I was in the first grade during the Edsa Revolution and so my most strongest memory of the time is of hating June Keithley because her voice was annoying and she kept showing up on the screen instead of the cartoons I wanted to watch. My school was run by militant leftist nuns and so as soon as everything was finished and we children were back in class, we started talking about politics and never really stopped, and so I've been obsessed ever since. I started making lists of candidates to vote for when I was ten (as did many of my friends, mind you) but it wasn't until Heidi Yorac ran for the Senate in 1998 that I could finally write a name down on my list and be a hundred percent confident in my decision*.
Anyway, I'm writing this because of Pennie Azarcon de la Cruz's great piece on her in last week's Inquirer Sunday Magazine, Still A Fighter After All These Years. Here's an excerpt:
Despite the hard work, government service has its own rewards, says Yorac. "There will always be the memory of how things can be done, how bureaucracy can be tamed." And then there's that feeling of satisfaction, she adds. "Winning the Marcos case, now that's a great feeling. It's not everyday that you feel high, working towards the direction you've set in the first place. It's not the praise; it's knowing that you've done something that makes a difference."
For sure, challenges remain, she says. The biggest, adds the irrepressible Yorac, "include getting through the records of the Marcos wealth, and litigating with people like (Marcos lawyer and former Solicitor General) Estelito Mendoza and other big law firms in Metro Manila."
For government, the biggest challenge must be finding a worthy replacement for the PCGG chair when she retires sometime soon. "I had wanted to go after the elections, but I guess I'd have to stay to put everything in place for my successor. It's up to the President to choose the next chair, but the candidate must be somebody reliable, intelligent and honest."
Might she be persuaded to stay should no such candidate be found? She shrugs. "Nobody's indispensable. The problems of society are too big for anyone."
But definitely, Yorac is a hard act to follow.
No kidding, that—according to the article, under her leadership the PCGG "has recovered in two years more than what her predecessors have wrangled in the past 18 years."
From the citation for her 2004 Ramon Magsaysay Award:
Democracy has deep roots in the Philippines, yet its authority continues to be tested. Years of dictatorship, graft in high places, and the corruption of the electoral process by "goons, guns, and gold" have left many Filipinos cynical not only about democracy but about government itself—all the more so because government seems repeatedly to fall short of its promises and goals. In such a climate, serving in government can be thankless. Yet, Haydee Yorac, a lawyer and professor of law, has repeatedly answered the call to serve. In doing so, she has confounded the cynics and shown that even the most intractable problems can yield to solutions if they are attacked honestly and with vigor.
No one in the entire country has ever deserved a Ramon Magsaysay Award more, and I'm glad she finally received one this year. Haydee Yorac is my hero, and she should be yours too.
Related posts: i love haydee yorac, when will we grow up?
*She didn't win, of course, because Filipinos vote for and get the officials they deserve every single time, and really she's much too good for the likes of us. Yet another self-inflicted wound in our national litany of maladies.
