The youngest daughter of former Philippine president Corazon Aquino said today her family had differences with the government, one reason why they had decided against a state funeral for the former leader.
Film and television star Kristina Bernadette Yap, popularly known as Kris Aquino, said there was an offer from the government to give her mother a state funeral befitting a former head of government but that her siblings turned it down.
In an interview on national television, Kris said the differences stemmed from a government decision to recall two soldiers serving as her mother's security detail after the former president called on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down in 2005.
Ms Aquino was once an ally of Ms Arroyo but had joined the campaign for her removal after the current president was accused of corruption and election fraud.
Ms Aquino died yesterday after a long battle against colon cancer.
Her only son, Senator Benigno Aquino III, told reporters there would not be a state funeral. "That was the intention from the start," he said, adding the family had not been approached by the government on funeral preparations for the former president.
"For all intentions and purposes, she had been a private citizen after stepping down and, to a certain degree, we would like to spend as much time as possible as family with her."
Ms Aquino will be buried beside her assassinated husband Benigno on Wednesday. He was killed in 1983. On Sunday, thousands of people, many in yellow shirts and dresses, lined up for more than a kilometre outside a Catholic school where her body was kept for public viewing.
President Barack Obama, the head of the European Union, and the governments of Singapore, Thailand and United Kingdom have sent messages of condolences.
Ms Arroyo has issued an order declaring a 10-day period of national mourning and declared August 5th as a special holiday to allow Filipinos to pay their respects.
Reuters