Cory's saying sorry is a personal matter

CHARITY: May this season of grace touch our hearts to overcome pride and prejudice.

Cory Aquino felt remorseful enough to say sorry for what she saw in hindsight as a mistake — for her to have participated in the EDSA-II mass action that removed Joseph “Erap” Estrada from the presidency in 2001.

For speaking out her heart last Monday, a swarm of hate-mongers descended on her and denounced her apologizing to a surprised Erap, who happened to have been at the book launching she was attending.

In knee-jerk rejection of anything that did not match their prejudices, some people missed the point that Cory could have been just making PERSONAL amends — in what I think is an attempt, at this stage of her fragile life, to make peace all around.

Cory could not have been speaking for all those who had acted to oust Erap, or approved of his ouster. She was just speaking for herself, about her personal involvement, because she could not have passed judgment on, or spoken for, all those in the EDSA-II event.

Let us be charitable enough to let a person say sorry on a personal level. I suggest that, whatever we think of EDSA-II, we respect Cory’s feelings and decisions on a matter that is very personal to her.

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NO NOCHE BUENA: Here is a story of how an officious clerk prevented a mother from serving noche buena and buying gifts for her two children last Christmas by preventing her from claiming a $100 remittance from abroad.

As related by Manolo C. Benavent, interim deputy secretary general of the PPP Central Secretariat:

“This happened Dec. 24 at eBiz Western Union, Farmer’s Cubao branch. I accompanied our PPP-Central member, Ma.Tina (last name withheld) to claim the remittance of her friend as a Christmas gift to her and her kids.

“The Western Union lady teller claimed that her first names (Ma. Tina) did not match the first name in their system, which is Matina, even though her last name, claim number, and the name of the sender are correct.

“Ma. Tina presented her identification, an NBI clearance, showing her name as Ma Tina (with a space and a missing dot), which can also be interpreted at first glance as one word, MaTina.

“Pointing to this seemingly minor error, the teller insisted that the name Matina is different from Ma.Tina. Ma. Tina said that her friend had sent her money before (not just once) and she did not experience being denied her claim.

“Ma. Tina explained that her friend (an American serviceman) is not accustomed to writing initials such as Ma. which he often writes as Ma Tina and is often misinterpreted by encoders at the Western Union sending office erroneously typing her name Ma Tina (or Ma.Tina) as one word, Matina.

“Nonetheless, the teller told Ma. Tina that the remittance could not be released for another reason — the address of the sender does not match what is in the system. Ma. Tina wrote the known address of her friend as an APO Box No.

“Since her friend (the American serviceman) at that time sent the remittance from Afghanistan (where he is stationed) and paid for it with his credit card issued in the US mainland, the address in the Western Union system may have registered the address of the sender either from the credit card’s origin (USA) or the sending country (Afghanistan).

“How would Ma. Tina know what is inputted in the system when the address she often writes in the claim form (which was not a problem before) is the APO Box Number of her friend?

“Despite the explanation, the teller refused to release the funds and insisted that Ma. Tina contact the sender and have him change the errors in the Western Union’s sending country’s system.

“We went out of the branch so Ma. Tina could load up her mobile phone. She texted her friend three times costing her P15 per text message explaining what happened. Her friend called Ma. Tina four times (every time cursing the incompetence of the receiving Western Union branch) to let her know that the Western Union sending office in his base camp in Afghanistan stated that the transaction is valid and can be withdrawn anywhere in the Philippines.

“Now when we got back to the eBiz Western Union branch to let the teller knows about this, the branch would not accept customers because it was already closing time.

“It is outrageous that a needy mother (who is a regular Western Union customer) would be refused payment of her remittance at a time like this when she needs to send the money for a decent noche buena in her home and gifts for her kids in Surigao City as she will be alone here in Manila away from them.

“What would you do if you were in Ma. Tina’s situation?”

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WHAT’S THE SCORE?: A foreign investor doing business here for decades expresses alarm that the Arroyo administration has been lulling the population into a false sense of security with the coming year.

While most developed economies are preparing for the worst, the administration claims that it has taken care of the fundamentals, whatever those are, to cushion the wallop of an economic downtrend in 2009.

The idea behind the assurance may be to prevent panic, which is good, but there is a point in telling the people the truth.

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PERSONAL: Friends who cannot call or text me because my celfon is not responding can e-mail me at [email protected] and leave their contact numbers. I am reconstructing my directory which vanished when my celfon blinked out.