FPJ wake should have been in Cebu

I suppose I could have asked my brother Eddie to speak to the family of Fernando Poe Jr. so that I could go directly into the chamber where FPJ was lying in state. But because I wanted to get a good feel of popular sentiment for the fallen idol, I decided to join the queue of people who wanted to pay their last respects to FPJ.

And so at about 1:30 in the morning of Dec. 18, I looked for the start of the FPJ-wake queue. I was shocked to find it two blocks away, close to the National Orthopedic Hospital. I had prepared myself for a wait of two or three hours before I could view the remains of the presidential candidate of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino; I figured that was how long the queue would take to bring me before FPJ's remains.

How wrong I was. Between 1:30 a.m. and the time I found myself in front of FPJ's coffin - 7:10 a.m. - my fellow queuers and I had snaked our way around two entire Santa Mesa Heights blocks and shuffled our feet along Banawe, Dapitan, Biak na Bato, P. Florentino and Mariano Cuenco streets.

Almost six hours was how long it took to be able to pay my last respects to Da King of Philippine movies. Until last Thursday, I never had to wait that long for anything in my entire life, but the wait was well worth it.

The make-up of the crowd that I queued with last Saturday destroyed the stereotype about the kind of Filipinos who admired FPJ and supported his candidacy in the May 2004 elections. By no means were the men and women who shuffled with me along those Santa Mesa Heights streets all representatives of the D and E income classes. Many of them appeared to be professionals - clerks, secretaries, salesmen, nurses, perhaps even lawyers and doctors. The youth were well represented in the queue. FPJ's critics, particularly in the business community, were dead wrong in thinking that Da King's candidacy found support only among the inadequately less educated people of this country.

One of the things that struck me most strongly about the men and women with whom I queued last Saturday morning was the quietude with which they went about trying to get a glimpse - for many, like myself, a first glimpse - of Da King. I fully expected the boisterousness and the chatter that is usual for such an occasion, but my fellow queuers were not at all noisy. Sullen is perhaps the most accurate way the mood of the mourners on that December morn.

There lies the danger for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her administration. The mien of the people with whom I queued last Saturday - apparently a combination of frustration, resentment and quiet anger - bodes ill for GMA and her allies. Angry over the unconstitutional removal of Joseph Estrada in Jan 2001 by the GMA-led band of conspirators, my fellow mourners now felt even more resentful of GMA for having cheated FPJ of his rightful victory and thereby precipitating his demise.

A sullen crowd is a dangerous crowd. It represents kindling, and all that kindling needs to be converted into a raging fire is a small spark. In the days to come, that spark could come from any number of places.

From the snatches of conversations that I picked up, it was evident that my fellow mourners were a geographically mixed lot. Some had come from Ilocos, others from central Luzon and still others from Mindanao. The couple just ahead of me, who certainly didn't look like D-E types, said they had just arrived from Davao City. To say Da King had a nationwide following is to state a truth.

While exchanging notes with my fellow queuers and picking up snatches of conversations, it occurred to me that FPJ's wake should have been held in Cebu City. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies have been claiming that the Commission on Elections honestly tallied and the National Board of Canvassers honestly canvassed, the votes of the Cebuanos and that GMA's one million vote majority represented the true will of Cebu City and the province of Cebu. The nation would then have seen, in authentic fashion, the feelings of admiration and affection of the Cebuanos for their fallen idol. The sight of hundreds of thousands of Cebuanos queuing to pay their last respects to FPJ would have shattered, in authentic fashion, whatever claims GMA and her allies have been making about her political strength among the Cebuanos.

The meaning of the almost six hours I spent last Saturday in and around Santo Domingo Church is something that I will remember and cherish, for the rest of my days.

Back to Life after Poe: The popular redux | Democracy Files