PNoy likens anti-kidnapping advocate Ang See to Cory

What do anti-kidnapping advocate Teresita Ang See and the late President Corazon Aquino have in common? As far as President Benigno Aquino III is concerned, both women showed courage in fighting for what is right, even if they could have chosen to keep quiet. "Tessie Ang See represents to me some of the best traits of the Filipino and the Filipino woman at that. I liken her to my mother. My mother was a housewife: she could have just said, 'You know, we’ve sacrificed enough, we’ve done our part. Please leave us alone.' But she took the cudgels left by my father, continued the fight, and we restored democracy.  "Tessie Ang See is the same: of the same caliber, of the same feather," Aquino said at the 20th anniversary of the Movement for the Restoration of Peace and Order (MRPO) in Manila. He was referring to his late mother's decision to lead protests against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, following the assassination of her husband former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983. Mrs. Aquino was catapulted to the presidency in 1986 in a peaceful revolution that ousted Marcos. Her death in 2009 sparked an emotional outpouring that paved Aquino's path to the presidency in 2010. On the other hand, Aquino said Ang See could have chosen not to help kidnap victims' kin. Yet he said she at times faced greater dangers than the victims themselves. Ang See, who helped establish the MRPO, had served as a liaison between law enforcers and kidnap victims at the height of the kidnap-for-ransom scourge in the 1990s. "But she chose, and I have to emphasize the word 'chose,' she chose to do something about the situation she saw was wrong, and she has contributed tremendously to solving this problem that plagues our country," Aquino said of Ang See. — LBG/HS, GMA News