Like her or dislike her, Kris Aquino has always been newsworthy. But, there’s good reason why “The Greatest Love,” her latest “album,” especially deserves to be heard. No, the 37-year-old actress-TV host doesn’t sing in it. Instead, she gathers a playlist of beautiful songs and heartfelt prayers to pay tribute to her mom, former President Corazon C. Aquino, who’s been diagnosed with colon cancer.
In the album, Kris paints an intimate portrait of her mother as a private person. This time around, her famed candor doesn’t dispense self-indulgent ramblings about how she figures in the bigger scheme of things, but instead offers heartwarming nuggets of revelatory information about her illustrious family and how they’re coping during this difficult time.
Inspirational duet
In the album, before Regine Velasquez and Lani Misalucha render their smashing cover of the inspirational Whitney Houston-Mariah Carey duet, “When You Believe,” Kris tells her mother: “Dear Mom, I hope and pray that when you’re reading this, you’re okay. We didn’t want to add to your burden by showing you how torn up we all were when we found out about your cancer.
“When Viel told me (about it), I felt the world crashing down, and all the weight was centered on my heart and stomach. I cried uncontrollably, I threw up so much, wanting to purge myself of the worst possible news. Memories came rushing back, and I wanted to share them with you, just so you’d know how much being your baby has meant to me.”
As Kris looks back, she coats her memories with 13 well-chosen tracks, performed by some of the music industry’s most beautiful voices, among them Martin Nievera (“The Greatest Love of All”), Gary Valenciano (“Isn’t She Lovely?”), Ogie Alcasid (“Ugoy ng Duyan”) and Piolo Pascual, who sings Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman’s “No Matter What.”
Also notable are Billy Crawford’s reworked version of James Taylor’s “How Sweet It Is,” Jay-R’s soothing “A Song for Mama,” Mcoy Fundales’ “Bless the Beast and the Children,” and Ronnie Liang’s inspired remake of Carol Banawa’s hit ballad, “Iingatan Ka.”
Vivid recollections
Understandably, these beautiful tunes take the back seat when Kris begins sharing her touchingly vivid recollections: When she lost in a declamation contest in second grade; how Cory gathered Kris and her siblings to pray the Rosary after getting a call from a foreign news agency and learning about Ninoy’s assassination; Cory and Kris’ brother, Noynoy, literally dragging her after a bomb exploded outside her bedroom window in Arlegui, etc.
But, the most touching part of Kris’ “open letter” is an earnest apologia: “When the doctors during colonoscopy asked when your last operation was, you told them it was while giving birth to me via Caesarian section—when your blood pressure went to zero and you hemorrhaged because of placenta previa. That was just a preview of the stress, suffering and heartaches that were to come, courtesy of me.
“I’m sorry, Mom, for all the times I wasn’t the daughter you deserved. The best thing I ever heard said about me during my last birthday was that I was a loving daughter. I know I am, because having you as a mom makes my job easy. I may have stumbled, fumbled and grumbled—and yet, you never stopped believing that I’d eventually find my way.”
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