World | Philippines
Cancer-stricken Aquino refuses further medical intervention
Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino has decided to forgo further medical intervention in her battle against colon cancer, her spokesperson has announced.
- By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
- Published: 22:48 July 2, 2009
Manila: Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino has decided to forgo further medical intervention in her battle against colon cancer, her spokesperson has announced.
"She is no longer receiving any chemotherapy or any other medical interventions," said Lourdes Siytangco, the former president's spokesperson, quoting an Aquino family member.
Aquino had been undergoing chemotherapy and was previously hospitalised from March to May. She underwent surgery last April.
She was taken back to the hospital last week due to loss of appetite.
Aquino was taken out of the intensive care unit of the Makati Medical Centre and moved to a private recovery room in a decision "she and her children made in consultation with her doctors".
The 76-year-old Aquino, who took over as president of the Philippines after the fall of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, was admitted to the hospital last week, and is reportedly being fed intravenously.
"The country's icon of democracy is fighting the hardest battle of her life," Siytangco said in her column in the Manila Bulletin.
"Although she's stable, conscious, and not in too much pain, her health is worrisome."
Margarita Juico, who was Aquino's appointments secretary during her term, said the former president refused to be fed through a nose tube.
Aquino's son Senator Benigno Aquino III and daughters Ballsy, Pinky, Viel, and Kristina Bernadette have been at her bedside since late Wednesday.
Her youngest child, Kris, skipped her nightly television show to be with her mother, an ABS-CBN news report said.
Hospital officials and security personnel prevented journalists from entering the floor where Aquino's room is located.
On Wednesday, Aquino's relatives, friends and political allies, started a nine-day prayer service for her healing in a private chapel near the hospital.
Aquino was pushed to the limelight after her husband, opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. , was murdered as he stepped out of the aircraft that brought him home from exile in 1983.
Her husband's killing ignited a strong sentiment against Marcos. A signature drive prompted Aquino to lead the opposition in the fraud-marred 1986 elections which sparked a civilian-military uprising known the world over as the "EDSA People Power" revolution.
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