BYSTANDER.

(From BusinessWorld (Philippines))

Byline: Dean O. de la Paz

Like those incessant reminders intruding upon our disgustingly fatalist lethargy, sleep and surrender to enveloping evil, there are some who will every so often rise from the doom and jolt us with surprising patriotism. Like Cory Aquino, unexpectedly tearing away her widow's veil, or the late Haydee Yorac, fallen ill yet defiant against endemic corruption, they emerge unlikely heroes coming from where the greed and violence that victimizes us all affects them in lesser degrees.

What surprises us is their conviction, far from the capitulation to fear and fate that we who have fewer defenses embrace too easily. Add to these now, former ambassador Roy Seneres, who could have just shut up on the Gloria Arroyo illegitimacy issues, but didn't.

Seneres could have kept his peace a long time ago when the travails of our overseas contract workers, then still unlabeled modern-day heroes, had been confined to silent whispers among immediate families and friends. Many others before and …