Category: cory

not yet, noynoy

huwag ka sanang magpadala kay conrado de quiros o kay alex magno o kay bongbong marcos (strange bedfellows, eh?) na hinahamon kang tumakbo for president sa 2010, na para bang if you dont seize the day ay tipong you will miss the bus altogether.

i so disagree.   while it is true that you could win because of the ninoy-cory-kris connection, are you really ready?   the nation would expect great things of you.   the nation would expect you to be a president extraordinaire who would at the very least bring about a palpable improvement in the lives of millions of filipinos looking for jobs here at home and food on the table three times a day.   that won’t happen just because you aren’t a liar, a cheat, or a thief.

i agree with tony abaya, what we need is a forward-looking president, a truly revolutionary president, someone with the attributes and visions of lee kwan yew, mahathir mohamad and gen. park chung hee.

… it is someone who has the qualities of these three foreign leaders that the Philippines badly needs in order to overcome decades of consistently poor governance, restore our badly battered self esteem, and draw for us a credible vision of what we want our country to be.

We need someone like Lee Kwan Yew who was/is personally incorruptible and at the same time was/is so conversant with economics and international relations that he could speak ex-tempore and defend his policies before an assembly of multinational CEOs and diplomats and made/make solid sense, whether they agreed/agree with him or not.

In addition we need the strong sense of nationalism of Mahathir Mohamad who in the 1980s drew a vision – Malaysia Vision 2020, that sought and seeks to transform Malaysia into a fully industrialized country by the year 2020 – that he was able to convince the multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, and multi-religious people of Malaysia to embrace as worthy of their national loyalty, beyond the narrow appeals of their tribes and ethnic groups. No mean feat, considering the catastrophic demise of equally multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi-religious federal Yugoslavia in the 1990s that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.

Mahathir’s nationalism also expressed itself in his readiness to fearlessly fire back at other countries, other world leaders, as well as international agencies whenever he felt they were trampling on the national self-interests of Malaysia.

We also need the single-minded determination of Gen. Park Chung Hee to transform his impoverished, resource-poor and inconsequential Republic of Korea from 1961 to 1979 (when he was assassinated) into a fully industrialized country that is now one of the ten biggest economies in the world.

… this is what the Philippines needs, a leader who can start and lead a revolution, a peaceful one, as much as possible; a violent one, if necessary.

you could be that leader, noynoy.   given your parents, the history, the genes, the values, you, more than any other filipino, can do it, can be it.    but not without serious preparation for the role, which would mean learning not just from your mother’s successes but also from her mistakes — e.g., land reform, foreign debts, atbp. — and, most importantly, by being truly your father’s son not just in terms of his sacrifice but also of his political ideology.

when your father came home in ‘83 he had a program of action that he drafted while in exile in boston.   surely that program of action is worth looking into — other  than the dismantling of military rule, things haven’t changed much, except gotten worse, since the  80s — and hopefully, you will be up to the revolutionary challenges it poses.

forget de quiros and other hopeless romantics who urge you to run in 2010.   to do so, and to fail at non-violent revolution because you are not ready, would be the end of you.    in effect, you’d be neutralized, which would be a shame.

people power, rain or shine

it was a memorable day that we all got to share, thanks to the marvel of television.   the cathedral rites were beautiful, fr. arevalo’s eulogy sublime, and the military honors stately and dignified.   the family continued to amaze and warm the heart,sharing their mom, sharing their grief, never mind that it meant being exposed to the cruel glare of lights and cameras and nosy, sometimes uncouth, media.   thank you, ballsy, pinky, noynoy, viel, and kris!

but the best was yet to come.   and it happened out in the streets, the people’s turf, where yellow crowds gathered in great numbers, lining the streets or marching with the casket, flashing the Laban sign and chanting “Co-ry! Co-ry! Co-ry!”   it reminded me so much of the snap election campaign, when nakarating kami ng mga magulang ko hanggang lucena, quezon para lang maki-rally kay cory.

there was a brief moment when i asked myself, where were all these people, where were we, when cory was leading street protests asking gloria to resign post-garci and later in support of jun lozada?   why were we not there for cory then?   but now i see that it doesn’t really matter anymore.   what matters is that we have rediscovered cory & ninoy and what they stood for.   and i have no doubt that when the time is right, People Power will rise again, rain or shine.

postmortem: horrid media owe marcos kids a public apology

i thought that imee and bongbong marcos (with wife lisa araneta) showed a lot of class by showing up at cory’s wake, probably at the behest of their mother, who herself had the delicadeza to stayaway.

though it was clearly an ordeal for the marcos siblings (nakatutok sa kanila ang mga camera every step of the way) they nevertheless went through the paces with as much poise as they could muster.   nice of the aquino grandsons to meet them, take them to cory, and sit with them in an an empty front pew.   and yes, what a relief when ballsy finally came out to greet them, shake hands, beso-beso, small talk.   a show of good manners and right conduct all around.   cory would have approved.

when ballsy had exited frame, imee and bongbong left the pew tagged “family” and moved to another, some pews behind.    they must have thought the media cameras would finally leave them be, but no, the media know nothing of good manners and right conduct!

the media behaved absolutely horrendously, gathering around, thrusting microphones and tape recorders at the sibs, asking what they said to ballsy and what ballsysaid to them — an assault that no other guests had been subjected to, and which succeeded only in driving the marcoses away.   was that the point?   how bastos.

my sympathies to imee and bongbong, who did not deserve to be embarrassed so.   cory would have been horrified.

those media people and their bosses — attention, ANC! — owe the marcos kids a public apology.

gloria should go

… to the wake, i mean.   and she knows it.   not so much for the nation — we can take or leave protocol, i find — but for the international community.     the whole world is watching.   she has to handle this right, or lose face.

the news is that she’s arriving at 5 a.m. which gives her a few hours to get to the cathedral before the 9 a.m. show.   the question is, what time should she go.   soon after she gets back, habang kokonti ang tao, habang wala pa ang mga aquino?   or should she wait until the aquinos are there so she can personally extend her sympathies as well?   or her flight could be delayed, haha.   we’ll know soon enough.

nakarma naman talaga si gloria.   what rotten luck that the obama summons came when it did.  if she had been here when cory died, she could have simply appeared at the la salle wake the moment cory was ready and gotten it over with, before it became an issue.

shecould also have accepted graciously the aquino family’s preference for a private funeral, sabay pakiusap for even just half a day’s lying-in-state in congress and / or malacanang.   tama rin naman yung mga nagsasabing cory deserves a state funeral.   i would not have minded seeing legislators as well as the executive paying homage to cory and promising to keep the cory spirit alive.

as for cory’s post-garci demand that gloria resign, which the aquinos may well refuse to ease up on, well, in the spirit of the times gloria could offer them an ex-deal.   instead of resigning she’d stop all con-ass attempts during the remainder of her term, and she’d admit her mistakes re the national artist awards and the jbc list.   wouldn’t that be fantastic?

i know, i know, i’m dreaming, haha.   si cory kasi.