3:18 a.m. Saturday (3:18 p.m. Friday ET), August 1, 2009, former President Corazon "Tita Cory" C. Aquino died of cardio-respiratory arrest at the Makati Medical Center. She has been battling with colon cancer as well since March 2008. Today has been another more than sad times from us Filipinos. An icon of democracy not just of our country, but of the whole world has passed away.
According to color experts the color yellow symbolizes optimism, enlightenment, and happiness. Shades of golden yellow carry the promise of a positive future.
If you are a Filipino, whenever you see the color yellow, you will only think of one thing and of one person, the people’s revolution of 1986 and former President Corazon C. Aquino, the champion of the said revolution. I can just speculate that she chose that color for the aforementioned reasons, specifically the “promise of a positive future.” During those times when she died from her private life of being the plain housewife of then assassinated opposition leader Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, the Philippines have been in such dire situation and turmoil under the military regime of President Ferdinand Marcos.
The color that she chose when she took responsibility over what was left and expected of her fallen husband by an ailing nation, is a beacon of hope in itself and a silent promise for a positive future. She led demonstrations and marched during her campaigns wearing that symbolic color, literally all the time. During the historic People Power Revolution I, the dominant color that you will see is the color yellow, the color that toppled a dictatorship. She has led the Philippine nation in one of the world's most peaceful people power movement, the EDSA Revolution I or People Power I, which toppled the Marcos dictatorship in 1986. We Filipinos will never forget the horrors of the said dark regime sent by hell itself. I have not lived yet in those times, but knowing what happened then made me shudder and be outraged.
A lot of Filipino lives have been lost, some were never found, whole tribes and groups massacred. Even the then Opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Tita Cory's husband, was gunned down the moment he stepped down the plane he boarded from the U.S., supposedly to save the ailing Filipino nation. That was the time that Tita Cory's unprecedented political rise started. She took over the responsibility of becoming the nation's leader and mother against the dictatorship of Marcos. Seeing just the videos and pictures of the EDSA I will make the hairs behind my neck stand up.
[We should never forget as well the real heroes, working underground, the UGs as they are called, who were fighting with their heads on the scaffold for National Democracy. We have thousands of desaparicidos in our line. A lot of unsung real martyrs of democracy]
With this, Tita Cory gave another meaning to the color yellow. For us Filipinos, and for the whole world, it didn’t just become a promise of a positive future but it has become the fulfillment of that positive future, the symbol of freedom, of genuine democracy. Sadly, our icon of democracy passed away. The whole nation, opposition or not, Catholic or not, along with the whole world, mourns for such a huge loss. If one will think over it, we might ask ourselves, did that beacon of light for a better future dimmed away with her death? But alas, not, for that beacon has stayed with us all Filipinos. As long as we have the color yellow, hope remains.
However nowadays, it seems like many of us have misinterpreted the said color. What I mean is their understanding of freedom and the way of fighting for it has adopted that color; in layman’s term, “dilawan.”
In one of the mass demonstrations of student youths here in Naga City, a student leader from a college publication in the same city said (quoted not in verbatim): “We are one with the Filipino youth’s advocacy. Even if we can’t find time to go and attend mass demonstrations and rallies, our hearts are with you and we are fighting.”
I whispered to a colleague, “In simple terms, don’t hope that they will ever join any rally or street demonstrations.”
We can’t help it but just smile to ourselves. But thanks anyway because at least they attended that demonstration. Well, that was supported and attended by the President of one of the city’s premiere University so that the said demonstration was wiped away of the taint of usual rallies organized by “leftists” as they say. But being one in heart is empty.
Like what a Bible passage says, “Faith without deeds are useless.” So is true with words. So those words are thus empty as well. Nothing can be accomplished if words will not be put into action. Even in the case of Dr. Jose Rizal, our National Hero, his words might have been empty if people who believed in those words did not enact and live by them. His words of patriotism were lived by the likes of Andres Bonifacio, Gregorio Del Pillar, and the thousands of unsung heroes Ramon Abella and Mariano Arana to name a few, who were martyred for their belief of a free and better nation.
This new generation of ours should learn from our history. It's time to end apathy which has become a cancer of our society. Let us live the color Yellow as it should be lived, not as a sugar coat of people who only wants spotlights over their worldly selves.
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