Shalani Soledad wept in her wedding

The Bride who was sacrificed for the sake of
the Filipino People

The camera never lies. When the camera shot the beautiful bride, Shalani Soledad, she was on the verge of crying a bucketful. For someone who just separated from her lover several moons ago, and now, married to someone she just met last August, it must have been a whirlwind and a difficult thing to accept for the thirty four year old beauty from Valenzuela. 


What were her thoughts back then, minutes before she walked the aisle and unto the arms of her new husband, Pasig Congressman Roman Romulo? Was she thinking of President Benigno Noynoy Aquino, the lover that decided to sacrifice his own happiness in favor of the presidency?


Noynoy decided to end his relationship with Shalani a few months after his vows before the people. The people, they say, are a jealous lot. They want their president for their own. Rumors also of Shalani's past haunted him, who, sources very close to PBSA3 say, disturbed but never changed his love for her. 

Sources told me that Pnoy just locked himself up in his Bahay Pangarap during the time that Shalani and Roman were saying their vows at the Ayala Westgrove church in Santa Rosa Laguna. Pnoy reportedly asked his aides not to disturb him. Pnoy had just ordered his aides to send his gifts to the newly-weds, since both are his friends. 


Shalani, according to friends who attended the wedding, was simply elegant. She was wearing a very simple Inno Sotto gown, with a veil hiding her lovely face. That veil hid her lovely eyes. No one ever noticed that, minutes ago, those eyes were filled with tears.


Were they tears of joy or of sadness or of regret? No one can tell, except Shalani who probably cursed the day when her love, Pnoy, went unto that stage, and promised to serve this country as its Bachelor President?


It must also been hard for Pnoy. At fifty years old, Pnoy has been reported to date this and that, and been seen, cozying up with this girl and that girl, only to end up, just by his lonesome after a dinner date. When he was still a Senator, Pnoy looked radiant. Look at his latest photo now, and you'll noticed that Pnoy, our President, just got thinner and he aged a lot. The burdens of the Presidency must have taken most of his time and his health as well. 


I pray for a time that we will not burden the Aquino family anymore on the affairs of the Philippine State. This family has taken more hits than any single one of us. The Aquino family has been tortured to no avail during the dictatorial regime of Marcos, humiliated, spit at, and isolated. It was the Filipino People who urged this family to take the cudgels of leading the fight for democracy. This family has sacrificed a lot for the Filipino Nation.


BY 2016, I hope that we give Pnoy and his family, the rest that they deserve. The Aquinos must retire from politics, knowing full well that they have contributed enough for the Inang Bayan and their stature in history will never be questioned. If the Americans have their Kennedys, we have our Aquinos.