After spending almost four months in the United States , I planed to Manila while the final rites on the late President Corazon Aquino were being held at the Manila Cathedral. She was the guest speaker at my graduation from the Ateneo School of Law way back in 1988, and I could still recall the tension that reigned in the country a year or so after the EDSA Revolution, which has since experienced several revisions (EDSA 2 and EDSA 3). The outpouring this time brought memories of Ninoy Aquino’s final rites and looking at the throng of people who braved rain and hunger, it was a political revival of sorts. Again, the oft repeated phrase “The Filipino is worth dying for” rang true. A couple of days of jet lag (just like the couple of years after the 1986 EDSA Revolution) again proved me wrong. While the debate in the United States was on so called “death panels” allegedly created by a proposed health and welfare legislation in the U.S. Congress, Filipino newspapers have completely gotten over the solemnity and grief of the Cory Aquino funeral and was now riddled with a 20,000 dollar dinner at Le Cirque in New York shared by President Arroyo and members of her entourage. How trivial can we be??is there no better issue to fight about than a dinner in New York??
