Echoes From
BY JOHNNY DAYANG

Our original Sin

People power veterans know that the late, much beloved and respected President Corazon Aquino was the central figure in EDSA 1. It was in here name that Filipinos trounced the Marcos dictatorship by voting for Cory in the 1986 snap election.
But in the hours when the votes were rigged to effect a Marcos poll victory; at that crucial moment when then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and then Philippine Constabulary (PC) chief Fidel Ramos publicly denounced Marcos in Camp Crame, who was the man who called on Filipinos in their millions to rush to EDSA to form a human shield for Enrile and FVR?
He was the same man, who again called on the people to go to EDSA in 2001, this time, to oust a discredited President Joseph Estrada. He was the late Jaime L. Cardinal Sin.
Born Jaime Lachica Sin on August 31, 1928 in New Washington, Aklan, the future Cardinal was the seventh child in a family of sixteen children. His vocation came early in life, family members said.
While other young boys chose to play cowboys and Indians, Sin loved to play priest, giving communion by feeding his playmates homemade biscuits.
Sin was officially installed as Archbishop of Manila on March 19, 1974. Pope Paul VI made him a member of the College of Cardinals, creating him Cardinal Priest of the titular church of Santa Maria ai Monti on May 24, 1976. He remained the youngest member of the College until 1983.
It bears noting that Sin's years as head of the Catholic Church in the country occurred during the darkest years of Martial Law - a period known for illegal arrests, disapperances, and summary executions.
It is therefore no surprise that the Cardinal became an original critic of the Marcos administration, which gained him the respect of the Filipino people. Sin turned this respect to fierce allegiance during EDSA 1, and again during EDSA 2. Each time, he led the people to EDSA to oust a discredited President.
Sin died of a lingering illness on June 21, 2005, at the height of the efforts to oust then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. But every attempt to muster people power dismally failed. Was it because of the absence of the original Sin?