My family and I were at Edsa every day when people power started in February 1986. In words I could not explain, our kids were asking me and my wife why we were crying when we witnessed with our very eyes people standing right in front of rows of tanks and nuns offering flowers, all praying and begging that the soldiers not run over them for the love of God and country. It seemed God listened.
Virna Lisa Loberiza’s rendition of the beautiful song composed by Vicente Sotto III (now Senate president and vice presidential aspirant) “Magkaisa” filled the air all day long and sent shivers running up and down our spines. No doubt, it also electrified the tens of thousands of people who were there in response to the late Cardinal Sin’s call to action to end the corrupt regime of the Marcoses.
“Never again!” But fast forward decades later, now comes the late dictator’s clone named Bongbong Marcos who found the gall to offer himself as our next president to preserve the legacy of the father who, along with his entire family, was kicked out of the country for their unparalleled pillage and plunder of the country’s patrimony. No deeper abyss had the nation been plunged into in countless ways than the Marcoses had.
This is a crucial fight against the resurgence of evil in our midst. Let Virna Lisa’s song reverberate once more across the land to evoke memories of what the whole world used to call the “Filipinos’ finest hour.” Sotto may have moved on, but his teaming up with presidential aspirant Sen. Panfilo Lacson in opposition to Bongbong Marcos shows he still cares: Marcos must be defeated again at all costs.
Play that song for all and sundry to hear again, for God’s sake!
George del Mar
gdmlaw111@gmail.com