Cory Aquino, our former president, is in critical condition at the Makati Medical Center two weeks or so after undergoing surgery for colon cancer.
As news broke of her being brought to hospital, the story also said a 9-day novena for her recovery was being mounted.
It’s difficult to say this, but I know this meant Tita Cory, as everyone calls her, may be near death.
So it is in hopeful prayer and a creeping sense of grief that I write this prayer-tribute.
Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, now 76, is fighting her final gallant battle but if she does not overcome this, it will not be her loss but ours.
I remember clearly how not a few scoffed and raised their brows when Cory Aquino accepted the challenge of running against embattled dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcs thought mightily that his monolithic Kilusang Bagong Lipunan would handily beat the housewife, the widow of his assassinated arch enemy Ninoy Aquino.
So Cory did fight her Quixotic battle and Marcos, in the only way he knew how, attempted and failed to steal the vote.
The wholesale fraud was exposed with the COMELEC’s own tabulators walking out.
People Power ended Marcos’s reign as Filipinos backed the revolt which began with Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel Ramos withdrawing their support for the discredited regime.
The rest is history as Cory Aquino used the powers of her revolutionary government to rebuild the democratic institutions Marcos had ravaged.
Cory Aquino could have gone into quiet, disinterested retirement after that ‘transition’ presidency.
Instead she emerged as stateswoman and the moral barometer of many Fiilipinos, taking to the streets again as her own eleted successor Fidel Ramos tried to bring untimely charter change.
Cory was also there when Joseph Estrada dropped the ball and got embroiled in high stakes corruption leading to Edsa Dos.
And even as cancer struck her, Mrs. Aquino denounced the creeping misrule of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Her own presidency was not a perfect one.
It was hobbled by several coup attempts by Gringo Honasan and other adventurist soldiers, bedeviled still by the communist and Moro secessionist insurgencies, and intrigued by complaints about Kamag-anak, Inc. (relatives, and friends who were supposedly favored by her), and the unkind tales about friendly mag-jong sessions in Malacanang.
But in all these, Cory’s own personal integrity never came into question.
As Tita Cory now lies on her deathbed, let our prayers storm the gates of Heaven to ease her pain and lighten her final journey.
Salamat Tita Cory, salamat.
Popularity: 2% [?]
A lot of icons are going this year… Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, that leader during Marcos era mentioned in this site… if Cory goes it really seems to be signifying – it’s the end of an era. Out with the old and in with the new.
I wonder if the new era is really going to bring in something new that’s good.
It will.
Joe
Chino, correct me if I’m wrong, but think you belong to the ‘new’ generation.
That you have a sense of the need for “something new that’s good” makes me hopeful.
As someone 30-something, you may be right. But then that’s everybody’s responsibility.
don’t worry, we’ll all be coming after them in 2012
i share with the grief of knowing that our beacon of hope for the restoration of freedom and democracy during the dark days of the Marcos era, madame President Cory Aquino, is fighting her last battle…
she stood her ground, she moved heavens on her bended knees, and she summoned her guardian angels when there are threats to the Constitution in which her Presidency helped rebuilt…
may God the Almighty extend to her His strength and comfort as she fights her last battle…
Tita Cory, maraming salamat sa ipinakita mong kagandahang kalooban sa aming mga Pilipinong nagmamahal sa ating Bayan…mabuhay po kayo!
It is important, I think, that we draw lessons from her grace, her courage, and commitment to the rule of law – qualities lack or in deficit in many areas of Philippine society, among our leaders and in ourselves.
Ding:
If there was someone who had the grace and commitment, it is Doy Laurel – always a bridesmaid never the bride.
Doy was the standard bearer on the run-up to the snap elections. However, he had to give way to Cory by popular demand – not to mention that Cardinal Sin had bishops call on Doy Laurel at 4am in the morning to give way to Cory. The poor guy was harassed and stalked to give way to Cory.
