Te - Balikbayan Magazine

“If there was an age of emptiness, this
must be the age of enlightenment. e nation
has suddenly become ‘alive, awake, alert,
enthusiastic.’ People, old and young have become
interested in the state of the nation.”
!R balik!"#"$ February – March 2012
old oak tree, it’s been three long years, do you still want me” and hope
for his coming. e hope is not without fear for government has
warned that Ninoy will be arrested upon his landing on Philippine soil.
We are glued to our television set when he arrives. We see the last
few pictures of him in the plane—with a look on his face that I see so
clearly to this day, the slightest hint of worry clouding an otherwise
excited expression. en bedlam; snatches of “pusila, pusila”; cameras
going awry; shots red; and the sight of a fallen hero, sprawled on the
tarmac; shot in the back.
I am moved to tears. I run to the bathroom to hide them (from
whom, I do not know). My son Stevie is nine, my daughters, Rina and
Anna, are six and three. ey would not understand why their mother
is crying for a man she does not know and has never met, but who put
a face to courage and patriotism.
I stand in line outside the Santo Domingo Church. e Sisters have
been very understanding. Teachers can accompany their classes to Santo
Domingo or give seatwork if the classes choose to remain in school.
How important is it to learn the intricacies of diagramming sentences
or nding the solutions to calculus problems? Put on a weighing scale
with learning what heroism is, paying homage to a present-day hero,
being one with the Filipino masses, there is no comparison.
e line is a long and winding line, spilling out of the nave and the
aisles, into the courtyard, zigzagging back and forth and out into the
streets of España and P. Florentino. In the long line, under the glare of
the noonday sun, we Paulinians stand together, unmindful of the heat
and the dust and the thirst that they cause—for the physical thirst is
overpowered by a thirst for justice, and freedom, and peace.
After about three hours, I am inside the church, suddenly cooled by
the silent reverence with which the viewers le near, at, past his con,
wiping tears at the sight of the blood-stained jacket and feeling for a
while, like the man with the hoe. Not the burden of the world, but
certainly of the country, suddenly aware of the emptiness of the age
gone by.
If there was an age of emptiness, this must be the age of
enlightenment. e nation has suddenly become “alive, awake, alert,
enthusiastic.” People, old and young have become interested in the
state of the nation.
ere is an assembly in the Fleur-de-lis Auditorium. e guest
speaker is Butz Aquino, younger brother of Ninoy. Butz is not a
stranger to the Fleur-de-lis stage for he has appeared in the Broadway
musicals, Brigadoon and Show Boat. He is well known in St. Paul as
a talented actor and singer, a “jolly good fellow.” But this morning,
he is not an actor or a singer or a jolly good fellow. is morning, he
is Butz Aquino, leader of ATOM (August Twenty-One Movement)
and brother of the slain hero. During his entire talk, you can hear a
pin drop, which is unusual in college assemblies. Today, the students
come without being shepherded, on their own, looking for seats quietly,
settling down quickly and giving the speaker their undivided attention.
Butz speaks, with an eloquence that comes from a full heart and a
resolute mind. He talks about his brother and his life and death, a
life oered for his countrymen. Ninoy’s testimonial—“e Filipino is
worth dying for”—becomes the battle cry of his people.
e ght for freedom gains momentum. Rallies are held in key
spots in the metropolis, perhaps the most popular of which is Ayala
Avenue. We tie yellow ribbons on our car antenna and put Cory stickers
on our windshields. We join rallies on Ayala Avenue and revel in the
downpour of confetti from the multi-storey buildings. To me it seems
like a chain that binds the employers and employees in the buildings to
the people on the ground, a chain that unites them in this joint quest.
e opposition to the current leadership is reaching fever pitch.
Marcos tries to put a stop to it by calling for a snap election. But the
time of liberation has come. A nation discouraged by the COMELEC’s
pronouncement that Ferdinand Marcos and Arturo Tolentino won