Long goodbye
Long goodbye
Updated 05:10am (Mla time) Dec 22, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the December 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE PATH to the North Cemetery will be long. In the fresh, cold, crisp air, the legions will walk. Fernando Poe Jr.'s coffin, on a caisson, will be pulled by horses, but his fans, friends and family will walk. Recent days have been filled with statements from his widow Susan Roces and brother Conrad Poe, appealing to the people to escort Poe to his final resting place with dignity, respect and, above all, peacefulness.
We are sure that Filipinos from all walks of life and from all sides of the political fence will try to live up to that call. Beyond considerations of public order, there is the simple but profound consideration of giving to the dead what all the dead, rich or poor, famous or unknown, deserve: a final farewell that celebrates all that was beloved in a person.
The people that Poe loved--and who loved him back--proved in the past days, that they could pay him tribute without disgracing his memory. There were, to be sure, a few hotheads, and there was a minor stampede. But they were isolated incidents in a wake that was marked by the innate politeness and self-control of the Filipino.
Because Poe's funeral is a public occasion, it calls for public comment. The funeral itself will be grand without, as Conrad Poe himself said, being "grandioso" or grandiose. There will be pomp, but it will not be the pomp of the state. Instead, it will be the ritual of religion, and the ceremonial called for by Poe's way of life. There will be horses, which he loved, followed by the family he loved, surrounded by the people who love him, down the streets of a city he called his working home, to the cemetery where the tombs of his parents and brother await him. This is the Filipino way of death: full of symbols, rituals, meaning.
This is the question that faces so many people, as they bid Poe a final, and long, farewell. How will they give meaning to this final scene in a life that loomed so large in their own lives?
Whether attending the final, pre-dawn funeral Mass, or marching in the procession that may take up to six hours to wend its way from Santo Domingo Church to the North Cemetery, the wishes and example of Susan Roces must inspire Poe's fans. It is not only grief that must unite his fans and supporters, it must be the kind of self-control and discipline that has governed his wife through her days of public and private grief.
If much is expected--and asked--of Poe's loyal fans, the same, and even more, is asked of the police, the media and the officials of a government those fans and supporters resent and may even hate. Not everyone can be expected, in what will be a long and tiring funeral, to maintain his composure and self-control. The lines will be long. The crowds will ebb and flow. As crowds tend to be, this will have their own mind, even logic. The many will be at the mercy of a few, and it is how those few are treated--the hotheads, the shovers, the pushers, those temporarily blinded by passion and grief--that will dictate how the many will respond.
The Poe family has given every assurance that if it were up to them, the funeral would be emotional, but orderly. Unfortunately, their expectations and appeals can only go so far. They can only achieve so much. By their words and deeds, the public has every confidence that during the long farewell, their wishes will remain uppermost in the public's mind.
But after he is buried and the widow has gone home, and the pomp is done, there will still be the restless and grieving fans, the anxious and depressed supporters, of whom some people will want to take advantage. What Poe never wanted to do in life, some may try to do because of his death. The country and Poe's memory do not deserve such opportunism. Not now. Not ever. They cannot keep quiet in the face of a widow's express desire for peace, and then, when she has turned her back, turn her husband's supporters to thoughts of violence.
As the country takes to heart Susan Roces' appeals for peace and dignity at her husband's funeral, so must we make an appeal to her. Even after her husband is taken to his last resting place, may she not let politics turn a long goodbye into a farewell to the public peace and harmony she and her husband deeply desire.
Updated 05:10am (Mla time) Dec 22, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the December 22, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE PATH to the North Cemetery will be long. In the fresh, cold, crisp air, the legions will walk. Fernando Poe Jr.'s coffin, on a caisson, will be pulled by horses, but his fans, friends and family will walk. Recent days have been filled with statements from his widow Susan Roces and brother Conrad Poe, appealing to the people to escort Poe to his final resting place with dignity, respect and, above all, peacefulness.
We are sure that Filipinos from all walks of life and from all sides of the political fence will try to live up to that call. Beyond considerations of public order, there is the simple but profound consideration of giving to the dead what all the dead, rich or poor, famous or unknown, deserve: a final farewell that celebrates all that was beloved in a person.
The people that Poe loved--and who loved him back--proved in the past days, that they could pay him tribute without disgracing his memory. There were, to be sure, a few hotheads, and there was a minor stampede. But they were isolated incidents in a wake that was marked by the innate politeness and self-control of the Filipino.
Because Poe's funeral is a public occasion, it calls for public comment. The funeral itself will be grand without, as Conrad Poe himself said, being "grandioso" or grandiose. There will be pomp, but it will not be the pomp of the state. Instead, it will be the ritual of religion, and the ceremonial called for by Poe's way of life. There will be horses, which he loved, followed by the family he loved, surrounded by the people who love him, down the streets of a city he called his working home, to the cemetery where the tombs of his parents and brother await him. This is the Filipino way of death: full of symbols, rituals, meaning.
This is the question that faces so many people, as they bid Poe a final, and long, farewell. How will they give meaning to this final scene in a life that loomed so large in their own lives?
Whether attending the final, pre-dawn funeral Mass, or marching in the procession that may take up to six hours to wend its way from Santo Domingo Church to the North Cemetery, the wishes and example of Susan Roces must inspire Poe's fans. It is not only grief that must unite his fans and supporters, it must be the kind of self-control and discipline that has governed his wife through her days of public and private grief.
If much is expected--and asked--of Poe's loyal fans, the same, and even more, is asked of the police, the media and the officials of a government those fans and supporters resent and may even hate. Not everyone can be expected, in what will be a long and tiring funeral, to maintain his composure and self-control. The lines will be long. The crowds will ebb and flow. As crowds tend to be, this will have their own mind, even logic. The many will be at the mercy of a few, and it is how those few are treated--the hotheads, the shovers, the pushers, those temporarily blinded by passion and grief--that will dictate how the many will respond.
The Poe family has given every assurance that if it were up to them, the funeral would be emotional, but orderly. Unfortunately, their expectations and appeals can only go so far. They can only achieve so much. By their words and deeds, the public has every confidence that during the long farewell, their wishes will remain uppermost in the public's mind.
But after he is buried and the widow has gone home, and the pomp is done, there will still be the restless and grieving fans, the anxious and depressed supporters, of whom some people will want to take advantage. What Poe never wanted to do in life, some may try to do because of his death. The country and Poe's memory do not deserve such opportunism. Not now. Not ever. They cannot keep quiet in the face of a widow's express desire for peace, and then, when she has turned her back, turn her husband's supporters to thoughts of violence.
As the country takes to heart Susan Roces' appeals for peace and dignity at her husband's funeral, so must we make an appeal to her. Even after her husband is taken to his last resting place, may she not let politics turn a long goodbye into a farewell to the public peace and harmony she and her husband deeply desire.
posted by Dante at 5:10 AM
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