President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced that she would shorten her visit to the United States to attend Mrs. Aquino’s funeral on Wednesday. Mrs. Arroyo had decreed that Wednesday would be a nonworking holiday and had declared a 10-day period of mourning.

Image Filipinos paid their last respects to Mrs. Aquino at the De La Salle school gym in the Manila suburb of Mandaluyong on Sunday. Credit... Pool photo by Dennis M. Sabangan

In a statement on Saturday, Mrs. Arroyo paid tribute to Mrs. Aquino  who in recent years had taken a role in street demonstrations against Mrs. Arroyo  calling her a “national treasure” who had “helped lead our nation to a brighter day.”

At La Salle Green Hills, the Catholic school in Manila where Mrs. Aquino’s body had been brought for public viewing, mourners stood in a line stretching more than a half-mile since Saturday evening in heavy rain. On Sunday, the line grew longer, with mourners wearing yellow shirts, caps, buttons and ribbons.

Image People wore yellow shirts and held up the "Laban," or fight symbol, for Mrs. Aquino at her wake. Credit... Romeo Ranoco/Reuters

A soft-spoken homemaker who became a global icon of democracy, Mrs. Aquino was regarded in the Philippines with an affection that bordered on spiritual. Her preference for the company of nuns and priests, and the familiar presence of a rosary in her hand  and in her coffin on Sunday  only deepened her appeal in this deeply Roman Catholic country.