Commentary: Cory as icon of survival

By Bong Pedalino

Manila (5 August) — All the glowing tributes and accolades for former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino has been said and written, but I think there was one thing missing.

Tita Cory, as she was fondly called, was a model character of survival, both in ordinary life and in her reluctant entry into Philippine politics.

Her husband, Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, did not mince words when he predicted that the next President after Marcos would wear out after six months in office like a horse manure.

Little did Ninoy knew that her wife would be the next President after Marcos, yet she endured not just a horse manure, whatever that meant as Ninoy described it, but a string of coups-de-etat that rocked her administration.

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The moment she was diagnosed with colon cancer, nobody would have thought she would last a year longer, but she did live more than a year, defying expectations.

At one point, all was A-okay with her, thanks to unceasing prayers and fervent divine petitions that stormed the heavens, until the disease took the better from her, and death eventually intervened.

But the year-long survival was in itself a miracle, showing a woman of spectacular strength and vigor even as she battled it out with a crippling ailment.

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In 2005 she did join calls for the Administration to step down, but that was a signature Cory act, one which takes a stand on issues as she sees fit from her perspective.

Let us respect that, and not let it muddle our sense of loss in her passing, nor make a political capital out of it; certainly you cannot desecrate the name of a revered woman and convert it to advance a selfish brand of politics.

That was her opinion, and in a democratic setting we can always agree to disagree.

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Ninoy had said that the Fiipino is worth dying for, and he literally proved it by facing certain death on a collision course.

In Cory’s case, however, death came as a natural course, the deadend of life’s journey.

With apologies to Ninoy, Cory demonstrated that the Filipino is not just worth dying for — the Filipino is worth living for.

By her life she taught us that a Filipino and the Filipino masses as a whole can survive against all odds.

Surely, such a lesson should be considered as one of her legacy to the Filipino people.

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LOCAL FRONT: At the height of the Cory-Doy presidential campaign in 1986, the Cory-Doy team was in Maasin campaigning hard to convince the crowd gathered at the public plaza that Ninoy’s memory and sacrifice should not be wasted and in vain. I recall many intelligence agents in civilian clothes taking pictures on our every move, but we openly showed our support nonetheless. History had proven us right.

ODDLY YOURS: When Neil Armstrong landed on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969, he said something, but the excited, listening world had not quite heard it right. He was heard as saying, “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” In 1999, Armstrong protested, insisting that he said, “That’s one small step for ‘a’ man; one giant leap for mankind.” People on Earth did not hear the “a”. But Armstrong was persistent. “The ‘a’ was intended,” Armstrong said at a press conference ten years ago. I thought I said it. I can’t hear it when I listen to the radio reception here on Earth, so I’ll be happy if you just put it in parentheses.” In 2006, however, there was no need for a parentheses, because a computer analysis found evidence that Armstrong said what he said he had said. And NASA was vindicated it had stood by Armstrong’s side all those years. (PIA-Southern Leyte)