Two Women

This morning I found myself in tears. After giving in to them, I paused and asked myself the reason I was crying. I found two.

First, Corazon Aquino. The woman who paved the way for our generation to know the life of freemen. To live it, and enjoy it to its limits. She led the whole nation in its fight to bring back what it thought it had lost. She restored the dignity of millions of people. She passed away last night.

And then, there's Gloria Arroyo. By invoking solidarity among the Filipinos like her predecessor had done, she, too, ousted an unwanted political leader. Like her predecessor, she promised to restore and rebuild. Whether she failed or not, and if she did, the extent by which she did, I have no idea. I am the least interested in politics or in her. What I do know, is that she robbed my generation of artists the kind of dignity that Aquino fought to give us back.

This morning I found myself in tears. Out of sorrow and grief for the woman who, for years, stood as the matriarch who held my ailing country together; out of pain for my fellow Filipino artists who have been blatantly humiliated and betrayed by the very institution that was supposed to nurture them; and out of utter disgust for the Philippine government that, I am now convinced, is a company of greedy, power-hungry traitors who should have died instead of Cory.

I have never felt so strongly about politics ever before. Just now. So allow me to wallow in my tears some more.