My Twitter account has everything I needed to say about Cory. I believe her demise made social media evangelism – Twitter, Facebook, the works – a lot more meaningful. Yes, like many others I have aimed to communicate through online channels the Cory news, which is replete with many layers of national grief. If grief isn’t spending your office lunch hour along Ayala Avenue to wait for the funeral cortege (and the sun is shining angrily at your face), then I absolutely don’t know what is.
The naysayers abound; there’s still that low opinion of the former president because of Hacienda Luisita and CARP, the failures of her administration, and the misleading popular belief that she singlehandedly made democracy possible in 1986. And they blame her for all the institutional problems she inherited post-EDSA fervor, not to mention the anxieties (and the covert / not-so-covert interests) of the left, the right, the military, and, simply put, the disenfranchised.
What I’ve had are other presidents, but when I think of Cory I see someone who is able to honor aspects of her contract with her people: refusing to run in the ’92 election, adhering to a relatively simple life during and after office. And in that instance when it proves hard to decide about the person, it boils down to this: it’s a tough job to downplay simplicity and kindness and all. It’s just not right, even if I’m far from being a staunch believer of prayers.
It’s been a while since I last cried over what’s in the news. The far-from-decent TV coverage notwithstanding, I am shaken by this whole RIP Cory narrative. It’s a reminder that even before Cory crossed the bar, there’s already this grief – or national disease, if I may – that we’re trying to nurse collectively.
P.S. From here, I proceed directly to disgust. Reports of GMA and cohorts’ $20,000 dinner in NY have surfaced here and abroad. See Vera Files, Spot.ph and Cityfile. And have you seen Carlo J. Caparas poop all over himself on media as he defends his conferment as a National Artist? This calls for pure, unadulterated anger.
