YOUNG VOICE
Cory
The crowd was restless, as if at any moment they’ll be raising their guns and swords in rebellion. But no, their hands carry no weapons of violence. Instead, their arms were entwined with rosaries and yellow ribbons. The crowd sought a leader, someone who can lead a people enslaved under years of political tyranny and economic oppression.
Then, a simple housewife comes out of the platform, wearing a motherly smile that gave hope to a raging people.
“Cory, Cory, Cory!” the people chanted to the woman who is their leader. This was how I remembered the documentary of People Power I in my first year high school history class.
I don’t have as much privilege of experience as other columnists who have either joined President Aquino during EDSA I or have read and studied much on her political reign. All that is left in my young mind is a photographic memory of a page in my history textbook bearing her black and white picture and an adjacent three-paragraph summary of her six-year term. I wasn’t born during EDSA I. I wasn’t around during her first four years of presidency. I just had my first front teeth when she ended her term in 1992. But, I decided to write about her in the way I have gradually come to known President Corazon C. Aquino.
I never considered Cory as a political figure. She, to me, was more of a change advocate, a catalyst for reform, a humanitarian. I often see her on television not to deliver state addresses, critique political rivals or to brag about her noble advocacies. I see her as the voice of reason for a troubled Filipino or simply a guest of an afternoon talk show uttering congratulations to the success of yet another game show hosted by her youngest daughter. She was the humble soft-spoken lady who loved ensaymada. She was the faithful Catholic who always went with the stand of the church against dirty politics. She was the mother and the grandmother, not only to those of her kin, but by the entire archipelago.
Cory considered the Philippines as a family in a dim adversity needing a mother to shed light, to guide her children. I believe the
testimonies of people who personally knew her. They said Cory had genuinely loved the Filipino people. Yes, I know she did. Because, she had the choice to step out, to hide herself and her own family from the pressures of raising up millions. She had her own problems; she has still to deal with her recent grief. But with her pure and selfless heart, she listened to her people. She could have migrated to other lands and start over; become an average single parent, driving her five children to school and cooking spaghetti for dinner.
With the eulogies that were tear-jerking and with the parades that were traffic-stopping, the people had sincerely felt her love, and through their own little ways, they decided to give back. People don’t show that kind of sincerity if they don’t exactly mean it. I won’t write an article and offer my praises if I don’t really mean it.
It is until now that I have become aware of the great impact Cory has imparted to the Filipino people. I still see hope, more so with my fellow youth. August 5,2009 was a Wednesday, suppose to be school day if not have been declared a non-working holiday. But, less youth were at shopping malls and their usual hang-out dens, more of us were glued to the television screens witnessing the final farewells to the former president.
Now, I know that the Filipino people still knows what is good for their country. They support a leader that is genuine, pure, honest and selfless. Cory has awakened the dormant ideals of the Filipinos. Her death alarmed the slumbering hopes for a better Philippines. I guess we now know what we want for our country. Once we had settled for the lesser evil.
Now, I hope you’ll join the realization of idealism, of what should be. I also hope that those leaders who were responsible for our dirty politics will find this national loss as a wake-up call to carve themselves into the ideal leaders.
Cory has proven that it only takes love, sincere and genuine love for the people in order to acquire their respect and that same kind of love in return.
As the truck approached the multitude, it wasn’t only raindrops that showered her casket; a confetti of yellow petals and strips of paper told the sympathy and gratitude of her people. “Cory, Cory, Cory.” The chant was even louder than it was two decades ago.
The country has lost a leader, a mother, a grandmother but has regained awareness of what she was fighting for. Friends, let us prove that the Filipinos are indeed worth dying for. I will miss President Cory. She will be no longer some other gal in my history textbook.
(Comments and reactions to reylangarcia@gmail.com; view http://www.theyoungvoice.blogspot.com)