It is 2:35 p.m. as I write this while watching the live coverage of ABS-CBN News Channel with history-making images: Imee and Bong Marcos standing before the open casket of late former President Cory Aquino.
The reaction of the crowd is muted with those behind them glancing but not ogling.
From Cory’s bier, the two Marcos children moved on to sit at the front pew and were approached moments later by Ballsy, the eldest of the 5 Aquino siblings.
This in my humble point of view is a moment of national reconciliation.
I had been napping just minute ago and before nodding off was reflecting, seriously reflecting about what the scenes will be if and when President Gloria does return in Manila tomorrow in time to crop by at the wake.
I do hope she does, for that singular act will speak eloquently about how national unity can be the sterling legacy that Cory Aquino’s passing bequeaths the nation.
Let it be, I pray.
Popularity: 1% [?]
It will take lots of guts for GMA to go to the wake, or to the funeral, but my personal opinion is that she should go there for the sake of statesmanship and reconciliation inspite of whatever untoward event awaits her there. We’ll see.
But, going there surrounded by battalions of bodyguards will not do her image any good, I think.
Now breaking…
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20090805-218816/Arroyo-condoles-with-Aquino-family
How ABS-CBN is reporting it…
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/08/04/09/arroyo-arrives-us-goes-straight-cory%E2%80%99s-wake
she should man up should she decide to go there.
it is very likely she will be jeered and sneered at. she should just ignore it while she’s there and perhaps reflect on it when she gets back to her own space.
i agree she shouldn’t make the mistake of bringing in more than the usual number of bodyguards. the last thing the people will want to see is a pint-sized bully with a whole army of bodyguards.
This will surely need to be delicately handled Manong Bert.
But both sides need transcend personal concerns, pettiness if you will, and doing it for the larger body politic.
I hope I am not being naively optimistic.
We so need to move forward as a people.
Imee, Bongbong, Kris, Noynoy, Ballsy, Viel are no longer first kids. The good thing is that we can now close the books on the Marcos and Aquino years and learn its lessons.
As for President GMA, I think she knows that one of her duties is to condole with the Aquinos. The Aquinos need not bury the hatchet at this time, but they are obliged to receive Mrs Arroyo civilly.
Tumbok mo, Prof.
OMG. i so love this scenario. you are right in saying that it “is a moment of national reconciliation.”
wow!!!! but it should be reconcialiation with justice. hope the next president should learn some inspiration in this event in this event.no more erap like conviction and pardon.
A voice in the sea of privilege speeches at the House of Representatives is heard to have said this appeal – send HR 1109 to the archives as a fitting tribute to Tita Cory.
pictures paint thousand words.
Especially when you can watch videos on Youtube and you can read body-language to check for sincerity.
Now, letting weeks and months fly by to observe “reconciliation”‘s life-cycle, that is also interesting. I do remember the alliance and oneness of purpose shared then by Corazon Aquino and Gloria Arroyo and the march against Joseph Estrada. Time heals wounds, sometimes. Time breaks alliances, sometimes. Pinoys do say “..blood is thicker than water”, and for reason. Que sera, sera.
One other thought — this reconciliation-reconciliation miasma, I’d rather shelve. Pinas story — many political families have made handshakes and the gain to Pinas, zilch if not negative.
amen, amen, i say to you.
Animosity is so wasteful, isn’t it? We all go to the grave. I think Ms. Arroyo lost an opportunity to enhance and enrich herself by not tending to Ms. Aquino when she was alive.
I was very impressed to learn that Mr. Estrada had made a quiet visit to the hospital to give his best wishes to Ms. Aquino.
Joe
who was being recalcitrant up to the critical hour? the survivors in the family could only be following the attitude and sentiments of the deceased. classic display of false pride – “why should it come from me, and not her – she was the one who insulted me, therefore, she should kneel and beg for my forgiveness”.
Hindi ako, pero someone (blogspot, hindi wordpress) wrote :
cory passed on at 3 am today… =( i’m actually in tears… i liked her best for the purity of her heart though i always felt anguished by the massacre of the labor day protesters in her time, the persistent corruption in the army under her command, and her being a mum member of a family of greedy heartless landlords (issues that typified not her leadership, testified not to her vision of it, but the fragility of her office within a network of influence vaster than marcos’s as a singular figure). i’m in tears for forever i shall remember her for being one of the most decent, if naive, women and officials we’ve produced for governance thus far.
TRUTH COMMISSION, hindi pa tapos. Hindi lang si Benigno Aquino ang napinsala noong panahon ni Marcos.
There’s really no reason for animosity between the children of both families. The Marcos children did not do the Aquinos any harm. Their parents did and it would not be right to make them pay for the sins of their parents.
As to Gloria, that’s another matter. She was vicious to Cory Aquino after she asked her to make the supreme sacrifice.
Cory asked Gloria to step down after she heard the Garci tapes. That means Cory stopped believing that Gloria was elected president.
So it would be a great insult for Gloria, a usurper in the eyes of Cory, to go to her wake as president of the philippines. It’s different if she paid her respects as a private citizen.
This is a set-up blogpost, right? I mean, how would one know if it is President or Private-Citizen-Gloria who shows up? No one has written up that Gloria should wear yellow to signify “…private citizen”, blazing red to signify “Imperial Leader”.
And will you read insult should Gloria wear dark-grey? Are you another body-language practitioner — concluding who is the Gloria who show up based on the slump of her shoulders, scowls and squints here and there, and if she wears 2-inch or 4-inch heels?
they should reconcile withe the Filipino people by using their wealth to fund CARP and return some of the loot to the government treasury.
In the Apartheid nation of South Africa. The Whites oppressed the
majority Blacks and colored people thru the program of Apartheid.
