Millions of Filipinos mourned at former Philippine President Corazon "Cory" Aquino's death on August 1, 2009, culminating on her funeral on August 5, 2009. Thousands waited in line to pay respects at her wake, multitudes attended her funeral mass and funeral procession that lasted a little over eight hours, almost as long as her husband's (former Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, who fought the dictatorship in the Philippines and was murdered in 1983) funeral procession. Her wake and funeral mass gathered together the country's mighty and strong and the common people. Her funeral mass brought together some of the country's best singers to sing for her. When her body was transferred from the La Salle gym in Ortigas district to the Manila Cathedral a few days before her burial, her procession passed by the Makati district, the country's financial capital and site of many of protest actions that Cory had led as the leading oppositionist in the country. This procession in Makati was an emotional one as her procession received the final confetti shower from tall buildings in the district as it was always done whenever protest actions passed by the streets of the area. People came in droves to Makati, employees went down from their offices to welcome, for the last time, Cory to Makati, and to say goodbye to her.
Her people patiently waited
Her funeral procession on August 5 winded through a number of cities and towns on the way to her final resting place in the Manila Memorial Park in Paranaque City. Again, people in droves were on the streets, walking, running, waving, cheering her name, putting up their banners on which were written various thank you notes to her. Many waited for hours for the funeral procession to pass by their way, never minding the rain that sometimes fell hard, the heat of the sun that occasionally poured out; they also didn't mind the hunger or the thirst or the fatigue--sometimes these were alleviated by sharing their food or drink or some shelter to rest. They came from all walks of life, and in all ages--from toddlers carried on the shoulders of adults, to schoolchildren, to teenagers, to elderly people, to busloads of people from the provinces, to professionals, to blue-collar workers, to vendors and public transport drivers. Cory loved the Filipino people, and they all loved her back, showing this to the fore on all the days of her lying in state and at her burial.
Military in full force
Throughout the days of her wake and her burial, Cory was accorded full military honors, despite her children's refusal for her to have a state funeral, opting to have a private funeral. Generals carried and saluted her coffin, honor guards were beside her coffin at her wake and the full eight or nine hours of her funeral procession, cannon and gun salutes reverberated in military camps--all in honor of their former Commander-in-Chief. The military honor accorded her did seem a bit ironic as the Aquino family, as do many Filipinos, have always thought that the military had a big role during the assassination of Ninoy in 1983 as he landed in the Philippines's airport, back from exile in the USA. Nevertheless, the military was with Cory all the way in her death, up to the moment that the generals had folded the flag that covered her coffin, and handed this over to her children, during the last ceremonies at the cemetery.
Emotions ran high
Cory's funeral procession that started early morning with a funeral Mass ended late at night, with the multitudes still waiting for their beloved President at the gates of the cemetery. After the long flatbed truck had entered the cemetery, the people were to be held at bay, as the ceremonies inside were meant to be among several hundreds only to keep the peace and order in check. But the mass of people could no longer be held at bay, and so they came inside the cemetery, almost near the Aquino burial plot, just as soon as the military had almost finished giving its honors to the former President, and the priest at hand was ready to give the final blessing to Cory. As expected, the Aquino children poured out their emotions at the final ceremonies, before their family was interred, beside her beloved husband.
As the Aquino family wept and cried throughout the whole wake and the burial, so did the nation. As more and more yellow ribbons (Cory carried the yellow color in leading the fight against corruption and tyranny in the country) sprung up everywhere in the country, tears flowed out freely from every Filipino who were there at the wake and funeral, on the streets, on TV watching the daily coverage, while glued to radio broadcasts, and or while glued to Internet streaming broadcasts.
Images of love
Much as I wanted to be there at the wake or at the funeral procession, I couldn't go because of work (in the 1983 burial of Ninoy, I was there along the procession on the streets of Manila). I watched some parts of the ceremonies for Cory's wake and funeral on Internet broadcast (particularly broadcasts of Manila TV stations GMA7 and ABSCBN2), and I've managed to do video captures of some of the coverage. Above are some of the scenes I captured, in-between my crying over the ceremonies. Not all of them are clear pictures, but they still show how much Cory was loved by the people that she and her husband loved so much.In her death, Filipinos have remembered what the country meant to Cory; and they have been galvanized to pick up again where Cory had gone through. To look after their country, to protect it, to ensure a leadership and governance that will not lead the nation astray, and a citizenry that will work hard to make the nation peaceful and prosperous.
Former Philippine President CORAZON COJUANGCO AQUINO, 1933-2009, the country's most-loved president, and everybody's favorite "aunt" (Tita or Aunt Cory, as she was known to all her fellow citizens, whom she led from the shackles of dictatorship in the 1980s via People Power).
