As I turned my television to GMA 7 last August 1 (Saturday), I was deeply saddened by the demise of President Corazon Aquino or Tita Cory early morning that day. I felt unmoved and my eyes were riveted on the tv screen, silently grieving for her death. I shared the same feelings of grief, gratitude and farewell that is felt by her loved ones, friends, and strangers including the hundreds of thousands Filipinos who have gathered at the De La Salle Greenhills gym immediately after her body was brought there for public viewing.
The scenes that followed and the hundreds of articles – news, videos, pictures, blog entries about Tita Cory on tvs, radios, newspapers and the world wide web portrayed her as a religious leader, a loving mother, a forgiving person, a simple woman, and a virtuous president. But while many people made it to the Manila Cathedral and the Manila Memorial or lined the streets and waited on the five-hour cortege from the La Salle Greenhills gym to the Manila Cathedral and the almost nine-hour funeral procession from Manila Cathedral to her final resting place beside her husband Ninoy Aquino at the Manila Memorial Cemetery, I paid my last respects for her in a bit simple, but hopefully not in a less nationalistic way. Without jumping on the bandwagon, I silently revered and paid tribute to her by wearing yellow, the colour associated with the "people power" movement, from August 1 till now and maybe until the ten-day official mourning lapse. Last August 5, I watched the whole funeral procession on tv, videotaping the time she was made to rest and being able to see her face inside the coffin when the camera focused on her for the family’s last viewing. Away from the crowd, I visited her graveyard last August 6, and traversed the same route of the funeral procession from Manila Cathedral to Manila Memorial Cemetery as if re-living the history that had just unfolded. I still saw the flags at half-mast at the Rizal Park and hundreds of yellow ribbons tied to the trees along the way and the hundreds of yellow flowers atop her grave shared with her husband Ninoy. I kept asking myself why I was doing that. And I can honestly say that it is my way of giving back to the woman who has given the country with so much pride and who taught me the idea that it is a privilege to be a “Filipino”. Of all the things that Cory has personified for all Filipinos is the importance of having God over our public and private lives, the importance of prayer as a constant and active part of our day to day experience, and an uncompromising commitment and public accountability for our faith. Like the word “august”, an adjective meaning “marked by majestic dignity”, the demise of the icon of democracy and the reverence shown by Filipinos is just so fitting and a real mark of majestic dignity.
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