RIP President Corazon C. Aquino

Last Saturday, I woke up early to prepare for my class. As I sat down for breakfast, I opened the TV for the morning news. I realized, it was not an ordinary day because TV networks had suspended all their regular programming and instead aired tributes to former President Corazon C. Aquino. So I thought, Cory is dead. I commiserate with the Aquino family for the death of Asia’s first woman President. But I could not help but felt relieved for the big number of journalists and their assistants who bivouacked for more than a month in front of the Makati Medical Center waiting day and night for the inevitable. Jingle lang ang pahinga. In seconds after Senator Noynoy Aquino, Cory’s son, announced that Cory died at exactly 3:18 that morning, international wires churned out press releases that could have been readied weeks ago. Nag fill-in-the-blanks na lang para madali. Yes, in the Philippines and abroad, in mainstream media and in the internet, Cory’s death was bigger news than the Obama-Arroyo meeting.

The whole day, TV and radio networks ran special programs in Cory’s honor. All carried the theme ‘Thank You, Cory’ as denizens of the TV and radio industries believed that they may not be where they are now without Cory. As everybody who knew their history by now, Cory was instrumental in toppling the Marcos dictatorship and in restoring democracy in the country.

On TV, a special death prayer production involving a number of celebrities was repeatedly shown. The smooth well prepared production couldn’t have been done that same day as even doing the make-up of celebrities could have taken hours. Obviously the prayer for the dead Cory was done when Cory was still very much alive. But then, Cory was diagnosed with terminal cancer a year ago, right?.

Such was the influence of Cory Aquino in the lives of many. Love her or hate her. But nobody could question the sincerity and purity of her intentions for the Filipino people. People lined up the streets to pay their last respect for the wife whose husband said the Filipino is worth dying for; and for the woman who assumed the maxim that the Filipino is worth living for as she lived her life as a model of how an upright citizen must be. She just wished to be a shadowy support behind the larger than life person of her husband whose funeral drew the biggest crowd in recent history. Now, her sacrifices, failures, and triumphs made her a bigger person as only her funeral could draw a bigger crowd than her husband’s.

A friend from Manila texted me, ‘2day, 1st time n yirs I shed tears. Dyahe. But Cory is dead.’ I saw Teddy Boy Locsin crying and sobbing openly and unabashedly when interviewed on TV. Humahagulhol talaga. So what harm could tears shed in private do?

‘K lg,’ I texted back, adding that I hoped I was in Manila as it seemed it was 1986 again.

1986 was the EDSA people power uprising, the time Marcos fled to Hawaii and the subsequent dismantling of his dictatorship. It was the culmination of a long and dangerous struggle which I joined as a frontliner and organizer.

The first time I saw Tita Cory upclose was somewhere along the highway in Tarlac. I joined ATOM (August Twenty One Movement) in the Tarlac to Tarmac March, when we marched on foot from the Aquino ancestral house in Tarlac where Ninoy Aquino was born, to the then Manila Intenational Airport where Ninoy died. (I was there to join friends who wanted to see the house of Ninoy Aquino, a 2-storey American style structure which occupied a whole block in the municipality. The house was old and I was awed by the presence of bathtubs in all the bathrooms. For a person like me who grew up with a bathroom called batalan, I thought that the Aquinos were swimming in money.) We met Cory’s car along the way. Her car stopped. She alighted and shook our hands. She was a humble and elegant lady.

The second time I saw her was when she was already a President. I was riding a bus along EDSA. Somewhere, near the Buendia intersection, the bus stopped for the red light. A car also stopped beside the bus. Actually I noticed only the car when some of my fellow passengers stood up and waved to the passenger of the car. When I peeked, I recognized the passenger as Cory, at that time the incumbent President. She waved back at us. I didn’t remember if there were bodyguards and escorts in separate vehicles. What I remembered was that for days after the encounter, I was overwhelmed by the sight of a sitting President stopping for the red light.

On Sunday, the tributes continued with almost all the TV hosts and guests wearing black, white, or yellow, Cory’s signature color. On cable TV, many channels displayed a yellow ribbon at the corner of the screen. Thousands braved the heat and the heavy rains to get a glimpse of Cory in the La Salle gym in Greenhills. And thousands more who could not leave their homes cried a river when Kris Aquino narrated on TV her last days with Cory and how the Arroyo administration withdrew Cory’s security detail, a privilege accorded by law to former Presidents, when Cory was dying in the hospital. Kris said she was really hurt and they rejected the government’s offer for a state funeral for Cory because of that incident. ‘Ang taong bayan ang magbibigay honor sa Mommy ko’, she said.

After that Kris episode which was replayed every few hours, more people lined up in EDSA, Ayala, and all the way to the Manila Cathedral where Cory’s body was transferred on Monday. People lined up to pay tribute to the woman in yellow, shed some tears, throw confetti, relive the days of Cory-led rallies, and curse the Arroyo regime for hurting Kris Aquino. I was privy to how people hated Kris. They would say she is maarte kasi, at malandi. My nieces loathe her. And the maids backstab her. But when Kris was on TV, you could never disturb them. And they commented harshly on her manner of talking at malandi, her hair at malandi, her clothes at malandi. But ask around kung ilang sinaing ang nasunog, ilang ulam ang nakaligtaan at nakain ng pusa, ilang bata ang hindi napaliguan at nangamoy buong araw dahil ang mga katulong ay nakatunganga sa TV para manood sa kanilang kinaiinisang Kris. Ask kung ilang meryenda ang kinalimutan, ilang pampamalengke ang kinupitan, ilang kilometro ang nilakad para makatipid sa pamasahe, ilang dates ang inindiyan – all these para lang makabili ng magazine na ang cover ay si Kris. At ngayon, sila ay nagkakandahirap sa tabi ng daan para damayan ang kanilang kinamumuhiang si Kris. TV networks suspended all regular programs to cover the five-hours march, while the government channel played and replayed the State of the Nation Address of Gloria Arroyo.

Meanwhile, thousands still lined up the streets around the Manila Cathedral to pay homage to the icon of democracy and Time’s Woman of the Year in 1986. The Senate will pass the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension Bill in honor of Cory. A law to declare a Cory Day is being readied. Congress suspended sessions so that congressmen can attend Cory’s wake. Politicians eyeing the May 2010 elections looked for photo opportunities. Manny Pacquiao, Arroyo’s unofficial mascot, talked about Cory, which he never did before and after he became a pambansang kamao. Coup plotters during Aquino’s time wept, said sorry, and gave a snappy salute to Cory on TV. And yes, they are running for elective posts next May. The tributes were nakakataba ng puso, others sounded absurd, like making Cory a saint. Well, on second thought, why not? And Imelda Marcos was jubilant. No, she did not win another PCGG case. She was just told that the Aquino family would welcome them in the wake because the Aquinos thought the Marcoses were sincere in their prayers for Cory. Kris however did not answer for what seemed like an eternity when asked on TV whether Gloria Arroyo is welcome in the wake. Meantime Gloria Arroyo through a Malacanang press conference, Remonde in New York, the PNP, the AFP, etc. explained that there was no actual pulling out of security escorts from Aquino, blah, blah, blah. But the internet and the media gave Kris’ non-answer more prominence than Arroyo’s multi answers.

Lastly, it was indeed inevitable to compare the two women Presidents’ leadership styles, achievements, legacies, and even the people's reactions to their deaths.

In her death, Cory Aquino summoned a long queue of citizens to pay her homage. With her unreachable arrogance and issues of unbridled corruption, Arroyo’s death will summon not one but two long queues – one to pass by her coffin to smirk; the other to pass by the comfort rooms to spit.@