I join Filipinos everywhere who are praying for ailing former Philippine President Corazon “Cory” Aquino who was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in March last year, and is now hospitalized in Manila, with the cancer cells said to have spread across her body. Cory is the woman in yellow who led Filipinos in toppling dictator Marcos in 1986, following the assassination of her husband former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr on his return to the Philippines in 1983 at the Philippines airport, after his exile in the USA. Cory is the woman in yellow who came from near anonymity to bravely, if maybe a bit reluctantly at first, to lead the nation’s People Power in ending the abuses and frivolities of a dictatorship. Cory later became the Philippines’s first woman president, inheriting an administration almost plundered into nothingness in economic and social terms. In later years after her presidency, Cory (along with the late Jaime Cardinal Sin of Manila) continued to be the Filipinos’s leading light against abuses in government, serving as their voice as well as constant reminder that ultimate power resides in the people and real change can only come from citizens who care.Now, Cory is in pain, much as the Philippines is also again in pain, rocked by scandals and controversies that have been hounding its present government, with a president who’s getting the lowest satisfaction ratings ever, and corruption and poverty leering in many corners of society. But Cory is holding on, seemingly not minding the pain and weakness—as her family so attests on her daily condition—as if to give the message to her fellow Filipinos that this is the way it should be, to be strong amid adversities, to not give up amid sufferings, to look beyond challenges into opportunities, to take each day as a blessing and an opportunity to make the present and the future better for each and everyone.
In the 1980s, “yellow fever” gripped the Philippines, as yellow became the symbolic color of the fight against dictatorship, with Cory leading the fight while flashing the "L" sign with her hand, which stood for laban or "fight." Many parts of the country and many Filipinos are now again turning yellow as symbolic support to ailing Cory, as the people as one are rallying behind this fight of her life. Yellow ribbons hang around trees, posts, fences, gates, cars, as people hold healing Masses for Cory, and shout “Cory, di ka nag-iisa (Cory, you are not alone)!” as they once also shouted in support of her husband Ninoy’s sacrifice for the nation, “Ninoy, di ka nag-iisa!”
The “greatest entertainer who ever lived” more than just “king of pop” was how one of the celebrity-speakers described Michael Jackson in the July 7, 2009 memorial for him held in Staples Center, Los Angeles. This description drew thunderous applause from the thousands who were inside the auditorium, and from all the other millions viewing the ceremonies from televisions or Internet streams.
I have a few Jackson 5/Michael Jackson favorites—One Day in Your Life, Blame It on the Boogie, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Happy, I’ll Be There, and a few others—but he wasn’t really up there on top of my list as a favorite singer or entertainer. But now, after his death, I’ve come to realize and appreciate how much really a genius he was as the consummate artist. The various retrospect on his career after his death—his songs, his videos, his performances on stage—that I’ve seen on TV and the Internet have made me an instant fan, or a fan all over again. Clearly, no other entertainer, living or dead, had come close, and perhaps will ever come close (in future years) to Michael’s professional creativity and achievements. As a performing artist whose audience was guaranteed to get much more than their money’s worth, Michael is/was a legion of his own.
For most of Michael’s life, and now in even in his death, controversies always hounded him. I don’t know the real score on those controversies and allegations against him. But Michael now faces his Creator. All is now up to him and the Creator. For us he has left behind, we can only thank the Almighty that He gifted us with one Michael Jackson, who superbly entertained us in our lifetime, and will surely be entertaining generations to come with his legacy of music. Michael was 50.
A few hours before Michael died on June 25, 2009, Farrah Fawcett (formerly Farrah Fawcett-Majors when she was starting to make her mark on TV and eventually became a star in the 1970s while still married to Lee Majors, another TV star in the USA, who starred in The Six Million Dollar Man) passed away after her battle with anal cancer. Farrah of the famous Charlie’s Angels, one of most popular TV shows of the 1970s to early 1980s (though she stayed only in the first season and was a guest for some episodes for the next season), bravely fought the cancer that brought down her body, but not her spirit. Farrah eventually lost her battle with the disease. But her gallant stand till the very end against her sickness will be an inspiration for others who have to face life-threatening diseases. The same way that she inspired legions of people as a TV star. Farrah was 62.
Famous as they were, Michael and Farrah, along with the other popular entertainers in my teenage years, were there on everybody’s music records, TV, radio, notebook covers, lunchboxes, magazines, scrapbooks. Icons like these two people are part of the memories of the years that I shared with my classmates in school and friends in the neighborhood. When icons like them pass away, it makes me go back and remember that part of my life that they touched the most, like it was only yesterday. But part of remembering is also letting go and accepting that these icons are not indestructible, and like any other human beings, they will pass away, too. But I can only thank them for sharing with us their life and their talent.
Thanks Michael, for sharing your music with the world.
Thanks Farrah, for the entertainment and inspiration you gave to the people.
Below is a photo montage I made of these two beautiful people. And Farrah with Lee in earlier years.
