Memo To: NHI Director Ambeth Ocampo on monument for tita cory – we beg you not to color it green

Memo To : NHI Director Ambeth Ocampo,

Dear Mr. Ocampo,

We read in the newspapers that President Arroyo has ordered the building of a monument for Tita Cory at Rizal Park and that the details of this plan will be passed on to the NHI. As head of the NHI, it will most likely be placed on your table and decisions made by you.

NHI Chair Ambeth Ocampo

We almost choked on our steaming hot coffee when we read that on the newspaper. We immediately took 2  Advils, reached for 3 tablets of Valium, ordered a bottle of Pepto-Bismal and texted our psychiatrist to  schedule a marathon session on Monday. Pearls of sweat ran down through our forehead even though the electric fan was on full blast. We waited for the medicine for headache and depression to kick in before we finished reading the article.

Afte reading the news article, Mr. Ocampo – I am afraid, I am very afraid.

Right after breakfast, I went to church and said a prayer. This was partly my prayer:

• That NHI has  gained some good taste since Jose Rizal’s house was painted puke green.
• That NHI will refrain, stop itself  no matter how strong the urge  from turning Tita Cory’s monument at Rizal Park into some monument of trivial pursuit like on Rizal’s house – Rizal meant the green of newly harvested rice (even though the color of newly harvested rice is golden, not green). We shudder at the thought that the NNHI might find a color associated with the name Cory or the name Aquino.
• We hope that NHI will not  make Tita Cory’s monument screaming yellow since yellow was Tita Cory’s color. We are afraid the obsession on  giving us the  trivia on the colors that are associated with names might once again show.
• We pray that the NHI  will not have a design of  Tita Cory’s monument to talk about the beginnings of the color yellow, the yellow ribbon and God forbid a monument of a yellow ribbon tied around a tree with the figure of Cory on top of the tree. (shudder! one more Valium on the go!)
• We hope the NHI  will not ask its staff to go scrape off some paint to find out what the original color is of something.
• Finally, we hope that the NHI  will have enough money to buy the paint that has the right color for the  monument so that  the excuse that NHI  did not have  enough money to paint Rizal’s house in the right shade of green will no longer be used.

To be honest with you Mr. Ocampo, it is hard to pin down what we are most afraid of –

•  is it NHI’s  lack of aesthetic taste (in other words “poor taste”) in seeing puke green as dignified enough for a national hero 
• or the obsession with trivial pursuit in shoving to us the meaning of Rizal’s name, an item of minus zero historical significance to Rizal’s life  and the country

We hope and pray, and this will be topic of the Novena I will start on Wednesday at Baclaran Church, that NHI will see the light on this matter and that it will not be tempted to give in to its nature.

Tita Cory means a lot to the country and the people, let not poor taste and obsession for trivial pursuit punish us. We hope that this time, you will not be the “idiot” (your words, not mine) who will do harm to the memory of Tita Cory as it was to Jose Rizal.

Yours truly,

~wawam~

ps: Mr. Ocampo – is the NHI involved in the selection of Carlo J Caparas as national artist?

——-

Arroyo orders monument to Cory Aquino built
By Christian V. Esguerra, Jerome Aning
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:08:00 08/21/2009

MANILA, Philippines — Enshrined in the hearts of Filipinos, Corazon Aquino will also soon be immortalized in concrete and steel.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the immediate construction of a monument in honor of the late President’s contributions to Philippine democracy, Malacañang said Thursday.

The statue of Aquino will be erected at Rizal Park in Manila where the monument to national hero Jose Rizal also stands.

Golez said the NHI would determine the details of the project, including where the monument specifically would rise. There was also no word on who would build it.

source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090821-221302/Arroyo-orders-monument-to-Cory-Aquino-built

 

read about the “idiot” who painted Jose Rizal’s house puke green here: https://wawam.wordpress.com/?s=jose+rizal