Cory's legacy lives on

Who would have thought a year ago that Noynoy would become our president today? It was unimaginable. He was definitely not a contender a year ago.

When Cory died , I was stricken with grief. I wanted to pay tribute to her death by being there at the La Salle Greenhills. Taking photos inside the gym had certain guidelines and I respected that. I couldn’t take much of the President Cory Aquino’s casket but I took snippets of the people and activities that transpired that day , the memorial services and funeral march the following days. Those were my first attempts at citizen journalism. I witnessed the outpouring of love from all walks in life. The people braved the rains, the long queue, the wait just to see their beloved President Cory to her final resting place. Truly, President Cory was loved by the people because she was also sincere in her love for her country.

Sure, many critics would say Cory was a weak president but she was our transition president towards democracy. Try living in those days of fear and uncertainty just before she became our president. The silver lining is that my daughters never got to experience martial law and dictatorship .The rebirth of our democracy was the legacy left behind by Former President Cory Aquino and People Power. The transition from the brutal Marcos dictatorship wouldn’t have been possible without a Cory who ensured a peaceful handover of power at the end of her term and who didn’t have ambition to lift term limits. Which is a lot more than can be said of Gloria Arroyo. As Cory once said “I don’t have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy. All I can suggest is to forget about yourself and just think of your people. It’s always the people who make things happen.”

My mistake was I let Cory do all the work, contented that martial law ended. I placed so much faith in her not thinking that she needed the help of a vigilant citizenry, the real people power.

benigno-aquino

During the first day of her wake, I took a photo of Noynoy. He was responsible for breaking the news to the public on August 1, 2009, “Our mother peacefully passed away at 3:18 am of cardio-respiratory arrest." I had no inkling he would be our president today.

We need to appreciate the impact of Cory's burial on August 5 and how it changed the landscape dramatically. There is a marked difference on the critical landscape before and after Cory’s death. The number of people who lined the streets during Cory’s funeral constituted a resurgence of people power. It was missing before. Traditional politicians thought it was no longer there. Conventional wisdom of the election was the rule of the game before Cory's funeral.

Values, preservation of democracy and no ambition and intention to stay in power is the Cory legacy. Some might want to believe that Cory's legacy lives on in a new administration. It is known to all that the springboard of Noynoy Aquino's rise to power was the death of his mother. The Aquino family is unique in Philippine history in the sense that each death of the most prominent member of the clan resulted in the rise of another family member. Ninoy Aquino's assassination set off a chain of events that led to Cory Aquino assuming the presidency a few years after. Cory's tragic and very public death due to cancer propelled Noynoy Aquino into the presidency.

Death was not the end of the dreams and aspirations of Ninoy and Cory. Their dying was considered significant by the Filipino people, enough to ignite in them a forceful call for change. This is what she meant that “I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life." Sometimes death gives more meaning to the lives of those left behind. This is the certainly case with the Aquino family . Before his mother's death. Noynoy Aquino was an undistinguished member of the Senate. He was considered a lightweight and certainly not presidential material. Less than a year later, he was elected president with the largest plurality in the post-Marcos era and has become a symbol of hope and change following the corrupt Arroyo administration.

It is not the person who dies who gives meaning to the death but those who carry on the torch. It is the person who gets his inspiration, his vision, his moral values and his courage from the life of the person who died, as Noynoy is now doing. He has found a cause bigger than himself from the passing of his mother.

This time around, I am not going to commit the same mistake as I did when his mother became president. I will continue to take an active role as citizen watchdog for transparency and good governance. People power lies in a participative citizenry. The Cory legacy will truly live on in a participative citizenry and not solely in the hands of President Noynoy Aquino's administration.

My legs dangling from the makeshift platform of the media truck in the 9 hour funeral march