Coup plotters, Marcos children honour Philippine icon Aquino

Military rebels who tried to unseat Corazon Aquino by force paid tribute to the late Philippines democracy icon Tuesday as a nation united in grief prepared to bury her.

"Her aura was her armour. You couldn't possibly hurt her," said retired navy commodore Rex Robles, who as a young colonel was among a group of officers who sought to topple Aquino in the late 1980s immediately after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship.

The 76-year-old widow died at the weekend after a long battle with cancer, uniting the fractious Southeast Asian archipelago in a national outpouring of grief and sympathy.

While Aquino brought democracy back to the country in introduced reforms, her term was marked by seven bloody coup attempts by restive military officers.

Some of the leaders of the coup on Tuesday saluted Aquino as a brave commander-in-chief.

Former plotter Robles recalled that in one of the attempts that he co-led with ex-colonel and now Senator Gregorio Honasan, he and his fellow officers wavered at the last minute.

"I asked Greg, 'If we manage to penetrate Malacanang (the presidential palace), what do we do with her? If she extends her hand and tells us she wants to talk to us, what do we do then?'" Robles said.

"'We would surely lose,' Greg said, because all of us would readily surrender to her," Robles said. Honasan was later be captured, but given amnesty.

Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin, who helped lead a coup against Aquino in 1989, said in a statement: "She braved the night and the anti-riot police to be one with the people in prayer."

"Through the years I have learned to admire her bravery and courage very much. She was brave up to her final moments," said Querubin, detained in connection with another failed 2006 coup against Arroyo.

Brigadier General Danilo Lim, who as a captain joined Honasan in one of the bloodiest attempts to oust Aquino in 1989, said while he has "had an uneasy history" with her as president, she would be remembered as a "guiding light" of democracy.

Lim, now detained along with Querubin in connection with the 2006 coup attempt, this time against Arroyo, said Aquino's "quiet but steadfast belief in God" made her a powerful message of hope to this nation of 90 million.

Meanwhile, the son and daughter of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos surprised thousands of ordinary people queuing up for a glimpse of Aquino's remains at Manila Cathedral on Tuesday by attending the wake.

Drawing on the Roman Catholic Asian nation's long tradition of setting aside rivalries on the occasion of death, House of Representatives member Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Junior and elder sister Imelda "Imee" Marcos arrived unannounced in early afternoon.

They shook hands with Maria Elena "Ballsy" Cruz, one the former president's daughters, and chatted with Aquino's grandchildren.

Imee Marcos kissed the cheek of Agapito Aquino, the late president's brother-in-law.

Aquino had always held the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Senior to blame for the August 21, 1983 assassination of her politician husband Benigno Aquino at Manila airport on his return from US exile to lead the anti-Marcos opposition.

The political upheaval unleashed by the murder, for which more than a dozen pro-Marcos soldiers and police were sentenced to long prison terms, marked the beginning of the end of Marcos, who fled into exile in the US in 1986 with the Aquino widow taking his place.

The Aquino family, who had earlier rejected President Gloria Arroyo's offer of a state funeral, had said the Marcoses and the incumbent president are both welcome to attend the wake, but were warned that they should not expect a warm welcome.

Arroyo, an estranged political ally, was scheduled to fly back to Manila before dawn Wednesday, hours before the start of burial ceremonies, to attend the wake.