Ninoy's 26th-year martyrdom today. The national papers--Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star and Manila Bulletin--ran full and half page ads, recalling the event when former senator Benigno Aquino, husband of Cory Aquino, the newly-installed Philippine heroine, was assassinated at the tarmac at the airport in Manila now named after him. I bought the Philippine Star before I went down to San Fernando to meet Sister Cecile Lanas of the Order of St. Benedictine.
No activity in San Fernando to mark the occasion. The office of Star Northern Luzon, where I was to meet Edwin Beleo, the layout man, to get my copies of the weekly tabloid is closed.( I run a column in the paper, Eyes Wide Open.)
They should have told me, I told my self. Anger was rising in me. But a Buddhist philosopher came to me, "Guard against negative thought." Jun Elias, the publisher, sent yesterday a text message the guy Edwin would be meeting me. Later, Jun was very apologetic for this incident.
Before 12 noon, I met the nun in her profession's habit. It was at the second floor of the Diocesan Center beside the St. William's Cathedral.
She was a young woman, frail, delicate as a rose. She talked to me in Ilocano with a Visayan accent. She must have learned Iloko by ear. Talking to her erased my doubts against the religion organization as she mentioned the activities like holding Bible seminars she and another nun had been doing to promote the faith and well-being of people.
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