Doy Laurel and the UNIDO machinery could have gone ahead without Cory, but he stepped aside for the greater good. Cory owes Doy.
bongv, in addition, i think there would have been no cory had there not been a ninoy who wanted to be president even in the face of imminent threat to his life. a drowning nation had to cling to straws for dear life.
bencard, that, too.
moreover, Cory’s entry into the presidency would not have been possible without the coalition of UNIDO/PDP-LABAN and NAJFD/BAYAN.
these organizations were already operating in the field, organizing the communities, raising political awareness.
As far as, I am concerned, Cory was just the figurine on a wedding cake – all the hard work was already done by nameless faces, many of them felled down by bullets of AFP thugs.
If anything else, Cory should thank the people who sacrificed their time, money, and blood – not the other way around.
maybe that is one reason why even cory’s active involvement in the oust-gloria “movements” could generate no more than a few thousand marchers at edsa.
the left had the manpower, the logistics, and the machinery on the run up to EDSA 1986.
After Cory, the oligarchs were back with a vengeance – Peping Cojuangco and his horses hit the headlines; the PCGG working to recover Marcos loot NOT for the Filipinos but for the PCGG commissioners and the highers up.
Cory had her role in bringing her Marcos down…
and.. bringing the oligarchs back into power –
which takes us back to Square 1
Live or die, I think it is apt: “Salamat Tita Cory, salamat.”
Salamat, coy.
Sana lang di masayang ang mga ipinaglingkod ni Tita Cory.
@ Bong,
Your recollection is both accurate, and thought provoking.
What kind of a President would Doy have been?
Ding:
I would speculate that Doy wold have made a better president than Cory.
However, he wasn’t in the good graces of the Caliban, so there.
Doy would have MADE THE BEST PRIME MINISTER OF THE PHILIPPINES yet if only Mrs Aquino listened to his advice.
Then we would have continued on to a workable parliament and thus a stable democracy.
True. Sad that the Cory admin ignored Laurel. The country lost a lot.
she’s not dead yet.
right. the tenor of this blogpost and some of the ensuing commentaries are kind of premature. pinoys getting ahead of themselves again? ding, trying to beat everybody to the punch? just kidding.
Even if you claim to be “kidding”, for you to make light of this situation should have been beneath you.
But hey, you’re just being YOU.
My point is clear:
“…it is in hopeful prayer and a creeping sense of grief that I write this prayer-tribute.”
oh no, ding. i’m not making light of the situation. i said i was only kidding when i asked (tongue-in-cheek) if you were trying to be the first to pay tribute to the ailing former president (in reaction to gabbyd’s point that she’s still with us).
medyo maaga lang ding. we should remember her achievements like this when she’s passed na, di ba?
you can’t/shouldn’t grieve, when she’s not dead, or clearly dying, yet. diba?
Binasa mo ba?
binasa ko. you said you were grieving… “So it is in hopeful prayer and a creeping sense of grief that I write this prayer-tribute.”
you can’t grieve unless patay na, or hindi na puwedeng mabuhay, di ba?
If you read the post you note I am not saying goodbye.
I’m saying thank you.
If she were dead I would have written a eulogy.
My mother had breast cancer and took a turn for the worse. 2001. I hopped on the first plane from California to Colorado, and was one-half hour from the hospital when she died.
I never got to tell her “thank you”. Her last words, according to my sisters were, “Okay, I’m ready now.”
It is always hard, the loss of someone dear, maybe not even family, but who is such an integral part of our life that they feel like family. Even the formal Bencard refers to her as “Cory”, a sign of intimacy with this profoundly good woman. How nice if we were given the foresight to know the future. How nice to say “thank you” before they say “okay, I’m ready”.
I hope Ms. Aquino pulls the miraculous.
If not, I’m touched that Ding expressed his heartfelt thank you while she could still hear. He chose not to miss the opportunity that others would, out of a personal sense of decorum, let pass.
