The Death of Percy Lapid
How the Death of Percy Lapid Inspired a Filipino Movement of Justice Against Corruption and Impunity?
written by: April Mae M. Berza
Why am I imprisoned in my nightmares
of your recent death, the idiopathic pain
so excruciatingly hurting me?
Logic and reason robbed me of my sanity
all that was left was this questioning
why it had gone haywire.
As a journalist and radio broadcaster
who opened the wounds of corruption
and impunity, you left a legacy
of voicing out freedom and justice
for the small, weak, and poor.
Society lost its pillars of strength and hope.
How could our youth remember such heroism
fighting for the truth while the world never
forget your sacrifices for the Filipinos?
How could our youth embody such values
you live for while the world rejoices
the power you give back to the people?
How could our youth share your life
to inspire others while the world speaks
volumes about the life you enabled others to live?
Your death is not a fiasco for you
are a hero whose life enriches and empowers
the rest of the world with your light.
There is now a Filipino movement
for you that rekindled a spark in the revolution
so, we mobilize and rally against injustice.
You are an epic that I will read
every time the hands of time steal
a moment of history and remembrance.
Politics is fraught with corrupted lines
out of a poetic journey, and yours will not be
finishing with forgetting and forgetting.
You will always be Percy Lapid
I listen to whenever I turn on the radio
for something profound and empowering.
Will your early death bail me out
of this loneliness and solitude for we
are all victims of our mere existence?
- The Goddess of Books and the Singer-Songwriter - April 21, 2024
- The Death of Percy Lapid - January 13, 2023
