I remember yellow. It wasn’t the light of fear. It wasn’t a warning to beware our fears made into light. I was seven years and two days old when EDSA happened. We didn’t know better then, well I certainly can’t claim to, but my cousins and I, we had yellow shirts, and formed “L” with our hands. It was play even as we chanted her name. The significance of that Sea of Yellow, would later be understood. At the heart of that Sea, propelled a new dawn for the Philippines. It was a Sunrise amidst a Monsoon of challenges that would last six years, and the Filipino survived it because this Sunrise was Powered by the Will and Faith of a remarkable woman, a widow, a housewife, simply called, “Cory”.
Time.com has “People Power’s Philippine Saint: Corazon Aquino, 1933-2009“, and it would be great to reread “Woman of the Year,” first published in 1987 and watch her inaugural. If you’re up to it, watch Mrs. Aquino as she addressed the United States Congress in joint session and the enthusiastic applause of the Congress.
And now an era that she inaugurated for the Filipino is over. If Cory was the sunrise, surely with her passing, a darkness blankets this nation as we collectively grieve. Her six years was filled by monsoon that hardly let up. When her term was up, it ushered the brighter day of the Ramos years and only because of her sacrifices and choices. If Estrada’s reign was afternoon and now, Gloria’s night, perhaps it is fitting we do remember Cory now for what she gave us: a beginning.
The words, “a grateful nation thanks you for your service,” seem hollow when applied to Corazon Aquino. The Filipino owes Cory Aquino a debt that can never be repaid, only rejuvenated as we carry on, as we soldier on, building our nation.
The Sunrise Cory heralded, it touched millions and generations to come. The flood of prayers and thanksgiving from a nation of Catholics seem apt to send such a devote Catholic on the next journey. On a personal note, I did not know her beyond books and television and news but I am a Filipino and share the debt we owe this remarkable woman. I join my countrymen: “Paalam at Salamat, Tita Cory; Goodbye, Thank you, Cory.”
* * * image is owned by the US Government and is in the public domain.
This post first appeared on my tumblr log.
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Excellent eulogy Cocoy, thanks for this.
The best way to repay any “debt” to any “hero” is to make SOMETHING out of any “sacrifice” he or she delivered.
I’d rather see results over the next 10 – 20 years than yellow ribbons tied to trees over the next 5-10 days.
That was all done back in 1983 for Ninoy. Now we do it for Cory. Nice. But then “nice” doesn’t have a track record of winning wars or delivering results.
Rest in peace, Corazon Aquino.
Cory opened the door after the Marcos dictatorship.
The Philippines has yet to fully pass through that door.
End of an era.
RIP, Cory.
TRUTH COMMISSION.
Is it maybe the case that the Philippines is unable to move forward because of unresolved questions? Cory did stabilize the country in her years in Malacanang by focusing more unity, as opposed to truth.
Would this then be a good time for a TRUTH COMMISSION? Or is it too late na?
OK, maybe I feel something for Cory. I’m staying in today and I told my neighbor, who was having a little party, to turn down the volume. I almost got into a fight. Just though you should know.
Pres. Cory Aquino saw the wrong in our country. And she was
determined to right it. The Machos were afraid. So a weak and
ordinary woman did the job. It was like King David of israel.
All the soldiers of Israel were afraid to fight the Giant Goliath
of Philistine. So, the lowly shepherd boy; David, volunteered to
fight. Did the job. And the rest was History.
Farewell Tita Cory. my real superhero. I called her robin because she and cardinal sin(batman) works in tandem to led us in our fight against some evil like joker(marcos)in 86, against asiong(erap)in 2001 but when batman died she was left alone to led the fight against ratwoman(gma)but failed. She was our icon when she was still among us, maybe her death may galvinize and unite us again this time to finished whatwhat her husband ninoy died for that we all are worth dying for.
What debt must every Filipino owe to her that she did not owe from the many thousands of Filipino folks reaching about 2 million who cordoned Camp Crame at EDSA in 1986 to galvanize what was later called the People Power Revolution that propelled her to the presidency – a presidency served on a silver platter?
Everything about the restoration of democracy has its handiwork within the military establishment itself by officers produced by the Philippine Military Academy who have found themselves in the corridors of power and have the access and wherewithal to change the whole social configuration by ‘force of arms’ except it failed. It was an aborted coup against Marcos but nipped in the bud by an institution that ‘democratized’ a right sense of loyalty against a wrong one.
Enrile, Ramos and Honasan and his mistahs in the PMA are supposed to have been in the ‘wrong side of history’ using more contemporary criteria. But it really was a case of ‘how to survive’ while they (Enrile, Honasan and cohorts) are deemed at large except they sought ‘asylum’ in both the General Headquarters of Camp Aguinaldo and General Headquarters of Camp Crame as a matter of tactical move.
History can only be objective.