Salamat po Tita Cory.

Paalam.










*all photos link back to the source from which they were grabbed.

Cory and the color of Hope

I remember how excitedly my parents roused me and my brother from sleep in the wee hours of the morning, made us wear our cleanest yellow shirts, our jackets and our slippers. They did not bother with our pajamas: we had to be on the streets NOW!

It was only when we were seated inside my uncle's passenger jeepney that I learned what was going on: Ferdinand Marcos had fled the country, and Cory Aquino was the new president of the Philippines. At this news my brother and I immediately waved our yellow-and-green pennants at every passerby. "Cory! Cory!" we chanted. Pedestrians waved back, cars tooted their horns in tune, the color yellow was everywhere. Hope had come to the Philippines.

As I look back on the years when she was in office, and observe the fervor that once propelled the People Power Revolution disintegrate into scathing criticisms of her failure as the country's leader, I realize I haven't enough years or experience living in Martial Law-Philippines to compare with Cory's presidency. All I know is, change came to the Philippines.

People say Cory's rule allowed many things to return: the freedom of the press not the least of them. She revised the Constitution, it was also during her reign that the US Bases were closed. I still remember watching her speech at the US Congress on TV. All the US Senators and Congresspeople stood and applauded her entry. Once on the podium, dressed in her trademark yellow suit, radiant, she flashed her winning "laban" sign. I felt that gesture was a solid acknowledgment, a shout out to the millions of Filipinos watching her. It was the symbol of the people's triumph. It was a great moment to be Pinoy.

As the years wore on I noticed how many who once fought for her were steadily disillusioned with her. My dad, who once spent days and nights printing her campaign posters, joining rallies and marching at EDSA, was suddenly criticizing her. She was now regarded as a weakling, without a mind of her own, installing her own cronies and building a family dynasty. The coup d'etas were to be her presidency's bane, and I figure she was just too happy to hand over the reins to Fidel Ramos when her term ended.

I've always been rather apathetic to the circus that is Philippine politics. But I will always remember Tita Cory as one person who made me change my mind about the possibilities in the Philippine government. She was, after all, the first woman president -- something not even the United States could afford to do. But first and foremost, she was a Filipina. She stood for the virtues that we value: an unwavering faith, unconditional love and the tenacity to finish whatever one has started. People who knew her say she wasn't the least bit corrupt, was always pleasant, and had the most untarnished reputation among all the Philippine presidents, past and present.

For these credentials alone, I think she should be remembered the way Ninoy was. In life, as in death, they paved the way for one another to keep the dream of a great Philippines alive. They kept to their motto: the Filipino is worth dying for.

There will be no frantic horn-tooting and pennant-waving today. But Pinoys everywhere will be in yellow to commemorate the life of a woman who put the country on the map again. Future generations of kids in pajamas will only read about the life she lived and will acquire an experience of her more diluted than mine. But the important thing to know is, Cory lived. Cory brought change. Cory brought hope.

Let that yellow ribbon always remind us of this.