Joe
Cory Aquino belongs now to Philippine History. A housewife who
continued the fight of her husband. She was then elected President.
No matter what position you have in life. You can make a difference
for your country. You may be an ordinary working Filipino, an OFW,
a Filipino immigrant of a foreign country. You can do something, if
you try. And not be just a fence sitter.
I have my apprehensions – it just feels like we left the frying pan for the fire.
What you think is what you will be. Think positive. The fight is
still there.
Thinking positive while in the fire – ok thinking positive to become grilled chicken :lol:
don’t sit on the fence.
don’t be on each side of the fence
mr gorbachev tear the fence down :D
You know Ding, I gotta give you credit for trying to send across “nice” messages.
For some reason lang nga, sablay palagi ang labas.
GabbyD made a really succinct but powerful point: Cory ain’t dead yet.
I think the trouble with you has to do with what someone observed a while back and expressed in this question:
Do you want to be a “reporter” or do you want to be an “activist”?
You can’t be both. And I think it is your attempts to be so that makes your pieces here so consistently sablay.
You said a while back that you will always be a journalist. And I said in response something to the effect of “Yeah, I can tell”.
Guys, Ding only wrote the tribute as a way of saying “thank you” to someone who didn’t want to run for president when she was widowed all of a sudden. And, note, she has yet to given justice for the murder of her husband.
Can’t we focus on the message instead of speculating on the writer’s intent? Is that so impossible to do?
Kung nasa Amerika tayo, Ding would’ve gotten a pat on the back because it’s American to encourage others and polite to shut up if you have nothing good to say.
Dito, pagsususpetsahan ka pa about your motive. To those who were born only yesterday, that’s the legacy of martial law because back then hindi mo alam kung sino ang kakampi mo.
Yup, Pilipinas nga ito, hindi Amerika. Alam iyan ng mga Pilipinos naglalayasan.
that can’t be true. i’ll ask for any example in a news print publication where there was an article written on a leader/personality to commemorate his achievements before he was dead but was hospitalized.
seriously. nytimes? wash post?
It’s a TRIBUTE saying “thank you.” It’s not a eulogy.
Is death only the proper occasion to pay tribute to someone for that person’s contribution to society?
Oo nga, buhay pa si Cory. We get that and we all want her to fight and survive. Nag-thank you lang si Ding. “Thank you, Ma’am, dahil sa kontribusyon ninyo.” I’d thank her myself personally if I get the chance.
Allow me to explain from a personal perspective: I nearly lost my wife to stage four breast cancer in 2004-05. Stage five is the grave. She underwent chemotherapy TWICE. She is in her third year in remission. The five-year survival rate of stage four cancer sufferers is 16 percent. That means only 16 percent will live past five years from diagnosis.
Every February-March is killer suspense time because she takes an annual PET-CT scan to see if there’s cancer activity. My mind is already about that scan as early as December. Do you know how it feels for me to dread at the thought of cancer coming back someday and killing my wife within a year or two? The emotional trauma stays with you for life.
In 2005 my wife bought a cemetery plot near our home in Antipolo. Back then I feared that she wouldn’t be around for Christmas with our children. I was nearly insane. Please, God, let it not happen again to me and my family.
Kaya each day is an occasion for thanksgiving, and we live it to the full. I thank my wife each day for being a wonderful wife and mother. Never a day passed when I didn’t “I love you”.
Para que pa ang pasasalamat ko sa kanya kung patay na siya at hindi niya ako maririnig?
I don’t expect you to understand. You will when a loved one who is so dear to you fights that fight. Cancer is something that I won’t wish on anybody.
I hope this clears your perspective.
@norman
ah, well, since this is a personal blog, baka ok pa. but if this were a newspaper, i’d doubt that something like this would happen.
naintindihan ko that cancer is an early death sentence (typically). i also agree that you want to say things while they are still alive.
at the same time, EVEN in a PERSONAL capacity, i’d like to challenge this notion, for the sake of further discussion.
if someone entered the hospital for a deadly disease, and a visitor came in to say “thank you”, the implication is that the person will die soon. right? this comes from your own logic — but nang sabihin habang buhay.
