Thousands line streets for politician's funeral procession

(22 Dec 2004)

Night shots
1. Casket carrying Fernando Poe Junior being brought out of Santo Domingo church
2. Crowd chanting "FPJ, FPJ!"
3. Wide shot of crowd during funeral procession
4. Horse-drawn carriage carrying Poe's casket surrounded by crowd during funeral procession
5. Wide of crowd during funeral march
Day shots
6. Crowd surrounding casket during funeral march
7. Top shot of crowd
8. Woman holding up placard reading " President of the Philippines, His Excellency, Fernando Poe Jr"
9. Huge crowd surrounding casket during march, zoom in to casket mounted on carriage, pan of crowd chanting FPJ"
10. Various of funeral procession
11. SOUNDBITE: (Tagalog) Emelinda Diamante, Vox pop:
"It hurts."
(Question: "Why?")
"Because he is gone now and many poor people had pinned their hopes on him."
12. Various of crowd chanting "FPJ"

STORYLINE:

Tens of thousands of Filipinos poured onto the streets of Manila early on Wednesday to bid farewell to Fernando Poe Junior, the actor-turned-presidential candidate who came to symbolise the aspirations of the country's poor.

Security was tight as a horse-drawn hearse with Poe's coffin snaked its way through the capital's major thoroughfares at dawn.

Hundreds of police kept watch as crowds chanted the actor's name and waved posters and national flags.

Poe was buried later on Wednesday at Manila's North Cemetery, next to his parents and brother.

His widow, actress Susan Roces, asked mourners not to turn the funeral into a political event.

Hours earlier, former President Joseph Estrada, another actor and Poe's close friend who was ousted in massive anti-corruption rallies in 2001, addressed a packed Santo Domingo Church, where Poe's body was displayed in a glass-covered coffin.

Poe had hoped to get elected as Estrada did, by merging his movie stardom with promises of a better life for the legions of disenfranchised.

65-year-old Poe died of a stroke last week without conceding May's presidential election.

His supporters still contend they were cheated by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Two months after the election, Poe asked the Supreme Court to nullify Arroyo's victory, accusing the president of electoral fraud.

Arroyo's camp denied any wrongdoing.

A veteran of more than 200 films, one of Poe's best-remembered screen roles was in the true story of a teacher who became a rebel leader in the 1920s, when the Philippines was still a US colony.

He was a five-time winner of the Philippine version of the Oscars.

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