Remembering Cory
I had recently discovered on youtube, Ninoy Aquino's speech in Los Angeles, delivered 2 years before he embarked on that fateful last journey. That got me thinking, do kids too young to have watched the bootleg version of that on betamax even understand what that video really means? The entire speech is uploaded over the internet (competing for attention against the viral videos of "blowjob girl" and the like) so I don't mean that in the literal sense. What I mean is, do kids today understand the historical context of that video? That that video, at the time, was subversive material? That to get caught with a copy of that can land you in jail? No possibility of bail, not even a trial. That was how it was. That was Martial Law.
I was born in the eye of the First Quarter Storm. I had known no other president other than Marcos and have never even heard Ninoy Aquino speak. So when Ninoy got shot at the airport, I didn't really know what to think of it. He was a politician, a soldier fighting his war against a bigger badder opponent. Maybe he deserved to get shot, as the Marcos propagandists in the one hundred percent controlled media kept on pushing. It was easy for me to accept the notion.
That is until I heard Cory. Here was Ninoy's widow who had done nothing wrong. Her husband was murdered, and for what? So that Marcos can keep being president? She didn't deserve that. And so, I wept, not for Ninoy, but for Cory. I wanted justice, not for Ninoy, but for his poor widow.
Hers was the innocent voice that would ring out over and above all the din of the Marcos lies. She spoke, on Radyo Bandido (Veritas) simply and softly, her truth. You know how it is now how the entire country stops whenever Manny Pacquiao fights? That is how it was whenever Cory spoke. The country's thirst for the truth would not be quenched.
And so I marched. Not for Ninoy, but for Cory. Again, let me explain the historical context of that. To march for Cory is to risk getting truncheoned, teargassed, water cannoned, or worse getting abducted never to be seen again. And the Marcos regime saw to it, that every now and then, one or two would get abducted, tortured, then brutally murdered to keep the fear real. I was just fifteen. And many times, I found my courage faltering. But I have to remind myself, on the frontlines, always, was this frail old man willing to take on all that Marcos had to give and more. His name, Don Chino Roces.
If all you've done is to march in political rallies after democracy has been restored then you will never understand. To march for Cory was to believe in something. Believe it enough to be willing to literally die for that something. It was a time for courage. A time for hope. It was a beautiful time to be young.
Remembering Cory is remembering a time when the Filipino was indeed worth dying for.
Movingly and accurately expressed, Don Dee. Those of us who were old enough to live under martial law, under the Marcos dictatorship, will never forget the bad taste it left in the mouth. As Filipinos, we were cowed into submission and humiliated by fear.
ReplyDeletei believe Ninoy Aquino made the bigger sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice, a signal step in our struggle to regain freedom. As Cory put it when she was thrust into the struggle, "Ninoy got us into this." But yes, she will always have a special place in our history as a the light of hope that showed the way out of darkness.
And in my heart of hearts, i regret that i will always say, Goddamn the Marcoses for what they did to our country those many long years, from 1972 to 1986. The institutionalization of corruption, how the military and the police were made tools of oppression, the distortion of our socio-political institutions, we continue to suffer the after-effects of these horrible legacies from martial law era.
Legacies that we have witnessed at work in the behavior of the Arroyos over the last nine years.
Goddamn them too.
i sincerely hope, never again.
Just to clarify, I am not belittling the contribution of Ninoy. What I am saying is, because of Martial Law, I didn't even know what he was fighting for. I didn't even hear Ninoy Aquino speak when he was still alive. It was Tita Cory who delivered his message to my generation (the Martial Law babies).
ReplyDeleteAnd oh yeah, isn't it extremely annoying that there are still many from the younger generation who think (or do not think at all) that MARCOS was the best president? I would love for these fools to go live in North Korea for a year and experience Korea's version of Marcosian rule for themselves.
ReplyDeleteScary how anyone could think that Marcos was a good president, even worse, that he was the best one we ever had.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be said that Marcos had a mastery of the Filipino psyche and that's why he ruled as a dictator for a long time. Hell, he played successive U.S. administrations for years, with the military bases card and the anti-communism card.
Still remember an American congressman saying, after martial law was declared, that the Philippines had a population of x (50?) million cowards and one sonofabitch.
Personally, i don't know if i could stand living again in a system where people are not free, even if the majority of Filipinos are not free from poverty.
That's why it is so important to know the past and to remember history. Unless we do so, we risk repeating it.
I tend to think of these people in the same category with those who still believe that Hitler was right, that the Holocaust never happened, that George W was a good president, and that Justin Bieber is not gay (lol).
ReplyDeleteDon Dee, did we ever talk about Hemingway's wish that there should be one day in the year when you can go shoot anyone who deserves it?
ReplyDeleteLOL
Thanks dude. Mom would love this vid. (Downloading)
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I was born 1982. It was almost over then. hahaha. My Mom even had a souvenir. A piece from the cut barbed-wire fence back then. She's told me tales about the era.
But there is something that was documented that time and I'm very tempted on sharing it. But this info isn't one that's to be shared especially by me of all people. Maybe we should just wait if the keeper of a certain book decides to unravel things. . . But that would change history so maybe he won't. You wouldn't believe me if I told you anyway. Lol. Just forget about it.