No more chemotherapy for Cory, says close family friend

July 2, 2009 | By admin |

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino is no longer receiving chemotherapy and has been moved from the intensive care unit (ICU) to a regular room at the Makati Medical Center, a close family friend said Thursday.

“She is no longer receiving chemotherapy or any other medical interventions,” Lourdes Siytangco, Mrs. Aquino’s former spokeswoman, quoted family members as saying. Mrs. Aquino was diagnosed with colon cancer last year.

“Former President Cory Aquino is now out of the ICU and in a private room, a decision she and her children made in consultation with her doctors,” Siytangco wrote in her regular column in the Manila Bulletin newspaper.

“The country’s beloved “Icon of Democracy’ is fighting the hardest battle of her life at the Makati Medical Center,” Siytangco wrote in her column, which was entitled “Cory fighting for her life.”

Siytangco said Mrs. Aquino’s “courageous battle with colon cancer has been inspiring with ‘bonus time’ for her living a quality life the past year and a half.”

She said Mrs. Aquino “is aware of the many people praying for her, sending her well-wishes and continues herself to be prayerful.” Supporters started a nine-day novena on Wednesday at the Greenbelt chapel in Makati for Mrs. Aquino’s recovery.

Siytangco said no visitors are allowed in Mrs. Aquino’s room at the hospital. Only the former president’s children Ballsy, Sen. Benigno Simeon Aquino III, Pinky, Viel, and Kristina Bernadette are “taking turns” at her bedside, she said.

“The members of her family beg everyone’s understanding of their need for solitude and privacy at this delicate time,” Mrs. Aquino’s family said in a statement posted on Mrs. Aquino’s Web site.

Family friend Fr. June Sescon will celebrate the healing mass for Mrs. Aquino on Thursday, Siytangco said.

In a telephone interview with GMANews.TV, Siytangco said Mrs. Aquino “is stable. She is fine.” She declined to give further details.

Radio dzBB reported that family members of the former president declined to give media an update on her condition. No hospital official would give the media an update on Mrs. Aquino’s situation either.

Radio dzBB’s Louie Garcia reported early Thursday that Cory’s daughter Kris arrived at the Makati Medical Center at 12:30 a.m. but declined to give reporters a statement. The report said Kris brought clothes and fruits for her mother.

Sen. Aquino has also declined to discuss his mother’s health condition with reporters.

Palace offers prayers

Saddened over the health condition of the former President, Malacañang on Thursday offered prayers to strengthen her in her battle against colon cancer.

“Of course ikinalulungkot ng Malacañang ang report na ang dating Pangulong Corazon Aquino ay nasa maselang kalagayan. Kaya kami ay nakikiisa sa panawagan na ipagdasal natin na maka-survive si Pangulong Cory laban sa cancer,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said in an interview on dzXL radio.

[Of course, we at Malacañang are saddened with the reports about the condition of Mrs. Aquino. We are heeding the call for prayers for President Aquino to survive her battle with cancer.]

He said he learned of Mrs. Aquino’s condition through Siytangco.

Mrs. Aquino was instrumental in the EDSA uprising in 2001 that brought down former President Joseph Estrada and helped catapult President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to power .

But she became a critic of Mrs. Arroyo in 2005, in the wake of the “Hello Garci” electoral scandal involving taped conversations between then poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and several politicians, including Mrs. Arroyo. - GMANews.TV