Cory is for Courage

It has always been talk during dinners with friends as to what would’ve happened if Cory did not die during this time last year. Maybe this businessman would’ve been president, or maybe this scion of a landed family or this former president. Of course, this talk is academic and would suffice to be interesting hypothetical talk amidst drinks and good food.

The reality is, Cory just saved us again, when our nation needed to be saved. I know it sounds weird, but she died just at the right moment in our nation’s history, when all the lies and the shameless abuse of power by the then incumbent government drowned almost everyone in hopelessness.

Fast forward a year later, and the glimmer of hope is back again. It really does feel like 1986 again. But this essay is not going to talk about how we should handle this new found revival of our spirits, but will just be a simple homage to a simple housewife who did extraordinary things for her country.

The sound of her name alone is almost phonetically the same as the virtue she possesses in heaps and loads. Cory is for courage.

For me, the best thing she did for our country is enliven today’s youth to dream again, to hope again, and most importantly, to be heard again! I was actually despairing already, at that time, because most young people I met have already given up, and have listed down in our questionnaire ‘Where will you be in 5 years?’ – ‘Abroad’. It would’ve been ok if maybe 3 out of 10 or 5 out of 10. But no, everyone, as in lahat, wrote, ‘Abroad’. That was the legacy that Arroyo left on our youth. The youth, believing that they have no future here at all, because Arroyo and her ilk have made it clear to them – you are stupid, you are powerless, and we will oppress you any which way we like. But Cory picked us up again and made us strong enough to claim our country back and once again stake our future in it.

Tita Cory, thank you for making the youth believe that they own this country again! We miss you and we hope you continue to pray for us like you always did.