The end of rivalries? I doubt.

During Cory Aquino's wake at the Manila Cathedral, among one of the main issues there was the visitation of the Marcoses and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself. The Aquinos accepted the visitation of Bongbong and Imee Marcos, but somewhat was "cold" upon GMA's short 7 minute visit to the wake.

In my opinion, there seems to be a problem with this, epsecially with media's portrayal of it.

First, let's dwell with the Marcoses. Ok granted they have visited the wake of Cory, with the Aquino siblings confronting Imee and Bongbong, does this mean that the rivalry has ended, as how media portrays it? In my opinion, I think this is just a partial ending to the rivalry. The bigger part of the rivalry is still missing. For me, if the rivalry has truly ended, then Imelda Marcos, the first lady of the dictator, should have visited at least. Did she paid her last respects to Cory? As far as I know, she wasn't there at the wake, save for her daughter Imee and her son Bongbong. There's still some unresolved conflict behind it.

How about GMA? Well we all know that she did cut her trip short in order to visit the wake of Cory. People were cold about it. Media portrayed it in a cold way as well. Well yeah, GMA used to be an ally of Cory during People Power 2, up until the election fraud issues that GMA had in 2005, starting with the Hello Garci scandal. Not that I am Pro-GMA or Anti-GMA (I'm more of neutral when it comes to this), but at events like this, politics should step aside. GMA did have the freedom to visit or not to visit Cory's wake. She decided to do the former, and we should not politicize or be cold about it. If we are talking about sincerity issues here, well at least GMA did made a short visit amidst issues about her and the conflict she has between her and the Aquinos.

The point here? GMA did made a last-ditch effort to fix up her reputation by paying respect to the late president, and even offering a state funeral (which the Aquinos declined). Behind all the numerous issues behind her, the latest being her supposedly last SoNA, she still paid respect to a political figure that became her rival after the 2004 elections. In my opinion, GMA somewhat did something right for once as she made an effort to visit the late president. I'm not saying that the rivalries are over, but the good point here is that rivalries are set aside for this particular event.

How I wish Imelda Marcos visited and also paid her last respects to the woman behind People Power 1.