But what if its not sure that that person will die? mag-thank you pa rin? what if not in immediate danger? thank you pa rin? but the immediate danger has passed — why not just wait till later?
why wait? aren’t thankyou’s best said when its clear that you are saying it NOT ONLY because that person is dying? we should tell our wives, etc that we love them not only when we ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO, but when we don’t have to. its meaningful that way right?
GabbyD,
It seems to me, with apologies to you and Ben for having a different view, not all relationships are the same, and it is a personal decision how and what to say. To be dissecting how another person makes that decision seems to me to be unnecessary. There need be no rules as to what to say when. Someone gifted with expression would have no problem saying thank you, no matter if there is recovery or not. The bigger tragedy is missing an opportunity to have just one more moment, together.
I found Ding’s tribute sensitive. How can it be said any more kindly and honestly and artfully than as he expressed it? “with hopeful prayer and creeping sense of grief”. You want him to be dishonest? Or to not express what he is feeling? Just hide out to protect your uncomfortableness in the same situation?
He touched me, for the significance of this woman to the Philippines. Why would you take that from me? and also the poignancy it gave me, recalling my mother?
It seems to me, let Ding do it his way. It is his expression, it is honest, he is saying a good thing. You can do it your way, any time, too.
Joe
@gabby
Like I said, hindi mo maiintidihan dahil wala pang nagkaroon ng cancer sa iyong pamilya. That’s why there are support groups like I Can Serve. Only people in these groups can understand.
You will understand when cancer strikes very close to home. If it’s breast cancer and it happens to someone you care about — knock on wood — we’ll be here for support.
Anyway, I’m out of here. This is the second time that the blog conversatin has veered from the original topic discussion. Frankly, it’s a waste of my time. And I’ve been here in Filipino Voices for only two days.
It’s disappointing because some people here just can’t stick to the subject matter presented on the table. Instead the discussion would eventually stray to the trivial.
Worse, it gets personal or emotional, clouding logic, veering the discussion further away from the subject matter. Expect the reactions after I’m gone to get really vitriolic, keeping true to the Filipino character.
We Filipinos keep wondering why our country can’t move forward. It’s because we keep pulling each back. This blog’s name is apt.
If you can’t see the painful truth in what I’m saying, then you have a bigger problem because you’re not aware that you have a problem.
I’m done talking about the need to fix this country. I’ll just shut up and get to work. Have fun ripping each other, guys.
i can understand why the great DJB had left. we are busy fighting with each other where the enemies are out there…. typically pinoys in thought, in orientation and in pysche…
@norman
sorry u feel that way. i just wanted to discuss it and have a conversation about it.
@jcc
i didn’t fight with anyone. maybe norman can stay so we can all discuss some more
@joe
of course, she’s a great woman, no matter what u thought of her as a president, etc. she’s to be respected.
yes, u can recall all her achievements fondly.
ive not truck with any of that.
the issue is whether its appropriate to say things at certain times by certain people to certain people.
this is called media criticism. i think its fair to discuss it.
GabbyD,
I agree that is a worthwhile issue. But it should have its own blog. The problem is using this “tribute” as a launching pad for discussing a new issue, thereby diminishing the intent of the blog — honoring Ms. Aquino.
That is Norman Sison’s complaint. The discussion does not belong here. It is a worthwhile discussion to have.
If you want it discussed, blog it, and boy howdy, it will be discussed, I am confident.
