocese of Cebu official.

The opposition figures instead joined a five-kilometer run early yesterday and donned yellow jerseys printed with Aquino’s image and the words “Run for Cory.”

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Among those who joined the run was Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Province president Ramsey Quijano, who was appointed Kabataang Bayan chairman (equivalent of the current Sangguniang Kabataan Federation president) during Aquino’s term.

Quijano said it was his first time to join a run, and that he saw it as a fitting tribute for a president during whose term he has served the Cebuanos.

There were at least 30 of them wearing yellow Cory jerseys in a group of around 100 people.

The run was the fourth and final leg of the Metrosports Run for a Cause. Tinago Barangay Councilor Joel Garganera and opposition leader Jonathan Guardo decided to be part of the group instead of staging their own run.

“Today is the ninth day of her death. It was fitting to start the day running as our way of sending her off,” Garganera said yesterday.

He said that whether or not Osmeña invited him to the mass, he would have attended it as a sign of respect for Cory.

The mayor planned to invite a member of the Aquino family to the mass, the monastery being an important part of Cory’s life.

It was where the opposition hid her prior to the People Power.

Osmeña, however, canceled the plan after it was criticized as a political gimmick.

Guardo, in a separate interview, said he would have attended, but only if Kris Aquino was the one in attendance because they “know each other.”

Kris

Kris endorsed one of Guardo’s food supplement products.

Also yesterday, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, a key player during the Edsa People Power in 1986, said he has already explained his absence during Cory’s burial Wednesday last week through a letter he sent to Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino Jr.

He, however, declined to divulge the letter’s contents, saying it was a private communication, which he said Noynoy could make public if the fellow senator wishes to.

Enrile also reminded the Cebuanos that Cebu has benefited from the Marcos regime, which he said was not all bad.

In particular, he mentioned that the first Mandaue-Mactan bridge, as well as roads from northern Cebu to southern Cebu, were built during the term of Marcos.

Enrile was defense minister of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Shortly before the declaration of Martial Law, Enrile was “ambushed,” which he later admitted as being “stage-managed” to show that there was lawlessness to justify the imposition of martial rule.

He shifted loyalty along with Armed Forces vice chief of staff Fidel Ramos during the Edsa uprising, a move that was seen as a key factor in the victory of People Power.

“We could not say it (Marcos’ regime) was all bad, in the same way that we cannot say that Cory’s administration was all good,” Enrile said yesterday.

He said he does not lay claim to being a pivotal person in the People Power history, saying it is up to others to say it about him.

He, however, said the victory of democracy in 1986 was the result of a “confluence of events.”