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The essence of Cory's legacy that Noynoy and Kris cannot overlook
AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star 2009-08-11
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During the Requiem Mass for our beloved late president, Cory C. Aquino, her youngest daughter Kris spoke on behalf of her siblings and vowed that she and her brother Noynoy will continue their mother’s legacy.
We know that the Cory legacy is essentially self sacrifice for the service of God, democracy and country. Cory neither wanted to be nor ever imagined being a political leader. Cory was a very private person who shunned publicity and the loud personalities that abound in the political world.
However, when her husband Ninoy was assassinated and the mandate of history fell upon her to lead her people back on the road to democracy — Cory willingly ceded her cherished privacy and took over the mantle of leadership from Ninoy. She was a very reluctant candidate and her reluctance was no political gimmick or striptease as some politicians are inclined to play the role.
In one organizational meeting held in 1985 at the office of Cory’s younger brother Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr., your Chair Wrecker was there when Cory suddenly barged into the room. Three of us were in one side of Peping’s room and Cory did not see us as she entered to confront Peping.
She went straight in front of Peping’s desk and told him straight like a shot fired from a .357 Magnum revolver: “Peping, what’s this I hear that you have been organizing behind my back in preparation for me to enter politics? You know that I have no such plans and I resent any such attempts that make me look like what I say does not match what I am doing.”
Startled and perhaps embarrassed in front of us, Peping could only look at us when she heard what Cory said. It was at this point when Cory realized that there were others in the room and she hurriedly left lest she say more to embarrass her younger brother. But you can see from her tone and her demeanor that she deeply resented all this planning to thrust her into something she had no appetite for.
Poor Peping Cojuangco — it was his fate to be the General Jacques Dunois to Cory what the real General Jacques Dunois was to Joan of Arc, the French heroine and saint after whom Cory had been likened. General Jacques Dunois was known as the bastard brother of the French Dauphin and George Bernard Shaw described his role in the liberation of France led by Joan of Arc as “the bastard who found troops for her and fed them.”
Despite what she disliked most, despite the demands on her for which she never had the preparation to undertake — Cory C. Aquino embraced the role that God and history mandated for her. Understanding this, we can better appreciate why she willfully ceded power on June 30, 1992 when she could have lawfully extended her term.
The Cory legacy cannot be appreciated without the characteristic willfulness to embrace the mandate of God and history. More than the will to undertake the impossible dream, the essence of the Cory legacy is the self sacrifice to accept the mandate of God and history.
And who can deny the involvement of the Divine Hand in the Cory legacy. To do so would be to fail to appreciate how the impossible happened. Just how possible is it for a simple housewife without any political background and government experience to accomplish what Cory did without the Hand of God at work? How possible is it for the “Yellow Fever” to revive after the passing of Cory if not again for the Divine Hand?
The “Yellow Fever” would not revive despite the massive cheating in the 2004 elections, the brazen dismissal of the impeachment cases against the perceived evil in the land, the acts of impunity of the evil regime and the self serving attempts to change the Cory Constitution. How else do we explain its grand resurrection after Cory’s passing other than as another act of God?
Attempting to hear the footsteps of God, as Otto Von Bismark once said — do you think God revived the “Yellow Fever” just to give Cory a grand departure? Or could it be that God has seen the need to transfer the baton of leadership to a new leader in the light of all the predation the Filipinos are suffering in the hands of its current crop of rulers?
If Noynoy Aquino is to be sensitive to the mandate of God and history which Cory always followed — then it is not up to him to say that he has no plans to run for higher office. If Kris Aquino is to be faithful to what she said during Cory’s Requiem Mass at the Manila Cathedral, then she should not even say that it is not her mother’s wish for Noynoy to run at this time for a higher office.
Cory never knew that there would be the resurgence of the “Yellow Fever” after she rejoined Ninoy and her Maker. If she did, would Cory ever ask the natural heir to her legacy not to heed the mandate of God and history?
Vox populi, vox Dei — the voice of the people is the voice of God. Well, the people have spoken.
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