Joe
there was over a decade, since the former president finished her term, for anyone to say “thank you”. gabbyd is right. why wait till the lady is on the throes of death before saying it – when she can barely see or hear, let alone have a full awareness of what is being said or done around her? is it intended for her family’s appreciation or the general public’s consumption?
if one is really thankful to another, when is the best time to show it? not when the latter is comatose under heavy sedation or in extreme pain that nothing else in the world matters.
how would anyone feel (assuming he/she is conscious) if someone else comes to her hospital bed and say, “this may be my last chance to say this because you’re are not going to last long, so i just want to say thank you for all the good things you’ve done”?
Hindi mo alam ang hindi mo alam.
Puntong personal na ngayon ko lang ihahayag.
Kapanabay ng pagkakaratay ni Presidente Cory, ang sarili kong biuyenang lalaki ay agaw buhay sa cancer kamakalawa.
Kahapon pumanaw na siya. Do ko siya napasalamatan.
Ngayon lugmok ako sa lungkot.
Ikaw namatayan ka na? O ang ginawa mo lang ay nagmarunong ka?
ding, it’s not my intention to antagonize you by reacting to gabbyd’s comment. i do respect and sympathize with your personal grief over the passing of your father in law to whom you did not have a chance to say “goodbye”. yes, i know the pain of bereavement. my own mother died of cancer a few years ago. a cousin in canada just died of lymphoma yesterday at age 62.
but i’m sure you know all those have no relevance to what we are discussing. do they? please, ding, hindi ako “nagmamarunong”.
joe, you have to review the FV rules as posted by nick sometime ago. every post or comment is fair game as long as the criticism is not libelous, unnecessarily personal, and (i might add) blatantly commercial, i.e., paid propaganda. this is a forum, not a mutual admiration club. there’s a lot of one-dimensional blogs that allow no contrary ideas, opinions or probing questions. maybe that’s what norman is looking for. i’m sure he’ll find something that will suit his taste or he can set up his own (if he hasn’t already).
i believe any one who comes to FV, either as a blog poster or commenter, must be willing to defend his work, including his motives for espousing a particular subject or point of view. no need to feel personally insulted for being asked a relevant question in good faith. let it all hang out and let the reader be the judge.
Hey hey, Ben,
I agree entirely, and think FV rules are good.
And I take it to mean, that even as an outsider, I am permitted to post, and defend . . . but do not have to countenance personal insults.
Joe
well, speaking for myself, joe, of course i think you are permitted under the rules. i’m just concerned that there’s an awful lot here who feel insulted whenever their pov’s are criticized or questioned. they just cannot separate the comment from the commenter, the message from the messenger. that’s very filipino.
Ben,
I appreciate that. And I recognize my style is abrasive sometimes, and I need to be less the “know it all”. I’m working on it, but it is hard to reshape concrete. Needs a chisel . . .
Joe
It seems that some people forget that FV is a blog. Not part of tradittional media where news (being a reporter) and opinion (being an “activist”) must be seperated.
For some people this post might be sablay. But so what?
My wife is a stage four breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed in August 2004, only 10 days after our 10th wedding anniversary. She is now on her third year in remission.
That’s why each day we have together is a bonus, and we live it to the full. We don’t know if the cancer will come back someday in another form. I was close to insanity from 2004 to 2006 because I had no idea if my wife would live till our wedding anniversary, birthdays, Christmas and New Year holidays. God Jehovah, let it not happen again to me and my family.
Everyone in my wife’s breast cancer support group, I Can Serve Foundation (www.icanserve.net), in which I volunteer, feels that Cory is just waiting to die. This is always the pattern kasi.
When a cancer patient goes to the hospital, then goes off the chemo treatment and goes home with only paliative care, it usually means that the patient is terminally ill and wants to die in the peace of her home.
Kaya those who have fought the fight and who are fighting the fight have been in grief since Cory was taken to the hospital. Nakakadurog talaga ng puso.
Thank you for your faithful service, Madame President Cory Aquino.
I will forever fondly remember the only time I briefly saw Cory as a correspondent for Manila Chronicle in 1991, when she crossed the grounds back to her office after gracing a function for Filipino newspaper cartoonists like Larry Alcala and Nonoy Marcelo. Thank you, Madame President.
