Five days of "Cory 101"

I was about to post some nice (and happy)-looking photos in Facebook the morning of Saturday when greeted by the very sad news about President Cory's passing. I admit I still had to let it sink in for a while - Cory is gone. Though the worst had been expected since terrible news began leaking out from her latest hospitalization, one cannot really prepare completely for such a moment. I had to postpone the posting of the photos.

If you are wondering where the profound grief is coming from, then I conclude that either (1) you were not around in the 1980s, (2) you were but were simply a disinterested person (3) you have not been reading your history, or (4) you have been locking yourself up inside your media-less room the last five days, or in times you were out, have been walking with ears plugged and head stooped, your eyes oblivious to the yellowed environs. The last five days saw the most comprehensive (and free) lecture series about President Cory (and the ideals she stood for) and you just missed it.

I remember exactly a week ago when a neighbor approached and asked while we (my family) were wheeling into our garage, what's with the yellow ribbons (tied to your gate and car)? We greeted him with a smile while my wife responded, it's for Cory. We did not seriously put malice on (the innocence of) his query. I just thought then, it won't be long, you will know why.

I myself would want to know more, why.

I am not a super avid fan of Cory Aquino for me to be a good source of discourse that can fully qualify the anguish of her passing and justify the adoration and honor bestowed on her. Well, I know her to be the first sitting president I saw in person. I will never forget the image of her visiting the wake of another equally consummate freedom-fighter Lean Alejandro whom I also adore but who was murdered in 1987. That image conveyed to me a lot about the sincerity of the once "grieving widow" who was now the leader of the country.

That must be the closest window I have had to knowing Cory's persona. The rest I happened to know only as it had been demonstrated in the way she courageously took up the challenge to lead the campaign against Marcos in 1985-86 and in her precarious but unwavering 6-year leadership of a country which was trying to recover from the ravages of dictatorship while continuously being besieged by extremists.

I have to admit too that I was among those who ended their romance with Cory's administration early: The unsolved double-murder of labor leader Ka Lando Olalia and Leonor Alay-ay right in the first year of Cory's reign; the massacre of farmers at Mendiola in January 1987 and its associated issue of the watered-down agrarian reform program; the retention of the American military bases; Lean's murder and the seeming baby treatment of military right-wingers. I was far less liberal; the disillusionment was overwhelming. [But I did advocate a critical YES to the 1987 Constitution; if only to show I was still hoping against hope].

Yet I was among the "early grievers" who began feeling the pain of the prospect of losing a leader whose virtues we sorely miss in these dire times, when news about her ailment came out. Yet I am among those deeply saddened by her eventual demise.

I was sure there were more things about Cory that I only knew of subconsciously which somehow made me mourn affectingly her loss. And I can only thank those who helped me confirm these through their personal testimonies given throughout the last five days - from the day she died; through her wake at La Salle and the Manila Cathedral; until her interment just a few moments ago - and broadcasted via the different media.

Yes, Cory's selflessness, her unwavering faith and purity of heart [Arevalo, 2009]. Virtues that served as the very foundation of her legacy of freedom and democracy to us Filipinos; a legacy now constantly being threatened by the continuing degradation of the very same virtues that founded it.

I can only thank Cory's family, colleagues, friends (and even foes) for sharing to us who really Cory was. The last five days was a much needed refresher, an enlightenment most wanted. I am sure our neighbor knows a lot better now. The people know a lot better now.


Good reads:

"We give her back to You, with grateful but breaking hearts" by Catalino Arevalo, SJ [video version here]

Cory Aquino and our Magical Democracy by Sheila Coronel

The Cory I Know by Paulynn P. Sicam

Presidentita vs the Brat Pack by Malou Mangahas

Who President Cory was to this martial-law baby by Veronica Uy

One Good Person by Conrado de Quiros

Our better selves - EMOTIONAL WEATHER REPORT by Jessica Zafra

Teddy Locsin's Eulogy for President Cory Aquino

The Day They Buried Cory Aquino by Virginia M. Moncrieff

Beyond Aquino's contradictory legacies by Herbert Docena

Celebrate what Cory truly represents by Emmanuel M. Hizon

You can't talk peace and have a gun

Ladies and gentlemen, once again I give you... Francis M.

video remix by icespaceonline

So many faces, so many races
Different voices, different choices
Some are mad, while others laugh
Some live alone with no better half
Others grieve while others curse
And others mourn behind a big black hearse
Some are pure and some half-bred
Some are sober and some are wasted
Some are rich because of fate and
Some are poor with no food on their plate
Some stand out while others blend
Some are fat and stout while some are thin
Some are friends and some are foes
Some have some while some have most

Every color and every hue
Is represented by me and you
Take a slide in the slope
Take a look in the kaleidoscope
Spinnin’ round, make it twirl
In this kaleidoscope world

Some are great and some are few
Others lie while some tell the truth
Some say poems and some do sing
Others sing through their guitar strings
Some know it all while some act dumb
Let the bassline strum to the bang of the drum
Some can swim while some will sink
And some will find their minds and think
Others walk while others run
You can’t talk peace and have a gun
Some are hurt and start to cry
Don’t ask me how don’t ask me why
Some are friends and some are foes
Some have some while some have most

Kaleidoscope world
In this kaleidoscope world

I am a fan.

Primitive primates

Tiny, long lost primate rediscovered in Indonesia, read the title of a news article published in Yahoo! News the other day. The news item, written by Will Durham and reported by Reuters, was bannered by a colored photo of what looked like a tarsier, a species of animal known to many Filipinos as the smallest monkey in the world. Indeed the news' subject was about a tarsier found by scientists in the island of Sulawesi that was purportedly last seen alive 80 years ago.

The article was instantly met by a barrage of negative comments from readers - mostly Filipinos - who complained of the seeming inaccuracy of the news. Filipinos, including I, are very familiar with the tarsier. We are taught about it in school and the animal is a regular fare in Philippine tourism. So, wonder of wonders why the tarsier would be rediscovered in Indonesia; when almost all tourists of Bohol (Filipinos and all) have had pictures of them with the primate clinging to their heads and shoulders?

The first few hundreds of comments to the news item did not only raise the same question but downright lambasted its author, Reuters, and even Yahoo for coming out with a story that's a big lie; the scientists themselves who were featured in the same article as the "rediscoverers" of the tarsier were branded as incompetent and ignorant. The Philippines was insulted big time, they said. The country of Indonesia was even criticized for allegedly orchestrating everything -- fabricating a sensational story with the ultimate aim of promoting its own tourism.

Wow.

Then came the comments that began pointing out the errant judgment of many readers. The news after all was not referring to the same tarsier species as that found in the Philippines! Both monkeys' physical features may have looked the same but the article was in fact referring to the one called the pygmy tarsier. The pygmy tarsier is Tarsius pumilus while the Philippine tarsier is Tarsius syrichta; and there are about 6 other known species of the tarsier.

I could almost hear most of the article's critics simultaneously blurting very eye-opening uh-oh's. Well, I cannot blame them. Filipinos, who were the most vocal in raising a howl over the article, they are very nationalistic; sometimes to a fault and sometimes at the wrong time. They know many things about their country; and so at the slightest sign of misinformation they take it as a challenge to their own intelligence and dignity as Filipinos. I myself found the article inadequately written. Just about the only reference to the fact that there were other tarsiers in other places and that the news was not about them was this line: "The handful of tarsier species live on various Asian islands." An article of the same subject as reported by FOXNews.com was more informative.

But then again, have we all not been reminded time and again to be more discerning about everything that we see, read and hear in the internet?

The Philippine Tarsier
[photo by: Ingrid Park]