Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Reflected thoughts about life and death, and in between
1. I still remember in 1991 when Cory visited Cabiao Nueva Ecija. Natapilok sya, (she sprained her leg, as she walked at the rice field coming out from the helicopter) but still she did what she has to do, to meet with the farmers.
2. There will only be one Cory Aquino.
3. Dear Betty, thanks a lot. Cory is etched in our history. May our people and the people of Nigeria forge a strong bond of friendship. Betty Akeredolu is a friend who is battling against cancer. She is a cancer survivor. In 1986 she was studying at Iloilo. She named her daugher "Corazone" and is taking up law. They live at Abadan, Nigeria.
4. Death that brings dread in each one has a totalizing effect. Sorrow and grief is a natural outcome of this event that each one has to grapple with.
5. Cory Aquino may have not said it but it seems her BFF (Best Friends Forever) is the Filipino people.
6. We all wished that when Cory was praying, we hope we were there with her. But because of death, now, when we pray for Cory and asking to be with us, without fail, she will be praying beside and with us.
7. The lesson that Ninoy gave us is "The Filipino is worth dying for". I think as a testament of Cory's life, she was saying "The Filipino is worth living for."
8. Kris Aquno's tears at the necrological service are tears that we will understand because all of us suffered a loss. First it was Ninoy, now it is Cory.
9. I have said that death is totalizing. The Marcoses' paying their last respect to Cory who overthrew their father. This may be bizarre but this is what death can make, we should be prepared for surprises.
10. Politics is basically doing good. The premise is that people are basically good and good deeds can be done. If it can't be done, perhaps we got the idea of politics completely wrong.
11. A sprain is limiting my movement now. I hope not my spirit. My sprain recurred. I encountered an accidental trip on a rainy 16 July. The sprain left after 2 days but it returned back tonight. I am now in total wonderment. The pain is creeping when I move. I am experiencing it, observing, listening to the pain.
12. A new song of Manoling V. Francisco SJ entitled Your Heart Today run a line, "Yet there are hearts I still can't move". This can be addressed to people in the social movement for change. We have to accept that there are people that we will find difficult, like stones.Sunday, August 2, 2009
Reflected thoughts about life and death, and in between
These thoughts were written last 1 August 2009. Our beloved former President faced death for what it is. It started with a thought on number one and trains of thoughts came in. I wish to share these thoughts in this public sphere.
This was first written at Facebook and I witnessed a surprising responses from friends.
1. Journey well Cory and hug for us Ninoy.
2. Let us be given new eyes to see death for what is does to us and to our love ones. Rather end but a beginning. Rather fear but courage. Rather despair but new hope. Rather separation but solidarity.
3. Let us see death not in weakness but a growing strength. Let not grief bury us in the selfish self, in the burden of the past, the toxic bitterness. Let death put in our lips "It does not matter" and let my arms hug life for what it is.
4. Let death humble our self-centeredness. For only in life that we can understand death. For only in death that we understand what it is to live. And what is it to you when we are confronted with a fellow clothed in poverty?
5. Our parents, our loved ones will not be there forever because life and death are our ultimate destiny. Let you and I create a home where everything and nothing exist.
6. We can only understand life if we live it. We can understand death by understanding the life of the one who passed-by by using the eyes where love dwells.
7. We are responsible for what we can attain, what we can achieve and what we are given by life. And, help from others, freely given, will always be a comfort thought.
8. Have we understood our loved one, when our loved one is inhabited by a perpetual regime of need, when these need has the power of a tsunami? And this tsunami can be deadly. Remember, we all have our own tsunami in life.
9. Let us be given new eyes. Accept that life is short and uncertain.
10. As much as success is achieved, failure is.
11. Our understanding of life is limited to our understanding of death. For if we see the nakedness of death, we will see the clothing of life.
12. In life, the ultimate liberation is ushered by death. Death is total, it frees us from an earthly existence whom we are stricken miraculously. Thus, life and death is only one.
13. Since life and death are only one, its core message is "Do not be afraid".
14. As much as a birth touches us, we are all touched by death. But what happens in-between is up to us, to our choices, finally.
15. Our own mournings are simply trappings of a distant understanding and joy that is to come.
16. Perhaps Cory and Ninoy have now embraced each other, that we can only surmise or may not be sure of. But what we have now is the presence of our loved ones, whom we are able to hold hands, kiss and embrace. This is what we call the "Present".
17. In our green gate, I placed a Philippine Flag and two yellow ribbons. The monsoon winds blows the ribbon and the flag. May we learn courage as a nation to do good to each other.
18. It is appropriate that Cory should have a State funeral. Her death extricated her from Noynoy, Balsy, Viel and Kris. Cory, now, belongs to all of us.
19. Cory is likened to an un-fenced tree. A fruit bearing tree that anyone can take the fruits for free, for the tree does not discriminate identities.
