THE "CORY YELLOW" AND HOW IT CAME TO BE

Yellow blooms for Ninoy and Cory

Familiar scenes and activities of the past months marked the dramatic return of the “yellow fever” on the world stage where the atmosphere was characterized by people wearing clothes and using things and other symbols predominantly yellow in color. Even web pages, especially blog sites like this one (Goddy: An Unbreakable Spirit), were adorned with yellow ribbons with introduction or background why they are on the Net.

Occasioned by former President Cory’s affliction with colon cancer, her friends and supporters including the Catholic Church offered prayers for her recovery using yellow ribbons as symbol of their love and concern. When she passed away on the first day of August this year, the color yellow, identified with her--the country’s most loved president--became even more conspicuous and prominent in many places in Metro Manila and on the Net.

Cris Rivera, an officemate, approached me one vacant time and told me that his children asked him why the color yellow became “Cory’s symbol”. He said he had no idea and asked me if I knew the answer.

Cris is more than 10 years my junior and told me that he was just a student when the Aquino assassination and the People Power Revolution took place.

I told him that Ninoy Aquino’s return to the Philippines from his 3-year exile in the United States had the answer although I wasn’t really sure if I made a precise recollection of events. I told him I had no time to make a research but basing on events that unfolded during those times and news stories that I’ve read, I would try to give him a short background of the story.

As I started answering his question, I appeared like I was telling him a beautiful and deeply-moving story—a very touching love story between a patriotic man and his country and people; a very poignant love story between a man and his woman.

So, let me begin…

After Ninoy’s incarceration for more than seven years, he suffered from heart ailment that necessitated his release from his cell for a bypass operation in the United States. Ferdinand Marcos allowed him to leave the country subject to certain conditions.

When the successful operation was over, Ninoy and his family settled in Boston, Massachussetts. There, on fellowship grants from Harvard University and the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, he gave lectures. (President Cory, in her speech before the joint session of the United States Congress, stated that those 3 years they spent in Boston were their happiest years together.)

After three years of his self-imposed exile in the United States and after learning about the ailing Marcos’ deteriorating health condition, he decided to come back to the Philippines to unite the fragmented opposition.

Since Ninoy had been away for three long years, he wanted some signs or indications that people or those he left behind still wanted him back. Inspired by the old song Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree which was originally recorded and popularized by Tony Orlando and Dawn, he asked them to tie yellow ribbons on trees and elsewhere.

In a television interview during the 26th year anniversary of Ninoy’s death, Mr. Lichauco (I believe he’s Ninoy’s brother-in-law) said that when Ninoy returned, yellow ribbons were indeed tied or placed on cars at the then Manila International Airport (MIA) and on some conspicuous places there, which Ninoy never got the chance to see since he was assassinated.

Upon Cory’s return from Boston to bury Ninoy, she was able to know about the public’s outrage over the killing of her husband. That was evidently seen at the wake and during the funeral—the biggest ever in Philippine history—where roughly two million people escorted Ninoy to his final resting place.

When the opposition drafted Cory for its official candidate in the snap presidential election, she obliged and adopted the color yellow and the "L" or Laban sign for her campaign symbols. She wore yellow dress in the whole duration of the campaign period. The color yellow which became the symbol of protest united even more not only the opposition but the entire Filipino people.

Thus, the color yellow which in my high school days used to stand for “jealousy” radically changed its meaning to being a symbol of protest and courage.

Recently, however, in its dramatic return to the world stage, the color yellow, still ascribed to and identified with Tita Cory, became a symbol of love and affection as the whole nation grieved and mourned the passing away of its most loved president and leader.