EDITORIAL - Paying lip service to democracy

Democracy icon Nelson Mandela has been laid to rest and what the world has left of him is the memory of a great man. Henceforth, every dealing anyone will have of him will be through the pages of history books. Once he has moved to the great beyond, he is beyond any real physical manifestation of respect.

In this regard, it can be said that President Aquino, himself a son of democracy icons Ninoy and Cory Aquino, missed a rare golden opportunity to give meaning to the legacy he has been bequeathed with, and whose halo has served him in good stead.

The closest that Aquino did to pay his respects to Mandela was to sign a condolence book at the South African embassy in Manila. That seems pretty perfunctory for the Philippines' own son of democracy icons to pay for his late parents' counterparts on history's glorious stage.

To be sure, neither Aquino nor any other head of state from any of the world's more than 200 countries is under any obligation to travel to South Africa to personally show respect to Mandela. But one would have thought that Aquino being the son of Ninoy and Cory, and a born Catholic at that, would have found time to go.

But Aquino did not. For whatever reason, he chose not to go. Instead he sent vice President Jejomar Binay in his stead. Now, there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it would have been perfectly all right for Binay to go in representation of Aquino -- if only Aquino had not been the son of Ninoy and Cory.

His being the son of Ninoy and Cory should have been the most compelling reason for Aquino to go. For how can he and everyone around him -- friends, family, political allies -- keep invoking the fact of his being the son of democracy icons and then, when the chance arose to prove it in deed, shirk regrettably from doing so.

The sad thing about it is that the missed opportunity will never present itself again. Mandela can be laid to rest only once, and that has been done. There is no other Mandela burial Aquino can go to. Anything he does afterward, whether to visit the grave or intone some memory, will forever be an afterthought.

Aquino did not have to attend the burial. There were many other memorial services he could have attended. Other world leaders didn't also. But he should have gone. Personally. As a son of fellow democracy icons whose legacy was the only reason he became president.

Now, every time Aquino invokes the fact that he is a son of democracy icons will henceforth ring hollow and meaningless in light of his omission. Aquino can no longer invoke his relations to democracy icons without being accused, correctly it may be added, of simply paying lip service to democracy.