Gettin' even's easy . . . Poetic Justice, that's an art! – Ironhorse Writer

C ertainly God knows when to call Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino to the Great Beyond. Former President Aquino died Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, (Manila time) while incumbent President Gloria M. Arroyo was still enjoying in the United States the euphoria over her visit with President Obama last Thursday, July 30. Mrs. Aquino’s death not only made her get even with Mrs. Arroyo but she delivered also several doses of poetic justice to her.

Mainstream American newspapers devoted ample spaces in their obituary section to Mrs. Aquino while they did not give even a single column inch to the visiting Gloria Arroyo. The Los Angeles Times even had a color photograph of Mrs. Aquino in the Front Page of its Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, issue, and devoted a whole page (P. 24) to an obituary piece about her. The Los Angeles Times did not bother to mention even in its Comics Section the visit of Gloria Arroyo to President Obama.

* Editor’s Note: The Ironhorse Writer AKA Laurence P. Scerri used to play online poker with this editor. The URL to Mr. Scerri’s website, http://www.ironhorsewriter.com/  

It would seem now that former President Aquino got even with Gloria Arroyo when her office decided to recall two soldiers serving as Mrs. Aquino's security detail after the former president called on President Arroyo to step down in 2005. Yes, while Mrs. Aquino was once an ally of President Arroyo, she joined the campaign for her removal after the current Filipino head of state was accused of corruption and election fraud.

Nowadays, nobody talks in the Philippines or in the United States or anywhere else about Gloria Arroyo’s ill-advised visit to the White House. Everybody talks about Cory Aquino and her legacy to her country and the free world.

And Mrs. Aquino’s death forced Gloria Arroyo and her huge entourage to fly back to the Philippines, thereby saving Filipino taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional wasteful expenses. Mrs. Arroyo was forced to cancel the Philippine-government's hosted dinner at a five-star hotel near the O’Hare International Airport in Chicagoland, Illinois, tonight, April 3^rd. And even if the Philippine Consulate General of Chicago had to forfeit its deposit with the hotel, still the Filipino people saved thousands of dollars that Mrs. Arroyo and Company would have spent in their extravagant but useless junket to the Midwest.

F inally, Mrs. Aquino’s funeral on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009, may be the beginning of Gloria Arroyo’s own political demise. If this happens, then surely Tita Cory Aquino might be able to deliver in death the ultimate poetic justice. Perhaps, Mrs. Aquino might be able to do what she could not accomplish while she was living: Change in the presidency. And change for the better, at that. # # #