Failed expectations

I am disgusted by the way some people are attempting to rewrite history in order to fit contemporary circumstances, such as the way we regard Corazon Aquino and her only son Noynoy Aquino.

When these people invoke the so-called Cory Magic, it is as if Cory alone, without the extraordinary circumstances of the times, could have gotten even close to deposing the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

The Cory Magic worked because her husband Ninoy was assassinated, an excess that finally brought the country to its tipping point. I don't know if people still remember, but a catch-phrase of those times was "anybody, even a dog, but Marcos."

Cory was forced to run because the people at the time saw in her an effective tool to use against Marcos. Had it been another opposition leader of similar stature as Ninoy who was killed, it probably would have been his surviving widow who would have the"magic."

I have to admit that there were many traits in Cory that were very admirable and worthy of emulation. But I disagree with the notion that the nation rallied behind her because they knew her that well and trusted her enough to lead the nation after Marcos.

It was never that way. Cory was just the ramrod that can be used to open the gates so that everybody can rush in. And rush in they did. Or have we forgotten how the booty of local positions were dispensed left and right as if there was no tomorrow.

The scramble for the spoils of the revolution was actually disgusting. But becausethe nation was euphoric over the ouster of the dictator, people paid no mind. They paid no mind for so long that when they awakened, it was too late.

   So they tried to rekindle the revolutionary spirit. But the spirit was dead. The chance for change comes only once in the life of a nation. People were tired and disappointed. That is the reason why the series of coups against Cory Aquino failed. Oursails were out of wind.

   Believe it or not, but the tide of human migration started bursting significantly from the Philippines during the Cory presidency. Cory was not the answer for the simple reason that she was never the answer.

   We just thrust her into the fray for her worth at the time, which was to depose Marcos. And that is why, coupled with her inherent goodness as a person, it was really difficult to lay all blame on her. Why blame somebody who we knew at the outset could not do it.

   Yet, in a ridiculous twist, people are now talking of her as a savior when in fact the real savior was the Filipino people themselves. Had Filipinos not chosen to rise up, there would have been no Cory to install. At best Cory was just a figurehead.

   The irony is that while it was the Filipinos who saved themselves, it was also the Filipinos themselves who promptly reversed everything they gained. We just cannot seem to

hold on to a good thing. We have the tendency to squander away our good points.

   When Filipinos started migrating to other lands, the search for better economic opportunities was just part of the story. The more compelling narrative was that Filipinos have given up on change occurring from within.

   Now comes Noynoy being packaged as an embodiment of Cory. What a pathetic misrepresentation of the facts. Cory never solved our problems and neither will Noynoy.

All that Noynoy can do is be another ramrod just like her mother was so that others can come in.

   Have you not noticed how excited the people around Noynoy are about who the prospects are for vice president and senators? And have you not noticed how less the excitement is about what Noynoy can do for the country other than mouthing the same old motherhood statements?

There is no Cory Magic, only a desire to replace an unwanted administration Nothing wrong with that, except that we are headed again to another bout of failed

expectations by attaching significance to the tool — Noynoy — and not to us who make or break our nation.