Jaime Cardinal Sin at 76 passed away last Monday, June 20, as the architect of the country’s People Power that toppled the totalitarian regime of the infamous former president, Ferdinand Marcos.

Before that fateful day of February 25, 1986, I met the Cardinal in the La Vista residence of ertswhile Marcos information minister Francisco Tatad: it was the latter’s birthday. He was very amiable. Kit, as fondly called by relatives and friends in the leadership circle particularly during the proclamation of 1081 or Martial Law as the “little president”, was reportedly a friend to the priest. After kissing the Cardinal’s ring, I joined the siblings and relatives of the press minister.

For one reason or another prior the fall of Marcos, Kit fell out of the grace of Marcos. Was it for real? Many suspected it was not. Nobody knew for sure except Kit and Marcos.

In those dark days of the dictatorship, Cardinal Sin stood his ground as the pastor to his flock and very convincingly, he did. He gave the Marcoses the feeling that the democratic foundation of separation of Church and State was solid. This made His Eminence the sought-for adviser of the First Lady Imelda Marcos. A story was bruited about in the halls of Malacañang to the streets that when Imelda would be asked by Marcos where she came from: day or night. The answer was, “from the House of Sin” and everything would be alright. Marcos could sleep even if Dovy Beams was not around.

Not when the real confrontation came between Marcos and the people. Sin held the kettle when its water boiled and poured it on the foot of the dictator who had no other way but to run, to put it in the thoughts of folks whose endurance was between the blue sky and the bluer sea. Marcos was gone in no time -- the world bowed its head to the courageous Filipino spirit.

Today, the man who made us read the books is dead. He died still serving others and holding them dearly on his palms while we were looking the other way unmindful even of the clarity and warmth of the original EDSA sun. Our joy in seeing people cleaning its length of concrete, of crumbs, empty bottles, wrappers: plastic and paper as if of picnickers during the peaceful revolution was shortlived. It amounted to a centavo when we had the entire peso for ourselves. We were not beaten by the cards; we were beaten by the bluff.

To honor really the dead appears to be our weak spot when peoples we look up to do not suffer the same disregard. And then we persist only to agonize. What a way to live and laugh in our poor perception, comedy is mistaken for tragedy, very coarse, see.

Cardinal Sin tried to give us that lesson when still alive. Now the ball is in the court of the living and hope not to miss playing it in the passing of Sin, the fortunate.