Nelson Mandela, the founder of the Anti-apartheid movement was jailed
for almost 25 years. The world community pressured South Africa to
remove the Apartheid Program. Nelson Mandela was freed. He became
its President.
During his term. He has a program called TRUTH and RECONCILLATION.
The oppressed meet with their oppressors. The oppressors face the
TRUTH of what they had done to the oppressed. Expressed sincere
contritions of their evils. The oppressed forgive the oppressors.
Then, they reconcile. This peace effort won Nelson Mandela the Nobel
Peace prize.
Why cant we do it? If the South African can do it. Why cant we?
The only trouble are those: WHO CANNOT STAND THE TRUTH.
It is my personal opinion up to this day. That Marcos, no matter
how evil he may be, did not murder Ninoy Aquino. Somebody else did
it. And he is still there…
others believed that had he only made it known that Ninoy should not be touched, nobody in his turf would dare disobey the chief. from my standpoint, a gangland execution style of this magnitude is beyond the authority of any lower-echelon officials. the command must be made by someone in the higher-up.
I’d caution against juvenile enthusiasm about Bongbong-Noynoy handshake and watching somber body movements at a funeral.
This reconciliation-reconciliation miasma, I won’t get too excited about. Pinas story — many political families have made handshakes and the gain to Pinas, zilch if not negative.
Remember the history of Pinas’ moving forward because an Aquino refused an alliance with a Marcos.
the big elephant in the room that nobody notices is the fact that there may be a reconciliation between the marcos children and the aquino children but not between the principals, three of whom are dead and one still “unwelcome”. how can this blogpost presume to call it a COMPLETE reconciliation between the two families? as i said repeatedly, there can be NO reconciliation between people who are already dead and between a dead and a living person. also, forgiveness benefits, in God’s eyes, the one who forgives, not the one who is forgiven. i challenge any catholic theologian here to show that i’m wrong in these beliefs. i also would like to ask the said theologian his opinion, based on catholic doctrine, whether or not cory aquino died in a state of grace having failed, apparently, to give and receive forgiveness to and from president gloria arroyo. ( i believe this is relevant considering some individuals here and there think cory is eligible for “sainthood”).
i think this is all good old, pinoy-style politics – another attempt to hoodwink the “vacuous” pinoy voter through a political wowowee or telenovela.
so, they reconcile. so what?
will that mean there will be less hungry pinoys?
or will that mean that the landlord classes will consolidate polical power – and become more protectionist, mercantilist, and more of rent-capture policies?
does that mean that marcos and cojuangco cronies will return ill-gotten wealth?
if it does that, then the reconciliation is newsworthy, otherwise, oblivious citizens of las islas ladrones better tighten their belts further – the landlord classes are on a roll.
May I recap this exchange:
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Bert says:
August 4, 2009 at 3:30 pm
It will take lots of guts for GMA to go to the wake, or to the funeral, but my personal opinion is that she should go there for the sake of statesmanship and reconciliation inspite of whatever untoward event awaits her there. We’ll see.
Reply
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Bert says:
August 4, 2009 at 3:33 pm
But, going there surrounded by battalions of bodyguards will not do her image any good, I think.
Reply
betterphilippines says:
August 4, 2009 at 3:42 pm
she should man up should she decide to go there.
it is very likely she will be jeered and sneered at. she should just ignore it while she’s there and perhaps reflect on it when she gets back to her own space.
i agree she shouldn’t make the mistake of bringing in more than the usual number of bodyguards. the last thing the people will want to see is a pint-sized bully with a whole army of bodyguards.
Reply
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Ding G. Gagelonia says:
August 4, 2009 at 3:43 pm
This will surely need to be delicately handled Manong Bert.
But both sides need transcend personal concerns, pettiness if you will, and doing it for the larger body politic.
I hope I am not being naively optimistic.
We so need to move forward as a people.”
Who’ll rise to the occasion?
I have a South African business associate. He was with Nelson Mandela
during the reign of apartheid in South Africa. They were thrown in
jail. Doing hard labor, day in and day out. Breaking rocks in the
quarries.
When they won the election. Nelson Mandela asked his followers to
forgive thru Truth and Reconcillation. Nelson Mandela is a Muslim.
He got the inspiration from the passage of the Koran: “If God can
forgive. Why cant you?” We are supposed to be a Christian nation. Why
do we have a hard heart? Christ told to forgive those who tresspass
against us; because we ask him forgiveness of our own trespasses.
Now breaking…
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20090805-218816/Arroyo-condoles-with-Aquino-family
President Arroyo I salute you…
ABS-CBN’s story break :
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/08/04/09/arroyo-arrives-us-goes-straight-cory%E2%80%99s-wake
“If God can forgive. Why cant you?”
Ironically, one flaw in our culture is being too forgiving. However, for the sake of the Mandela rhetoric, I ask, how does one forgive a sinner who refuses to acknowledge they need forgiveness and refuses to repair the damage done? A sinner whose arrogance still brings some to their knees asking for HER forgiveness?
I echo the sentiment, very decent of them but so what if the Marcoses came? So what if Imelda herself had gone as well? It is just another scene in their little oligarchial play. Not much should be read from it and romanticized.
I personally despise the Marcoses to this day, not specifically for the Ninoy slaying or political persecutions (they are truly tragic but time heals those wounds) but for the financial amputation we are desperately nursing to this day as magnified by streetkids eating literal garbage and OFWs leaving in droves just so their families can survive.
Marcoses, cronies and current day sinners, with their lack of accountability and remorse for their gluttony, fruits of which they enjoy up to this day, one needs to be either be a saint or a fool to forgive so easily.
why not a noynoy-bongbong tamdem sa 2010 para complete ang recon. this time baka totoo na sinasabi ni imeldefic once the aquino and marcoses joined forces gaganda daw pilipinas he he he he he