Yellow Ladies of Cebu

THERE were a great many of them, campaigning for Benigno Aquino III’s presidency. Many of them remain nameless but they definitely did their part in catapulting Noynoy Aquino to the presidency of the Philippines.

Their involvement came about, says Zeny S.D. Larrazabal, with a call from Augusto Go who, soon after Aquino announced his bid for the presidency. Go called on her and the other “Augusto’s Angels “ of the Cory Aquino days if they would help in the Noy-Mar campaign. They readily said yes, says Zeny, because they believed in “his integrity and honesty.”

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Mila Tolentino joined later as a volunteer. She recounts: “From the very beginning I was looking for somebody who will help us [draw] away from the corruption. There was this clamor for Noynoy who seemed to be the antithesis of Gloria and I was thinking of Cory, who had integrity. I looked in the Internet and saw the Noy-Mar programs, their credo, their plans and I thought it was the best for the country. When Zeny knew I was for Noy, she asked me to join the group.”

Lizbeth Regner joined the group because she “was so tired of the corruption and the sleaze and Noynoy was our hope for our country, It was really love for country. I’ve always been outspoken, but not politically. But it was just too much; all the bad news, We need to solve our problem of widespread poverty. Now that he has won, we will still have to continue to do our work.”

Daya Cuenco says she was already into it since 1983, when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated. She says, “The Cebuanos were the first to stand up before Marcos. We had an indignation rally in Plaza Independencia and Noynoy came to take the place of Cory—Noynoy who we smuggled into Cebu via a Bisaya cargo ship.”

Among her Cory experiences was her husband’s being Cebu City OIC mayor, the family being placed under house arrest, a trip to Ormoc with Cory’s campaign: in Imelda country, Ormoc was the only place where Cory won.

All of them did their part, as did a host of other Yellow Lady volunteers, distributing campaign materials, going on their Friday “Mall Walks,” campaigning wherever they could, raising funds, driving in groups all over Cebu, giving away stickers, pins.

Each of them has beautiful, poignant memories of the campaign, of people rushing to them, telling them they were for Noynoy.

Once, even a bottled water vendor would not receive payment because, in his words, he wanted to help. This was people surging into a ground swell of longing for and expecting change: people power at work

Now that Benigno Aquino III is president, are these ladies going to disband?

Absolutely not. For them the work with Noynoy has just begun.

They’ve grouped themselves into committees for poverty alleviation, good governance, social accountability and the youth sector, who were very much a part of the Noy-Mar campaign. Lisbeth also wants to go into environmental concerns like river clean-up. And yes, anyone who wants to join can please join them

May these ladies and their president, who is also yours and mine, succeed!