Just a brief word off-topic, to those who might be having trouble with my journalism background and my political reform advocacy.
I wasn’t into any advocacy from the time I started in journalism in 1992 to April 2007 (Manila Chronicle, ABS-CBN, Marianas Variety News & Views, Philippine Star) because ethics prevented me from doing so.
I’m now a freelance writer since April 2007, which means that I’m not on staff of any publication. Therefore, I’m no longer barred from pursuing a political advocacy, which I pursued in February of this year because I want to make a difference to my country and the lives of fellow Filipinos.
If anybody is questioning my ethics and integrity, I will let my actions speak for myself.
We also have this saying in the journalism business: once a journalist, always a journalist.
That’s because the thrill of the hunt for a story hardly leaves you.
You are a kindred spirit, Norman.
But the “thrill of the hunt” aside, I’m sure you know it is about crafting resonant messages and chronicling history that will help society see clearly where it has gone, what lessons can be drawn, and ultimately see our way to a better path forward.
normaan, ding,
i left journalism because there is no money in it that can sustain your dream for good life. i understand that only two kinds of journalists can survive the field: those that are too good that they become regulars of big media outfit and those who trade their principles and become paid hacks. i am neither of the two.
Without her who would explain what really happened to CARP during her regime.
You bring up an important point, Brian.
Sadly during her presidency CARP was used as a ‘program of political appeasement’ with the Cojuangcos’ Hacienda Luisita being held up as a laboratory showpiece for corporatized profit-sharing land reform.
It did not work.
Fast forward to today: CARP funds are mainly used to fund the inefficient DAR bureaucracy.
Farmer beneficiaries end up mortgaging, ang eventually losing their awarded land since they cannot manage it and do not have the promised support services.
They thus continue to be in shackles.
Ding,
Let me bring up a landowner’s POV on the CARP. I am not but my relatives are, and this case has been with the Supreme Court for almost 10 years now. We won the case in the RTC, won it at CA after DAR and Land Bank appealed the case. Then the SC make a ruling against the position of the RTC and the CA. Then CA reversed itself on motion of Land Bank and DAR. We went to the SC on certiorari asking the SC that its ruling was erroneous and that it should rule in accord with the RTC and CA decision… Strange Neh?
Here is my argument with the SC after my Certiorari was given due course, but resolution remains pending.
“Putting the entire nation on land reform program in 1972 was a grand larceny.”
Congress has enacted laws designed to free the farmers from the bondage of feudalism where the lands are controlled by the few that had enslaved so many. But unshackling them from their “chains” is not enough. They should become resourceful, self-reliant and dignified. These are the mission statements of the law itself as early as the reign of President Diosdado Macapagal. Amortizing the land they have acquired from the landowners to Land Bank is a first step towards achieving dignity and self-reliance. But
apparently Land Bank has only succeeded in imparting the culture of mendicancy and dole out mentality to the farmers by failing to pursue an aggressive policy to collect from the farmer beneficiaries so that the
government is not hard-pressed with cash by which to pay the landowners. Thus, Land Bank had sent a distress signal about the money for land reform program being depleted by courts’ award for land valuation not in accord with its computation.
As Justice Josue Bellosillo said in the case of Land Bank v. CA and Pascual (supra), “every single cent Land Bank spent for the acquisition of the land is reimbursable to Land Bank and if it pays the land outside the formula outlined in EO NO. 228, such is collectible from the farmer who benefited
from the land.” Please observe that this Court through Justice Bellosillo said that a valuation can be made outside the formula of EO No. 228. Petitioners submit that requiring the farmer to pay for the cost of the land ceded to him by the government at the expense of the landowner is the first step towards developing in the farmer a culture of responsibility and dignity. Land Bank is never financially inconvenienced by paying the landowner the fair market value of his property because it can always ask for reimbursement or repayment from the farmers under pain of repossession and foreclosure of the farmland.
