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starshadow_rivaulx) wrote2009-08-03 04:54 pm
Funeral thoughts
- made out long-overdue checks for charity
- sorted receipts and updated expense log
- called Motolite when Innova battery died (thankfully, while still in the garage) and paid for new battery
- paid cable TV/internet bills
- checked credit card balance *shudder*
*satisfied nod* Now that's what I call a tidy list of accomplishments for the day. Am glad I decided to stay home today, the day Pres. Aquino's remains were transferred to the Manila Cathedral prior to the funeral Mass. I have no doubt that it will be a high Mass, with incense and chanted sections; combined with modern Catholic Renewal aspects. A President deserves no less, since the family opted out of a state funeral.
My husband and I had a little discussion about state funeral entitlements when I said that perhaps it would have been fitting for Pres. Aquino to have a state funeral - after all, in my own head at least, she was representative of the ordinary Juan de la Cruz. Not the masses, obviously - anyone whose family could afford to send her to the US to study couldn't possibly represent that end of the economic scale as well as someone who had worked their way up - but in the sense that she was not immersed in the political mayhem the way her husband was. "Just a housewife", as Marcos said, meaning it as a pejorative. But the term turned around to bite him, as ordinary people saw in her plain and simple ways a person just like themselves, and thought, "If a housewife can...why not us?" And we did, and the world saw history made without bloodshed when it could have gone so horribly wrong in an instant.
(We'll not go into my ranting about how various and sundry managed to screw up the chance of a lifetime. That is best left unsaid in public, for the present.)
So hubby asked if, since I thought Pres. Cory was entitled to a state funeral, did that that mean Pres. Marcos should get one too, since he was a President as well? I said, perhaps, strictly speaking he was entitled to one, as a former President; but certainly not to be buried at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani (Heroes' Cemetery, roughly our equivalent of Arlington). Practically speaking, though, the notion of state honors for one of the most notorious presidents ever in the history of the country is bound to make the nation have the vapors - and it certainly did have the vapors when the issue was broached all those years ago, and will probably continue to bristle until the man is finally laid to rest.
Come to think of it, I have no idea if Marcos has been buried already. I wouldn't mind waking up someday to find that that whole issue has been closed, once and for all.
Myself, I grew up in the middle of the Marcos years, but the political issues barely touched me. I was in college when Ninoy was assassinated, and it was one of the rare times I agreed with Dad that things would happen. You can bet my mother heaved a sigh of relief when I graduated and the political system was still intact, to all appearances. For the sake of family amity, I kept my opinions about the Cory presidency under a blanket, what with loyalist tendencies strong in the house. We made it through the coups - 1989 will forever live in my memory, but that's a story for another day - and the turnover of power from Cory to Ramos was a wondrous, *peaceful* thing!
(And once more I bite my tongue to keep from ranting about wasted opportunity. On to other topics!)
The Innova's battery, as noted above, died while in the garage. Dad grumbled and went into high dudgeon mode, then took the Avanza out to wherever it was he was going. Leaving me to call Motolite and advance the money for the payment of the battery - lucky that I had enough in my wallet to cover the payment, yo! He reimbursed me after lunch, and all was well.
Today turned out to be a day for financial updates. Sorting receipts and updating the logbooks. I rediscovered the folder with all the forms for donations to charity, and *finally* wrote out the checks for said donations. *bounce* My credit card bill arrived, and there will be enough money to cover it, thanks be to God for that. Also, bank statement has arrived, so I guess I should take care of that later tonight.
In a little while, I have to call up the Makati Med lab and ask if Dad has to fast for his BUN/creatinine blood test. If so, that means we don't have to be up all that early - however, if it's a fasting blood test, then we'll be up with the sunrise.
Well, guess I'll end here. I've turned on the TV for the first time in a while, and it's interesting catching up.
no subject
He was still laid in state in Ilocos when I went earlier this year, so no, not yet :)
I've been thinking a lot about local politics and missed chances, but like you I'm keeping quiet because now is not the right time (also, I know so little of facts; I only have my vague childhood memories to go by, so I'll probably get it all wrong...)