nation building

Of course I'm going to write about the typhoons. I'm not planning to make this entry about the presidentiables' actions during recent events, or about the speed and quality of the government's response. I prefer to write though about the opportunities that this situation presents.

I don't just mean the opportunities our public servants now have to improve urban and rural planning, curb illegal logging, reduce Manila's trash, and relocate squatters. What I mean are the opportunities to sustain the best in the Filipino people. In the past three weeks, I've seen and heard of many stories in the relief centers, in the devastated communities, or in odd places which were spared. Some of the stories appalled me with the knowledge that some people can be so self-serving or even brutal in times of need. More often though, I heard stories of people who had little to begin with in terms of material possessions, but gave what they could to their suffering neighbors. I have met people who spent days and nights in the relief centers, packing and sending out goods to many communities. I have run into individuals who dared to go into the flooded communities even when the waters had yet to go down, just to save lives, run medical missions, or give much needed help and support. I have even heard of those who gave up their lives that others may live.

These stories cut across all classes and divisions. Distance didn't matter---help came even from abroad. From the cousin who sent part of her savings all the way from overseas to an aspiring scholar from a GK village who lost no time in hurrying to a flooded community to help clean it up, I saw heroism everywhere. And it is this heroism that our future leaders should nurture and protect.

Imagine if our so-called politicos could emulate, inspire, and uphold this nobility of spirit. Imagine if we Filipinos could feel such love and dignity each day because the leaders of our land work to make sure we will have cause to hold our heads up high. Imagine if our public servants could unite communities instead of playing "divide and conquer" just to stay in office.

Sure, our politicians can and should work out the logistics of rehabilitation to prevent a reprise of this kind of disaster. Sure, our leaders should prove that they are capable of setting communities back on their feet, free from mud and raging waters. However, these leaders should also decide what is it that they represent to their constituents. Are they the kind of servant-leader who will be in solidarity with those who suffer, who will not only comfort them in their hour of need, but give them the opportunity to use their diligence and effort to bounce back from calamities? Or are they the sort of politicians who will exploit such a dire scenario to make their names known, to grandstand in front of the media and whitewash their names just to give an illusion of altruism?

If our effort becomes self-serving, then it can hardly be called heroism at all. We are a country that coined the term "bayanihan". The act of heroism, or becoming a hero. Which is what we need nowadays.

tribute post

She is one of the people who ensured that I and my contemporaries are free to write like this. If it were not for Corazon "Cory" C. Aquino, it may very well be that young Filipinos could still be deprived of the rights to free speech, suffrage, and so many other liberties we take for granted.

I never knew her personally. I was only a toddler when her presidential term ended. The younger ones of my generation know her as the lady in yellow, the first Filipina president, the first president to step up because of a revolution, the lady whose name is synonymous with People Power and freedom, and the person who helped bring democracy back to our country. Our teachers and textbooks tell us so. I knew a little about her from my parents' stories of working first in the opposition pre 1986, then later working in the new government. Yet being a young child myself, I could not understand why Cory Aquino did all of that.

I remember being eleven years old when I first caught a glimpse of who she was to my fellow Filipinos. It was January 2001. After the sudden suspension of the impeachment trial of then president Estrada, so many Filipinos had taken to the streets in outrage. We were angry at the impediments to justice, at the corruption that had riddled our political system, and at our leaders who had turned against the values we cherished. In the middle of the crowd that was still rallying at EDSA Shrine that Saturday morning, there was suddenly a stir. Government officials were coming on stage. Among them were then Chief Justice Davide and then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. And with them too was Cory. Her mere presence was what spelled the difference, what told us that history was about to happen. In a few minutes, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was to be sworn in as President. Davide was there to make it constitutional, but Cory made it acceptable. And if she could trust our President, then so could we.

In the years that followed, I would learn more about Cory Aquino. Admittedly, I was a little critical of certain things in her administration, and even of some of the causes she was for, or against. However, I knew that she was one of the living symbols of Filipino democracy. Just for saving my country from martial law in all but name, I could look up to her. I could never imagine what life would be like under martial law. Maybe one could accuse me of being brainwashed by my parents and my school into believing so much in democracy and freedom. However I had cause to believe: by the time I was eighteen, I had experienced being censored in writing, I had experienced seeing what violence could do, and I had seen what our election system really was (and how it could be tampered). And I knew that if there was injustice, Cory would be one of the first to speak about it.

As I got older and watched national events unfold, I really began to wonder if there would be anyone who could rise up to unify our country. And even then, what kind of unification would that be? I wondered how in the world could I, a girl and a seemingly ordinary person, do anything substantial for my country. However, as I got to learn more about Cory (either from reading, or from hearing from people who knew her), I began to have a clearer picture of what kind of mother, public servant, and leader she was. And maybe, what kind of leader could win the hearts and minds of the Filipinos again.

It has only been in the last few months that I have come to realize that this life I and so many others live would not be possible in a trapped regime. Imagine being unable to write or speak one's views for fear of being detained. Imagine a Philippines where the vote is devalued. Imagine being unable to hold your head high since one's people are being oppressed by their own leaders...and everyone in the world community knows about it. Imagine being powerless to do something for your nation. Yet because Cory stepped up to be a leader...these things are not realities for my generation.

It has been in the last few days as I saw the public outpouring of love and gratitude that I realize why Cory lived for the same people her husband Ninoy died for. She saw what was good in the Filipino. And it was because of this that she empowered the Filipino people with a gift: the freedom to rise up for their own country. For me, this is a debt that my generation will never be able to repay in full. The best we can do is to carry on the legacy, not just in our storytelling but in exercising our rights to suffrage, in becoming not the leaders we want to be, but the leaders our country needs.

To Tita Cory: thank you. Thank you for being the President who set a whole new bar for public servants. Thank you for sacrificing so that my family and so many others could live without fear. Thank you for giving me my civic voice. You are loved and are sorely missed.