Like Shylock, the Merchant of Venice, Land Bank can always exact a pound of flesh to enforce against the farmers, payment of every single centavo it may have disbursed in favor of the landowner.
“Go with me to a notary, seal me there
Your single bond; and in a merry sport,
If you repay me not on such a day,
In such a place, such sums or sums as are
Express’d in the condition, let the forfeit
Be nominated for an equal pound
Of your flesh, to be cut off and taken
In what part of your body pleaseth me.
(Shakespeare, the Play Merchant of Venice).
“Petitioner’s argument that the government will lose money should the farmer beneficiary be unwilling to pay, we believe such apprehension is baseless. In the event that the farmer-beneficiary refuses to pay the amount disbursed by petitioner, the latter can foreclose on the lands as provided for in Secs. 8 to 11 of EO NO. 228. Petitioner LBP would then be reimbursed of the amount it paid to the landowner. (Land Bank v. CA and Jose Pascual, supra). However, forcing the landowner to share his wealth is not the duty of Congress. Virtue not legal compulsion should lead men to share their wealth. Certainly, one thinks it the function of the legislator to ensure that men shall be good men, to consider what practices will make them so, and what is the end or aim of the best life. But this function is fulfilled, not by the direct legislative prescription of morally good acts, but by the constitution of a society in which moral virtue is nurtured and encouraged. (Waldron, Jeremy The right to private property. 1. Private property, I. Title 330’. 17 ISBN 0-19-823937-8)
Please observe Ding that the well-written decision of Justice Bellosillo was bastardized by new ponente in the recent case where the SC said that the “administrative formula” issued by the Executive Department and being implemented by DAR and Land Bank binds the court and that landowners should accept this arbitrary valuation made by these government entities.
What happened to the constitutional doctrine that “no private property shall be taken without just compensation?”
jcc,
Thank you for the overview on this. As a capitalist by upbringing, I find this endlessly fascinating, the land and how to deal with it fairly. How to get from “feudal” to fair. I want to reflect on what you have written and may have some questions later. You share a perspective than others (and certainly me) may not understand fully.
Joe
jcc, your family’s case history seems very complicated, an effort to redistribute wealth and opportunity that went awry.
As I understand it, in 1972 the government decided to give (feudally indentured?) farm workers the freedom to farm their own lands, took land from landowners, but failed in making sure the restitution payments were made to the landowners. The land banks are in the middle between the new farmers and the landowners, who, of course, want to get paid for the land taken from them.
So everyone is pointing fingers.
If the term “unwilling” in line two of Justice Bellosillo’s write-up encompasses “unable”, the problem can be economic. If not, it is “bad intention” and therefore criminal.
I suspect the new farmers cannot generate enough money to pay for the value of the land. Small farms make lousy businesses. I have no idea how the valuation to landholders was set, but if it was assumed that small farmers could get as much “dollar per acre” out of land as the big farmers, I think that would be a wrong valuation.
There are farms, and there is agribusiness. The Philippines seems to be mainly engaged in farming. That seems to be a waste of the most lush growing soil and climate in the world (to a Californian, where farms are as big as whole islands here).
I doubt that the original landowners will ever see full value if the land’s value, economically, does not exist, as small farms. (My perspective remains naive, and my bias is firm: the Philippines needs agribusiness, not farms.)
Joe
As we near the encore, for both Cory and Meldy, the morality play continues on to the last act. Cory the soon to be saint is showing the audience how to go with dignity and Meldy complains that she is poor and wants her rocks back!
Thanks, Prof.
Your comment is a good way, me thinks to loop off this thread.
Am in your debt.
@ jcc,
A most resonant input Sir.
Indeed, while that landowners are villified, particularly in ~Negress, the truth is they are not compensated properly.
They are ‘paid’ with LBP bonds that are not really worth much.
Bot the farmers and landowners are left holding empty bags.
