Affinity by selfie

It was a hot summer day, almost the last of April. I was in my beige high-heeled shoes and beige lace dress with thick make up on my face. We were all standing waiting for a white colored vehicle to swoop the scene where other graduates were gathered. We stood for half an hour, but there was no sign of the guest.

A professor in front gestured us to sit down and I took the first move; everybody followed. After another half an hour, guests who were more excited than we were came running towards us, telling us to stand up for she has arrived. Right there before my very eyes, I saw the senator whom I admired so much. She was wearing a bright yellow dress with a bright smile on her face; she was plump as I had imagined. With no hesitation, I took out my phone and took several pictures of her. That was not the end of our affinity.

She gave a very sweet speech for about an hour. Most of it was focused on the country's corruption and what we can do, as fresh graduates, to stop it. I could not forget her jokes which centered on finishing a degree such as, "Degree kaba?," we replied, "Bakit?". She answered, "Kasi ang hirap mong makuha." She had the audience laugh in hysteria for the rest of the time she was joking but left us nodding when she read the last parts of her speech. It was the call to be vigilant against corruption in any form.

As the star student who looked up to her so much, I was in awe. When she moved down the stage accompanied by her escorts, I pulled my classmate (who owned a good-looking phone suitable for selfies) toward her to take pictures of us. The following day, we were on the cover page of the different tabloids and local newspaper - students who mobbed the senator for a few selfies. A month after the same photo was seen on a national daily. It was a day I would never forget.

About two weeks ago, she broke the silence on her disease; it was stage four lung cancer. She had no record of vices whatsoever and it shocked her as well. Studies say that the cancer was acquired from second hand smoking and they seem to be right. For six weeks, we will not be seeing the senator as she will submit herself to rest and medication. Her treatment, she explained, is a small tablet which is believed to cure the cancer without having the side effects of chemotherapy. But she is not scared, she said. She even "welcomed" this new dimension in her life.

For six weeks, we will not be hearing from the iron lady who has so much angst against corruption in the senate. Now that the Disbursement Acceleration Program has been declared unconstitutional and the budget secretary opting to resign, we wonder what could have been her take on all this. Add to that the constant going to the hospital of a few who were included in the budget scam.

Surely, we will miss that plump lady who had something to say when it came to the country's treasury. For me, those selfies that we took the metro by storm will be our affinity and with that I pray for her fast recovery. She is a gem to the country's political landscape. I have never known anybody who is as well-read with the highest degree and is in position like her.

On her big announcement, she joked about announcing her 2016 presidency when she is well. When that joke turns out to be true, we now know who deserves the seat better after she lost her presidential campaign so many years back. You will be missed for some time, senator.