Those of us who cannot join the novena masses and prayer chains offered for the intention of President Aquino’s recovery cannot help noticing that among the most frequent attendees is, surprise, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.

On his own, in de rigueur Cory yellow, the mayor offered a mass in City Hall and one day later was spotted at one of the Rockwell masses.

Maybe he is not a 100 percent religious person, but the mayor, in conversations with friends and admirers of Cory, reveals how special a place he keeps in his heart for the former President. (Remember the teasings the widow and the widower were subjected to at one time?)

In the foreword to the biography of Alfredo “Edo” Lim by Nick Joaquin, Mrs. Aquino singles out the ex-policeman as one of the heroes that she walked with “during the darkest days of our present history.” He had never met Cory until after EDSA I, but in Joaquin’s account of the events of Feb. 22-25, 1986, a time line is drawn to show how the course of history was changed from within – from inside the ranks of the Northern Police District, which Lim headed.

Lim was under orders from President Marcos and his generals to “disperse the crowd” at EDSA, but he kept stalling. He was “on patrol,” everywhere but where his superiors needed him. He could not order a sweep because EDSA had become a “Great Wall of People Power,” whereas he had only 126 men, and they were dead tired.

Lim chuckles at the memory of Butz Aquino announcing, “No dispersal! I have talked to Gen. Lim,” which was only half-true; and at Gen. Fidel Ramos declaring that “Gen. Lim is on our side,” which had yet to become fact.

Lim’s “inside job,” according to the book, “is the untold story of EDSA.”