@ Atty. Ben,
K.
So kung ikaw o ako halibawa’y may sakit, ipinagdarasal, at pasasalamat.
Didebatihin mo ang nagnanais na dumamay?
Or you’d rather just be sent roses when…
I choose not. I want to smell the roses.
Good day to you.
Be well.
papano ka namang mikipagdebati kung hindi ka na nga makapagsalita o makaunawa ng mga nangyayari sa’yong paligid, ha ding?
You are confessing?
Sa tingin mo mali ang mga pananaw na nababasa mo, sabi ko nga Atty. Ben, magsulat ka.
Bahaginan mo kami ng iyong talino para ‘matuto’ kami.
Bakit ayaw mo? Are we too ‘below’ you?
Sige na.
Or you just specialize in seminal ejaculations?
I am starting to admire Benigs more now.
At least he develops proper thought pieces.
Ikaw Atty. Ben, putak lang ng putak.
Kapag napikon ka you just call people “punks” or threaten them with “appropriate actions.”
Kakasawa ka kausap, boss.
ding, matagal na akong “admirer” ni benigno. wala ka bang napupulot kahit katiting sa aking mga putak? sa pamamagitan ng aking mga putak, nahuhubog ang kabuuan ng aking mga pananaw sa mga bagay-bagay. consistent naman ako, di ba ding? at hindi ko itinatago na maka-arroyo ako dahil wala akong dahilan para maging salungat sa kanyang integridad at pamamalakad. sorry na lang kung nagsasawa ka.
Kaya nga Atty. Ben.
Agree naman ako na iyong sinasabi na “sa pamamagitan ng aking mga putak, nahuhubog ang kabuuan ng aking mga pananaw sa mga bagay-bagay. consistent naman ako, di ba ding?”
Kaya nga, Atty Ben, ang humble at tiklop-tuhod kong hamon sa iyo’y magsulat ka sana ng ganap na piyes upang may higit na matutunan pa ‘kaming maliit’ na kuntil-butil na talino mula sa iyo.
Gets mo na hanga ako nguni’t disappointed at bitin, Atty. Ben?
Sige na.
@ J here:
Yeah J, so what if it is sablay, right? Pwede na yan, right?
That’s the trouble with us Pinoys — our high tolerance for the sablay.
And we all wonder why all this aiming for “Galing Pinoy”, “The Filipino Can”, and “Wow Philippines” crap comes across as no more than hollow slogans.
Pinoy nga naman talaga
Parang aso.
Matangkad lang kapag naka-upo.
(Check out the full poem here!)
- :D
The problem, benign0, is that your standards of what is sablay might not be the standards of others.
Now, if you think it is sablay, so what? Why should people submit to your standards.
Let me tell you something. Ikaw din sablay.
We chart our destination in life, but God charts our destiny. President Cory Aquino did not chart her way to the Presidency. She became President of our country by destiny. Salamat, Panginoon! Salamat, pangulo!
Amay P. Ong Vaño
Cebu City
epov111@yahoo.com
Thank you, Cory
” MARAMING SALAMAT SA NAGAWA MONG KABUTIHAN SA BAYAN NG PILIPINAS
MARAMI-MARAMING SALAMAT PRESIDENT CORY SA MGA ARAL NA INIWAN MO SA MGA TAONG BAYAN”MABUHAY PO KAYO ..
SALAMAT, CORY!
For Ninoy, the Filipino is worth dying for, but for Cory, the country is worth living for. According to Ninoy, it is better to die a significant death than to live an insignificant life. And, indeed, the greatness of Ninoy as a Filipino leader is due to the significance of his death, while that of Cory is due to the significance of her life.
We chart our destination in life, but God charts our destiny. President Cory Aquino did not chart her way to the Presidency. She became President of our country by destiny.
Salamat, Panginoon! Salamat, pangulo!
May she rest in peace and may our country live in peace
Atty. Amay P. Ong Vano
Cebu City