20. For ten days we will be in mourning. We will be a nation in sorrow and grief. It is not just Cory's life that we are to reflect on but also we are going to reflect on our collective life as a nation. Whatever door that will open to us will be a choice we are going to make.
21. My daughter came in bringing a book "Cory, An Intimate Portrait" edited by Margie Penson-Juico. She also bought all the broadsheet paper dedicated to Cory. I took pictures of them for posterity.
22. Organizations, self-improvement books always called for us to be perfect. But we are not born with this jewel called perfection. We have our own flaws. Rather look into perfection why not just do something good to the next person who is in need.
23. There are friends who you ask to respond to you. But after a thousand years of waiting still they have not responded. What are you going to do? The late Karen Carpenter said in a song "they are friends who are hard to find."
Friday, July 31, 2009
Cory Aquino 76, 1933-2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
Cory and a bit of history by Tony Abaya
Two Women: Cory
By Antonio C. Abaya
Written on July 08, 2009
For the Standard Today,
July 09 issue
One is apparently at the end of her biological life and has philosophically accepted it. She has in fact expressed the wish to be reunited soon with her martyred husband.
The other is almost certainly near the end of her political life, but she stubbornly refuses to accept it. She is in fact scheming to prolong it, by fair means or foul, because she believes that there is no life after Malacanang. Or, if there is, it could be in foreign exile or, worse, in statutory domestic exile in Muntinlupa.
I first came face to face with Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino in late June 1985. My father had died on June 26. A few days later, Cory – a dear friend of my sister Gigi – came to the wake at the Immaculate Conception Church on Lantana Street in Cubao, to pay her respects.
Taking advantage of the encounter, I walked over to her pew, teasingly knelt in front of her and jestingly asked her “to please run for president.” At that time, the draft-Cory movement was still in its infancy. Her response, just as jesting, was a smiling rebuke: “You’re not my friend!”
But, of course, she did accept the draft in late 1985 and she did run for president in the snap elections of February 1986. And the rest, as they say, is history.
However, the results were not so clear cut. Despite the dramatic walk-out of its own computer programmers over alleged orders to fudge the numbers, the Comelec declared Ferdinand Marcos and Arturo Tolentino the official winners of the snap elections.
The slower, though more credible, tally of the citizens’ watchdog organization, the Namfrel, showed Cory winning by a slim majority over Marcos. But as the days dragged on, that slim margin became slimmer and slimmer.
With only 72 percent of the precincts accounted for, Namfrel abruptly terminated its tally, even as more results trickled in from the rural areas, traditionally the reliable bulwark of any administration.
Theoretically at least, with 28 percent of the (mainly) rural precincts still unheard from, even in the Namfrel count, it was possible that Marcos could have caught up with Cory and the tally could have ended in a statistical near-draw.
But all this became academic when Cory called her followers – mainly from the urban middle classes – to a mammoth rally in the Luneta, drawing an estimated two million supporters, and, supposedly on the recommendation of an American political adviser, unilaterally declared herself the winner.
Her self-declared victory found resonance among the urban middle classes, who were fed up with the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda, no matter what the actual vote counts may have been.
The subsequent military mutiny led by Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Constabulary Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, drew sustenance from the prevalent anti-Marcos sentiment, and was actually saved from being crushed by Marcos loyalists, by the timely intervention of People Power multitudes rallied by Jaime Cardinal Sin .
The urban middle classes, some of whom shake in their designer boots whenever the R word is mentioned, should be reminded that Cory Aquino was elevated to the presidency, not by the results of the snap elections, but by a revolutionary turn of events.
That nothing revolutionary transpired during the Cory years was not the fault of Cory Aquino, It was more the fault of her political advisers, famously numbering 50, who should have known better but gave her poor advice. Such as mixing pro-Communists and anti-Communists in her Cabinet.
The pro-Communists were able to convince her to release Communist supremo Joma Sison from detention, which angered the anti-Communist military and led to several military putsches against her.
The ingrate Joma Sison, instead of being thankful to her for his freedom, went on self-exile to the Netherlands and waged a campaign to bad-mouth Cory Aquino before Europe’s generally leftist media, thus destroying her chances of winning the Nobel Peace Prize, for which she had been nominated in 1988.
The moral of the story is: the next time we have a revolution, it should be ideologically homogenous and not try to please all stripes of political opinion because, if it does, it would just wind up displeasing everyone. This is so commonsensical, it is a wonder no one thought of it in 1986-88.
The historical role of Cory Aquino was to dismantle the Marcos dictatorship. In this she was eminently successful, and the nation owes her a debt of gratitude for it. To her credit, Cory never thought that she deserved another term and never lifted a finger to seek it. No wonder she radiates an inner peace and the joy of contentment. ***** (To be concluded)