Even in her death President Aquino gave us the lesson on how to unite Filipinos. It is not lofty ideals or principles but rather the simple and the correct. Yesterday's necrological service had orators extolling hte virtues of our president. The standouts of course were Bro Armin Luistro, Paul Cabral and to my surprise and definite amazement, Conrado de Quiros. Instantly I became a de Quiros fan. His eulogy was like Robert Frost's "Birches".
Today's mass was solemn and fitting. Songs were sung by Filipino artists. Standouts were Zsa zsa Padilla's "Hindi Kita Malilimutan" and Regine and Martin's "The Prayer". Lea Salonga sang "Bayan Ko" but she was too theatrical to sing a song in Filipino, It would have been better if Regine did the song.
A sea of humanity followed the cortege from the Manila Cathedral to the Manila Memorial Park. And although there were akward moments and some protocol breeched, it was a people's funeral for a people's president.
Cory was our Mother Teresa, our Pope John Paul, our Diana, our Michael Jackson. She gave us back democracy. Even if everyone around her was expecting a return to the traditional corrupt politics after the revolution, she ruled with the "right things in mind." No matter how painful it was, she stood by the truth and what is right. And this made her great. My only regret was we did not rally behind her and helped her after the revolution. We expected she will make everything better for us without us helping her. We gave her the task, but we never accepted that we too have our responsibilities in making this nation great.
Now we have laid her to rest. We are now democracy's orphans. But in God's time as Bro. Armin said, we will eventually heal and move on and with the lessons of history never forgetting them again, rise up and become a great nation.
Below is a link to Conrado de Quiros column in the Inquirer of his eulogy for Cory.
One good person - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
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