Heading the International news section of the New York Times on Wednesday, February 5 is a great picture of President Benigno S. Aquino. The more I looked at it, the more I saw. It was like the pictures my fourth-grade teacher showed the class, so we could discuss them and then write a paragraph about them.
On first view, I was impressed by the large size of the picture. There is President Aquino at the top of the page, occupying about a quarter of the whole page. He stands at the entrance to the "wood-paneled music room of the presidential palace," framed by heavy, formal drapes. The drapes are swept back in regal fashion. I can see the elegant décor of the spacious music room on the far wall: drapes, painting, two princely chairs.
President Aquino wears what would appear to a Westerner as a long-sleeved white shirt worn casually over the belt rather than tucked in. This is, however, the traditional man's formal wear, the Barong Tagalog. It is the accepted Filipino equivalent of a three-piece dress suit and is worn at any occasion from a dinner party to a gala presidential reception. The Barong Tagalog can be very fancy with trimmings and trappings, but Mr. Aquino's is a simple linen one that suggests an unassuming personality.
There is one decoration on the president's barong, a cancer ribbon. His mother, Corazon ("Cory") Aquino died of colorectal cancer in 2009. She had been the candidate who beat out the notorious Ferdinand Marcos who had become a veritable dictator under martial law. Marcos tried to nullify the election, resulting in the popular uprising called the "People-Power Revolution" that supported Aquino. Any Filipino seeing the cancer ribbon would remember.
Mr. Aquino is looking out at the photographer and probably at Keith Bradsher, who is about to interview him for the article. He wears glasses, is balding, and smiles. I couldn't help but think that he was a professor welcoming his first class of the semester.
The Large bold print above the picture proclaims, "Philippine Leader Sounds Alarm on China." Underneath the picture is a quotation from the president's interview. Mr. Aquino, a history buff of World War Two, compares China's take-over of islands claimed by the Philippines to Hitler's marching into Czechoslovakia. The rest of Europe failed to respond "in an attempt to appease Hitler." That sounds professorial but is also tough talk for both the West and China.
Keith Bradsher is clearly writing for a reader who is new or recent to Philippine matters. He never refers to Aquino's popular nickname (ALL Filipinos have one.) of Noynoy (His father's was Ninoy, his mother's Cory.) Nor does he give the name of the presidential palace: Malacanan (pronounced Malacanyan) Palace. Filipino readers might wonder if he is being overly formal, but they would greatly appreciate the positive and very presidential image presented by the article and perhaps even more so by the telling picture.
