I’ve just turned off the tv after the credits have rolled for the movie “A Dangerous Life”, a movie made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The movie chronicled the last days of the Marcoses, the forces that was then, President Corazon Aquino’s role, that of Enrile, Ramos, Honasan, Tadiar, Ver and all those who were prominent figures in the Philippines’ People Power Revolution of 1986.
I have always enjoyed reading about Philippine History. While most of my classmates prefer the abridge version of Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, I ,on the other hand read the entire two books the summer prior to the school year when the books will be taken up. And to this day, I can recite the famous line of Elias to Basilio when the former was saying his goodbye to the motherland (and by far my most favorite line in all of Rizals’ works) and I am proud of that fact.
I get these goosebumps and felt this electric current coursing through my veins especially when I read successes over great difficulties by Filipinos. And the People Power that so impressed the world, that set an example to countries under totalitarian and dictatorial regimes that freedom and liberty can be had without bloodshed is one of my favorite topic in history. It’s a great shining moment for us Filipinos.
I was too young then to have an active part in EDSA, all I remembered was me and my cousins clamoring for that little heart shape stickers that we can get from a snack food called, well, people power curls. And that it was cool to flash the Laban sign and chant ‘Cory!’ Cory!’ That is why when President Corazon Aquino passed away last year I know I couldn’t forgive myself if I couldn’t be there with the people paying my last respect to the woman at the center of that bloodless revolution.
It took us 3 hours from Laguna to Luneta to be at Cory’s last night of wake at Manila Cathedral because of traffic. When we got there, there were already lots and lots of people queuing, the line was snaking the walls of Intramuros, it was a long, long line. The longest line I have witnessed in my entire life! And it was raining so hard when we joined the queue yet the line was never broken, and people were cheerful, nobody minded the rain, our shoes were soaked wet, so were our shirts, our umbrellas were pretty useless. It was less than a kilometer distance from where we started lining up to the cathedral but it took us 6 hours to finally gaze at Cory and pay our last respect to the icon of democracy. We just had a few seconds to see her and we have to move because thousands more were behind us. But it was enough.
The following day the whole nation and the world saw just how loved Corazon Aquino is by the Filipinos. I did not join the hundreds of thousands of our countrymen that made it to her funeral procession but I was at peace knowing I made the journey the night before; I was in the middle of history. I may never a chance of something that monumental in our country’s history again.
So anyway, I am thankful that a film such as ‘A Dangerous Life’ was made. I’m just puzzled why it was not a mandatory filmshowing when I was in school. I remembered sitting through ‘Gandhi’, ‘The Last Emperor’, ‘Raise The Red Lantern’ ‘Oro Plata Mata’ etc etc but not this movie.
it’s a curious thing.
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