Cory Aquino addressing US Congress (1986): "We shall honor it (foreign debt)." (Claps. Standing Ovation. $200 Million assistance package.)
Nope, this is not another eulogy.
I didn't follow the all-day all-night coverage of Cory Aquino's wake but I saw enough to make me a little flabbergasted. The bishops were near canonizing Cory for her saintly feat of "combining power with virtue" while she was President. Alright, I thought, it may be fair to say that it is superhuman for a Philippine president to resist the urge to cling to power. But is clinging to her hacienda virtue? It's just amazing how little stench Cory left in her wake. Even my friends, who are all enlightened people who know recent history and especially Cory's presidency like the back of their hands thought her "shortcomings" (a long list consisting of, among others, human rights abuses (remember Ora Pro Nobis?) which exceeded even the violations during the twenty years of martial law) were, in the end, forgivable or eclipsed by her supposed bravery. They were thanking Cory for standing up to Marcos, now hailed as a "historic responsibility" she so bravely took upon herself, but which, not so long ago, was seen as a "grand bonanza" for herself and her clan. So I try to put myself in my friends' shoes to figure out why this is so. Soon I discovered I just need to tune in to the live broadcast of the Cory funeral long enough and I can swear I also love Cory!
But then, my friends surprised me once again. This time, they were cursing Willie Revillame (that's not the surprising part) for what he did recently in his show Wowowee (that's the surprising part). I knew I just had to take a peek at the youtube clip. In the same TV screen, the Cory funeral procession is telecast live together with Wowowee. A lady contestant in Willie's popular noontime show is shown gyrating while mourners/protesters march beside Cory's coffin. Happily, Willie Revillame takes the podium and asks the TV station to stop telecasting the funeral procession because "it doesn't look good". Either they show Wowowee or the procession. "Brazen!"/ "Callous!" / "And yabang!" No matter how I try to see how Willie could have been brazen or callous in doing what he did, I could not get myself to disagreeing with Willie because I would have done the same thing. Was he perhaps callous towards the TV crew by criticizing them on air? Well, I don't know whose decision it was to show the gyrating lady and Cory's coffin side by side, but whoever he was, he deserves the beating! Stop beating Willie!
Did I just defend Willie Revillame? Gosh, I surpise myself!
