Kris Aquino tells President Aquino: ‘Stay alive’

Screengrab from RTVMPNoy youtube account

MANILA, Philippines—Amid the revelation of her brother President Benigno Aquino III during his fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona) that he risks his life while doing his job, actress-host Kris Aquino made an appeal to him—stay alive.

“I told him (President Aquino) after his speech, ‘Great speech, but please stay alive’,” Kris on Monday told co-host Boy Abunda in their show “Aquino and Abunda Tonight.”

President Aquino, she said, retorted, “Naman (Of course).”

Kris got visibly emotional during the latter part of her brother’s Sona when he pondered the dangers that holding the land’s highest post entails.

“Hindi natin maiiwasan mag-isip sa mga binubunggo natin, may araw kayang ‘pag sasampa ka sa entablado, may trabaho ring araw–may magtatagumpay bang maglagay ng bomba? Magtatagumpay ba ‘yung mga maiitim na balak ng atin pong mga katunggaling gusto tayong ibalik sa maling kalakaran,” President Aquino said.

(It’s hard not to think about these things, considering the people we’ve been going up against. Will there be a day when I go onstage, for work, and—will someone manage to plant a bomb? Will the dark schemes of those who want to bring us back to the wrong way of doing things finally succeed?)

During that segment of the President’s Sona, Kris said that she got emotional because it was hard thinking about her brother’s mortality.

“I don’t want to face his mortality. Sabi ko na parang ‘yung (I said that) when someone could speak about going at anytime, it’s the risk of the job talaga,” Kris said.

She said that what made it more difficult was that their parents both died in August. Their father, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was assassinated at the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983, while their mother, Corazon Aquino, succumbed to colon cancer on August 1, 2009.

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