By Rose Beatrix C. Angeles (Trixie Cruz-Angeles)
When the smoke cleared and the bodies were counted, as Mendoza's story
slowly is spread to a visibly shaken nation, I am shattered by the vicious
remarks brought to my doorstep courtesy of Facebook. I see words like
"Only in the Philippines" and "nakakahiya tayo." Here are my countrymen, talking about
themselves as though everything that had been done wrong at the Quirino
Grandstand was a national trait, as though stupidity were possible only here
and the only ones capable of it are Filipinos. And then, I remember with
sadness that it is also my own countrymen, who, when seeing a beautiful place
in the Republic say with awe, "Ang ganda dito, parang wala tayo sa
Pilipinas!"
