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SOME Filipinos claim a political supremacy over the
Americans in the sense that the United States has not elected a
woman president. That may change if the Democratic Party nominates
Sen. Hillary Clinton for president and if she trounces her
Republican rival in the 2008 presidential election.
Senator Clinton has announced
that she is launching her presidential bid for 2008. The
announcement has been long awaited and her fans are cheering. Some
Democrats and many Republicans, however, see her as a polarizing
figure who could split the party or, if nominated, would lose the
election.
She had been a controversial
first lady in the eight years of her husband’s presidency.
Strong-willed and opinionated, she had antagonized Americans within
and outside her party. She is also a colorful, fascinating woman
with style and wit, who has the ability to survive crises. She
proved her popularity by triumphing twice in the state of New York
and winning admirers in the US Senate.
She faces a critical gender test.
Rep. Geraldine Ferraro ran for vice-president with Sen. Walter
Mondale in 1984 and lost. America’s two major parties have
historically abstained from nominating outstanding women to the
highest position. It’s not for lack of qualified candidates. The
glass ceiling has slammed shut on promising American women.
This is where Filipinos claim an
edge over the Americans. Twice, they have chosen two women to head
their country. Corazon Aquino and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo have
fulfilled the potential of the Filipino woman, heading others who
have occupied high positions in the judiciary, the Congress and the
local governments.
The image of a feisty,
controversial woman dogs the junior senator from New York. But she
can raise the campaign money, has a strong organization and she has
the most popular name among the candidates. Her husband remains
popular despite past controversies.
Filipinos know more about her
than her rivals in the Democratic and Republican camps. Name
recognition makes her a favorite bet in the islands.
What her foreign policy would be,
especially toward Asia, is a big question. She has opposed the war
in Iraq but has not asked for a deadline for US withdrawal. On
foreign policy, she has a formidable rival in Condoleezza Rice, a
likely Republican choice in 2008.
Daisy Avellana
Daisy Hontiveros-Avellana, at 90,
continues to inspire. Her legend lives. Her influence on the theater
effervesces.
Today the Cultural Center of the
Philippines and the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA)
will honor her with dramatic readings from plays she had appeared
in. Daisies: The Women of Philippine Theater Celebrate Daisy
Avellana will cast stage veterans like Rustica Carpio, Cecile
Guidote-Alvarez and Naty Crame-Rogers. The tribute to the first lady
of theater will last for a year.
Ms. Avellana and her husband,
Lamberto V. Avellana, organized the first theater group, the
Barangay Theater Guild, in 1939. The company produced and staged
outstanding plays, attracted young talents and enlivened culture in
Manila. She played the lead in most of the plays while Mr. Avellana
directed.
A milestone was the staging of
Nick Joaquin’s Portrait of the Artist as Filipino in the ruins of
Intramuros where Ms. Avellana played Candida, together with eminent
actors like Vic Silayan, Armando Goyena, Sarah K. Joaquin and Dolly
Benavidez.
For her service to art and
culture, Ms. Avellana was made National Artist for Theater in 1999,
an honor her husband earned in 1976. Her interests ranged the
challenges of stage, radio, film and journalism. Celebrated as the
Grand Dame of Philippine Theater, she remains a guiding light in the
theater movement. We wish her more standing ovations on her birthday
day.
Pura
Santillan-Castrence
PURA Santillan-Castrence, who
died January 15 at age 101, wrote most of her life. She specialized
in the essay, keen observations on life, history and culture. Before
her death, she published a collection of her works, As I See It:
Filipinos and the Philippines which brought together her essays from
her youth to the time she retired in Melbourne, Australia.
She was a pioneer in the
Philippine foreign service, a teacher and a writer for the prewar
magazines and newspapers. She was an art critic and a linguist,
French being her second language.
In her old age (and suffering
from blindness) she continued to write a weekly column for the
Manila Mail in Washington, D.C., and for the Bayanihan News in
Melbourne. Her pen was most prolific when she was writing about
Philippine history, literature, foreign policy, art and culture. Her
essays have been published in numerous textbooks for secondary and
college students.
Ambassador Castrence was
scheduled to receive the NCCA’s Dangal ng Haraya Lifetime
Achievement Award for Culture on February 23. The award, a tribute
to her labors for the republic of letters, is richly deserved.
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