Kayo na humusga...................




Philstar.com
26 Feb 2008


The Philippine flag rose to half-mast and refused to go any further. As the flag raisers tugged at the string, it snapped, causing the flag to fall to the ground.

That mishap during yesterday’s celebration of the 1986 EDSA Revolution at the People Power Monument in Quezon City was taken as a “bad omen” by many in the audience, including known government critic Pastor Boy Saycon.

According to Saycon, the defective flag was among the “bad omens” about the country’s “collective problems” that he said are appearing just as the nation is celebrating one of the glorious moments of its history.

The other alleged dreadful signs were the faulty sound system and the confetti that fell like bricks instead of floating gently down in a shower on the audience.

“Even the flag refused to ascend. If our own flag refuses to rise to uphold our dignity as a nation, it’s definitely a bad sign. Even the sound system is defective. It appears that even our celebration (of the 1986 Edsa revolution) gets tired,” Saycon said.

“I just wish these will not happen to our country,” Saycon added.

The Philippine flag was being raised as the national anthem was sung, led by personalities like Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Vice President Noli de Castro, and former President Fidel Ramos.

In the middle of the anthem, the flag got stuck, and repeated pulling by those who were holding it caused the string to break and the flag to fall, forcing organizers to transfer it to a smaller flagpole nearby.

During the latter part of the program, a singer performed nationalistic songs like “Magkaisa” and “Bayan Ko” that were symbolic of the bloodless revolt against the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.

But in the middle of his singing, the sound system malfunctioned, and the male crooner just had to sing a capella.

And as if these two incidents were not enough, the confetti supposed to be showered down on the people from a helicopter at the end of the program dropped in large clumps like rocks, eliciting laughter from the crowd, many of whom had to run for cover to avoid getting hit by the blocks of paper falling from the sky.

But Cecille Guidote-Alvarez, executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, said the glitches that marred the occasion, organized by the government and attended by top officials of the Arroyo administration, the military and even the diplomatic community, are nothing more than a “snafu.”

Alvarez compared these to the usual malfunctions that happen in theater performances.

“In theater parlance, we say there was no dry-run. We call it a snafu. All in all, I think it (yesterday’s celebration) went well,” she said.