Mere justice will do
Mere justice will do
Updated 00:09am (Mla time) Dec 21, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the December 21, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
FRANKLY, I can't understand what Malacañang meant to accomplish by proposing that Fernando Poe Jr. be turned into a national artist and/or be buried in Libingan ng mga Bayani. I got a lot of text messages from people, some of whom had been President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's supporters during the elections, saying she was looking more and more ridiculous trying everything to stem the tide of sympathy for Poe and an accompanying tide of antipathy toward her.
I could only agree. It only served to highlight the contrast between honesty and dishonesty, sincerity and insincerity, which was already forming in the public's mind, with government occupying the second part of the dichotomy. "Kaplastikan" was the word Susan Roces and several others used to describe those who materialized at the wake looking grief-stricken after stabbing Poe in the back during the elections. The word echoed deafeningly with the proposal to turn Poe into national artist and hero.
It doesn't appease enemies, it only pisses off friends. It only adds national artists and heroes, or the kin of national artists and heroes since most national artists and heroes are dead almost by definition, to the list of enemies.
I know Poe did a lot of movies, probably more than any other Filipino movie star, and I know that he captured the Filipino imagination by portraying characters his countrymen could relate to. When we were kids we spoke his name with reverence, far more than we did Erap's and Bernard Bonnin's (who portrayed Gagamba, Alyas Palos, Kapten Barbel, and other comic book heroes), and imagined ourselves to be him when we played our war, cowboy and other children's games. He was the quintessential Filipino hero: humble, soft-spoken, respectful of elders, but a veritable lion when pushed to the wall. And of course one possessed of heroic or magical abilities.
But I don't know that these things alone qualify anyone to become a national artist. Unfortunately, Poe was also trapped by his own popularity. He could not get past his heroic image and essay more complex, or indeed more real, characters. He couldn't even die in his movies without alienating his public. What endeared him to the public was also what distanced him from true art, the kind Erap and especially Dolphy ventured into when they became more established. One may have more of a case proposing Dolphy as national artist.
Let us honor Poe, but let us not dishonor Nick Joaquin, Lino Brocka and Antonio Molina.
Who knows? Maybe Malacañang threw the proposal as bait, hoping to enrage the artistic community should Poe's kin and friends bite. Well, they didn't.
As to being proclaimed a hero, I know that Poe was a hero not just to the legions of folk he had helped in the movies but in real life. He was a savior to many of his friends, not the least of them the least of the people in show biz, or the ones who tend to be ignored in the division of spoils at the end of a movie. He was good to the crew, the stuntmen, the gofers, becoming "ninong" (godfather) at their weddings and baptisms, taking care of their hospital bills, and being there in their hour of need. He himself had started below, working as a stuntman before he worked his way up. He knew what it meant to be hungry.
But as I wrote only last week, about the six people who have just been added to the Wall of Remembrance in the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Lean Alejandro, Joe Burgos, Jun Celestial, Paula Malay, Laverne Mercado, Bobbit Sanchez), though heroes, are ordinary folk like us, they are also ordinary folk who have done extraordinary things by glimpsing the need to serve the people. Heroism is more than beneficence or generosity, it is courage and self-sacrifice. It is pushing back the limits of the possible. It is fighting tyranny, it is struggling to build a new world, even at cost to life and limb.
Let us honor Poe, but let us not dishonor Lean, Joe, Jun, Ayi, Laverne and Bobbit.
In any case, it is completely unnecessary. Poe's kin never sought it, and Poe himself would have been unhappy with it. He was an unpretentious man, his wife, Susan Roces, recalls. He was never one to make himself out as something he was not. He knew his limitations, which is more than can be said for others who are without accomplishment.
More to the point, it misses the point completely. It is giving a new pair of eyes to someone who is missing his feet. Unlike his chief rival in the elections, Poe never lacked attention or has been "kulang sa pansin." At least in the eyes of the public. For unlike his chief rival in the elections, too, Poe has lacked attention from the Comelec and Congress. Both took him to not exist at all, the first ignoring the gross violations of electoral rules being committed openly by his chief rival, the second railroading the count on the ground that this country would die if it did not have a new president soon. It forgot that this country would die sooner if it had the wrong president.
I do not know if Poe or Arroyo won the elections. But that is the problem precisely: we do not know who did. That the Comelec and Congress decreed Arroyo did so does not settle the question, it only unsettles our mind about the nature of the Comelec and Congress. Poe has every right to pursue his protest, and I hope his followers do so amid all talk that it would destabilize the country. The pursuit of truth has never destabilized a country, the defense of a lie has. Cory's quest for a recount after the snap elections did not destabilize the country, Marcos' defense of a crooked election and a moor crooked rule did so.
Ah, but it is no small irony that in this country death is the loudest whisper of all. To get listened to, you have to die first.
Never mind more accolades and honors for Poe. Mere justice will do.
