MUCOLYTIC

1994-1995

If you think 2004 is the pits, another annus horribilis in the making, following are events that transpired in late 1994 and early 1995. I got this from an old essay I was about to throw away (I’m cleaning my things up.) when it occurred to me: Things were already heady then. Me, I felt like I was Billy Joel singing ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’

International news: The war in Chechnya. The war in Bosnia. The massacre of Hutus by Tutsis in Rwanda. Sarin gas attacks in a Tokyo subway and in Korea.

Local news: Pope John Paul II visits Manila. Several reporters cry openly as they talk about seeing the Pope.

The entire nation is brought to a resounding applause as Calauan Mayor Sanchez is finally brought to justice. Sanchez, that strange character with “faggy” hairdo and outward religiosity, is convicted for having raped and killed a UPLB coed (Eileen Sarmenta) and his boyfriend. He is hauled to his prison cursing like a demon.

Filipina maid Flor Contemplacion’s hanging in Singapore brings the nation to an EDSA-style protest.

The peripatetic President Fidel V. Ramos is busy doing the rounds – Iran, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc.

The Abu Sayyaf goes on a killing rampage, claiming the lives of about 100 people in Mindanao (Ipil?). A lineup of eight confusingly similar bearded faces is presented to the media as Arab terrorists. They were reportedly nabbed in Kalookan City.

Look who comes hopping into the islands: Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Czechoslovakia’s president and playwright Vaclav Havel. Perhaps missing the historical significance of it all, these visits are largely snubbed by media and the people, esp. that of the Spanish monarchs.