We, the People
If Eduardo Ermita has one talent, it is saying the most unreasonable things in the seemingly most reasonable ways. His comment about Barack Obama having much to learn from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wasn’t the only breathtaking thing to come out of his mouth last week. (Ermita's comment made me want to commit murder. I wanted to bang his head on the walls of Malacanang!) There was also his explanation for why Malacañang did not mark the anniversary of EDSA People Power II this year.
“Remember, one legacy agenda [of Arroyo] is healing the wounds of EDSA. And we thought not celebrating [it] will be one of the steps toward healing any hurt feelings brought about by EDSA II.” (What a rubbish?! A way to heal the wounds od EDSA is to fully address the concern of the people who hoped for change after EDSA!)
Can any statement be more astonishing? (Seriously, I think he's [Ermita] lost his logic and common sense!) At the very least, it boggles the mind having to apply that to every important event in Philippine history. Henceforth, we may no longer mark Rizal Day because that was the day the Spaniards stood Jose Rizal before a firing squad in the gray dawn of Dec. 30 and massacred him. Celebrating it would open up the wounds between the Filipinos and Spaniards and would be most hurtful to the Spaniards who are now our friends.
Ditto for National Heroes Day, which is really Bonifacio Day, which recalls the Katipunan, the organization Andres Bonifacio formed from Tondo’s slums and the one that launched the first Philippine Revolution seeking independence from Spain. That would be even more hurtful to the Spaniards who can do without their oppressive rule in these islands being dredged up. Well, we don’t celebrate National Heroes Day anymore while at that, which the Spaniards themselves may well marvel at. They themselves hold Rizal, if not Bonifacio, in high regard and have done everything they can to keep his memory alive.
And ditto for Independence Day, which Arroyo’s own father, to his eternal credit, changed from July 4, 1946 to June 12, 1898. The Americans granted the Philippines independence on July 4, 1946, Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence in June 12, 1898. The first freed the country in body but kept it enslaved in mind, the second freed the country in mind though it was enslaved yet again in body by the Americans. A valuable lesson in life the father obviously failed to pass on to the daughter.
But to go by Ermita’s logic, to celebrate that would be to open the wounds of the second Philippine Revolution, this time against the Americans. It was bad enough that Diosdado Macapagal spited the Americans by shifting the celebrations to June 12, but to actually be joyful about it, that would be most hurtful to the Americans who are now, more than any other, our closest friends.
The same would be true for celebrating Bataan Day and Liberation, or recollecting the orgy of mayhem the Japanese wrought on Manila before they themselves were killed. That would open old wounds and would be most hurtful to the Japanese, whose sashimi we take to be one of life’s infinite blessings. (I do.) (Haha!)
It’s plain idiocy. One is tempted to say that Ermita should have his head examined. (Well, he really should!) But his head is exactly where he wants it to be. He himself knows EDSA II produced only one wound. That is his boss. She goes away and everything is healed. Even cancer.
By sheer contrast, elsewhere in the known world, far from this primitive backwater, the new American president was busy getting his people to relive their own past. A past that has the capacity to animate the present, a past that has the power to bring a nation to come together to solve the greatest woes it has known in a long time. A past that has to do not with the brilliance of the nation’s leaders, or the courage of its captains of industry or the ingenuity of its inventors, or not with them alone. But a past that has to do with the genius of the American people. A past that bespeaks of the people and their power. Not unlike EDSA, not unlike People Power.
“Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath,” Obama intoned at the start of his inauguration speech. “The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often, the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.”
That might very well be the title of his speech: “We, the People.”
The events Obama recalled last week were also full of strife, and unlike EDSA II entailed much bloodshed. George Washington led the American Revolution against Britain and Abraham Lincoln presided over the American Civil War. Both did not shirk from doing what had to be done, Washington from freeing the colonies and Lincoln from freeing the slaves, however the undertaking demanded the utmost sacrifices.
But as Obama drove home in his speech, it was not just the leaders that made the nation, it was also the people, it was above all the people. “For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn. Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.” (Amen! Obama, you sweep me off my feet with your words! Gloria, I get irritated with your blabbling!)
Easy enough to see who are on the right side of history and who are on the wrong side of it. The signs are there:
In Obama’s America, it is the Great Remembering. In Arroyo’s Philippines, it is the Petty Forgetting.
In Obama’s America, it is “We, the People.” In Arroyo’s Philippines, it is “I, the Pygmy.” (Haha! I think Arroyo should re-take a few courses on Philippine History! Whoever her history teacher was must be very disappointed in her. I am! )
Historically speaking, of course.
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