Cory's Funeral March: Biggest in 21st Century

It was the biggest funeral march of the 21st century, a fitting tribute and a huge expression of love and thanks to the one woman, the only one, who taught us how to be Filipinos again.

More than a million Filipinos witnessed Cory's funeral march. At exactly 11 in the morning, after an elaborate and heart warming send off, the casket bearing the remains of the Philippines' greatest democracy icon was given full military honors and laid to a truck decked with thousands of flowers. The distance between Manila Cathedral and the Manila Memorial Park is just 22 kilometers, enough for an hour or so of drive.

Yet, the cortege took nearly eight to ten hours to reach the park. The sheer number of people who turned out to bid Cory goodbye easily reached millions. Authorities tried to fool us by saying that those crowds were just a fraction of a million, an attempt by this government to lessen the historical significance of this event. But, we cannot be fooled this time.

Everyone saw how thousands upon thousands went out of their homes to see Cory and utter a prayer for her. Millions watched her on television and millions more read about the event and followed her on twitter and the net. ABS-CBN said that they got more than 80,000 tweets from 11am to 2pm and I'm sure that by the time it ended, tweets would have reached a million too.

There were a million clicks of cameras, a million prayers uttered and millions more of chants of her name. The sheer banality of it all leaves one thinking if there will still be another one such as this.

Cory touched every one of us because she's the exact opposite of the one who rules us now. People even remarked that Cory deserves this huge expression of love. Hindi lang natin maisip ngayon kung ilan ang dadalo sa libing ni Gloria Arroyo. Baka nga wala.

These numbers here, in the streets, is also the clearest expression of rage, of disgusts and of silent anger against the Arroyo administration. Many people here vowed never to go to Arroyo's wake nor her burial.

Lahat tayo, mamamatay.

Let me share with you some scenes which I took when the cortege went pass our house in Makati. For my fellow Filipino Patriots who live abroad---bumalik na kayo sa Inang Bayan. Panahon na para itama ang kamalian.