Philippines lays to rest democracy icon Aquino

PHILIPPINEs: Tens of thousands took to the rain-soaked streets of Manila on Wednesday to bid farewell to former President Corazon Aquino, who overthrew a dictatorship to become a totem of "people power".

Aquino, who died aged 76 at the weekend after a long battle with cancer, was to be buried in a private ceremony after a long funeral procession skirting the Philippine capital's gleaming business towers and teeming shantytowns.

With a national holiday called as part of 10 days of official mourning, police said 15,000 people surrounded her coffin as it left Manila Cathedral just before noon draped in the national flag.

Eight police officers in full dress uniform served as pallbearers, carrying the casket to a flat-bed truck festooned with yellow and white flowers. "She made me proud again to be a Filipino," said Father Catalino Arevalo, recalling Aquino's bloodless triumph against the 20-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, three years after her husband's assassination.

Men and women standing at least 10-deep on both sides of the road openly wept as the truck crawled through the swelling crowd for the 18-kilometre (11-mile) journey to the Manila Memorial Park.

A military helicopter flew low overhead, sprinkling the crowd with yellow confetti denoting the colour of Aquino's "people power" revolt, while ships anchored on nearby Manila Bay blared their horns.

Several mourners broke through the security cordons to touch the hearse. Many shouted her name and threw flowers onto the truck where four members of the armed forces stood in silence on each corner of the coffin. Manila, Wednesday, AFP