The passing away of many memorable people whom I had the fortune - as well as misfortune of encountering in my life's history in the Philippines, brings to mind some questions about what and how these well-known personalities have touched my life.I was truly saddened about Cory Aquino's death and memories of her home in Times Street, Quezon city came back. She spoke little, was seen little in a court of friends and journalists where her husband was the main actor. Yet, one could sense the strength she had that was her husband's lifeline during his days of incarceration and exile. She said with a half smile during a dinner I had with her: " So, is it true that (President) Marcos is afraid of Ninoy? What is he afraid of ?" I could have said: " The force that Ninoy Aquino has to end the Marcos regime". It is prophetic that it was infact Cory Aquino who led the moral crusade that ended the dictatorship after Ninoy was brutally assasinated in the Manila International airport.
The late President Ferdinand Marcos left a million quotable lines - his and his brilliant speech writers. As a journalist then, there was no shortage of quotes from this man who knew what to feed journalists hungering for good lines. The one I remember most was what he said at a press conference in Malacanang Palace. I think I asked him if the New People's Army (NPA) could surrender without giving up their arms. And he replied with his typical half-smile, half-smirk on his face: " I will embrace my enemy even as I hold a knife in my hand."
My best pal, Time's Nelly Sindayen owns a great number of lines for each of her friends, as well as foes. The ones that drew great laughter was her Tausog dialect spoken like a homosexual. And when she talks, her own laughter was never far behind. Then there was Teddy Benigno of AFP - also gone and probably having a good laugh with Ninoy Aquino - somewhere out there. Teddy wrote long columns and one often wondered if he ever learned the use of a period to end sentences.
And not too long ago, Adrian Cristobal also passed away. Adrian was a great speech writer not just of the late Pres. Marcos but more so of Imelda Marcos. Of lines and quotes, one cannot forget the ones that Adrian wrote or said. What I remember most were the ones he wrote when I was a newcomer at the College Editors' Guild, and he and the late Labor Secretary Blas Ople - another brilliant speech writer of Marcos, were conference lecturers. In one of his private letters he wrote: "You are Galathea to Pygmalion". I was an aspiring writer and I thought that he was trying to encourage me. They were beautiful lines he wrote when he was not yet in the corridors of power.
As I sit and ponder at many living lines that friends and enemies left behind, I also see their faces expressive in what they are saying and later breaking into joyous laughter. How could these people with great minds simply go and we are left to muse over what had been said, at which juncture of a life's history and that of a nation.#