Updated 00:09am (Mla time) Dec 21, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the December 21, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
FRANKLY, I can't understand what Malacañang meant to accomplish by proposing that Fernando Poe Jr. be turned into a national artist and/or be buried in Libingan ng mga Bayani. I got a lot of text messages from people, some of whom had been President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's supporters during the elections, saying she was looking more and more ridiculous trying everything to stem the tide of sympathy for Poe and an accompanying tide of antipathy toward her.
I could only agree. It only served to highlight the contrast between honesty and dishonesty, sincerity and insincerity, which was already forming in the public's mind, with government occupying the second part of the dichotomy. "Kaplastikan" was the word Susan Roces and several others used to describe those who materialized at the wake looking grief-stricken after stabbing Poe in the back during the elections. The word echoed deafeningly with the proposal to turn Poe into national artist and hero.
It doesn't appease enemies, it only pisses off friends. It only adds national artists and heroes, or the kin of national artists and heroes since most national artists and heroes are dead almost by definition, to the list of enemies.
I know Poe did a lot of movies, probably more than any other Filipino movie star, and I know that he captured the Filipino imagination by portraying characters his countrymen could relate to. When we were kids we spoke his name with reverence, far more than we did Erap's and Bernard Bonnin's (who portrayed Gagamba, Alyas Palos, Kapten Barbel, and other comic book heroes), and imagined ourselves to be him when we played our war, cowboy and other children's games. He was the quintessential Filipino hero: humble, soft-spoken, respectful of elders, but a veritable lion when pushed to the wall. And of course one possessed of heroic or magical abilities.
But I don't know that these things alone qualify anyone to become a national artist. Unfortunately, Poe was also trapped by his own popularity. He could not get past his heroic image and essay more complex, or indeed more real, characters. He couldn't even die in his movies without alienating his public. What endeared him to the public was also what distanced him from true art, the kind Erap and especially Dolphy ventured into when they became more established. One may have more of a case proposing Dolphy as national artist.
Let us honor Poe, but let us not dishonor Nick Joaquin, Lino Brocka and Antonio Molina.
Who knows? Maybe Malacañang threw the proposal as bait, hoping to enrage the artistic community should Poe's kin and friends bite. Well, they didn't.
As to being proclaimed a hero, I know that Poe was a hero not just to the legions of folk he had helped in the movies but in real life. He was a savior to many of his friends, not the least of them the least of the people in show biz, or the ones who tend to be ignored in the division of spoils at the end of a movie. He was good to the crew, the stuntmen, the gofers, becoming "ninong" (godfather) at their weddings and baptisms, taking care of their hospital bills, and being there in their hour of need. He himself had started below, working as a stuntman before he worked his way up. He knew what it meant to be hungry.
But as I wrote only last week, about the six people who have just been added to the Wall of Remembrance in the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Lean Alejandro, Joe Burgos, Jun Celestial, Paula Malay, Laverne Mercado, Bobbit Sanchez), though heroes, are ordinary folk like us, they are also ordinary folk who have done extraordinary things by glimpsing the need to serve the people. Heroism is more than beneficence or generosity, it is courage and self-sacrifice. It is pushing back the limits of the possible. It is fighting tyranny, it is struggling to build a new world, even at cost to life and limb.
Let us honor Poe, but let us not dishonor Lean, Joe, Jun, Ayi, Laverne and Bobbit.
In any case, it is completely unnecessary. Poe's kin never sought it, and Poe himself would have been unhappy with it. He was an unpretentious man, his wife, Susan Roces, recalls. He was never one to make himself out as something he was not. He knew his limitations, which is more than can be said for others who are without accomplishment.
More to the point, it misses the point completely. It is giving a new pair of eyes to someone who is missing his feet. Unlike his chief rival in the elections, Poe never lacked attention or has been "kulang sa pansin." At least in the eyes of the public. For unlike his chief rival in the elections, too, Poe has lacked attention from the Comelec and Congress. Both took him to not exist at all, the first ignoring the gross violations of electoral rules being committed openly by his chief rival, the second railroading the count on the ground that this country would die if it did not have a new president soon. It forgot that this country would die sooner if it had the wrong president.
I do not know if Poe or Arroyo won the elections. But that is the problem precisely: we do not know who did. That the Comelec and Congress decreed Arroyo did so does not settle the question, it only unsettles our mind about the nature of the Comelec and Congress. Poe has every right to pursue his protest, and I hope his followers do so amid all talk that it would destabilize the country. The pursuit of truth has never destabilized a country, the defense of a lie has. Cory's quest for a recount after the snap elections did not destabilize the country, Marcos' defense of a crooked election and a moor crooked rule did so.
Ah, but it is no small irony that in this country death is the loudest whisper of all. To get listened to, you have to die first.
Never mind more accolades and honors for Poe. Mere justice will do.
posted by Dante at 12:09 AM
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