Cory Aquino, Farewell

At 3:18 am last Saturday (1 August), Madam Corazon "Cory" Aquino, Philippine president from 1986-1992, passed away after a long bout with colon cancer. She is rightly called the Icon of Democracy from the recent past as she led the country out of a protracted one-man rule, "introducing" peaceful revolution via "people power". It may not be acknowledged by western historians but this manner of government change started it all--dominoes started tumbling! Remember Poland? This was followed by the eastern European countries, and also the former U.S.S.R.! The late Pope John Paul II incidentally had a hand there too.

February 1986 was really very memorable for many folks over here. As Mr. Ferdinand Marcos (ruling president at the time) was preparing to take a "new" mandate after "winning" the snap elections, a military coup was simmering. A violent uprising being hatched very high in the defence establishment. This plot was however uncovered and many officers were detained, and later presented to the public. Because of this, Misters Juan Ponce-Enrile (Defence Minister) and Fidel Ramos (Vice Chief of Staff) with their loyal followers, jumped the gun, fortifying their defences at the headquarters building, and shrewdly calling a press conference about their captured colleagues and their plan, hoping to gain public support. While they attracted a few, this provided for the "two fish and five loaves" for what will happen next.

When then Archbishop of Manila Jaime Cardinal Sin was informed, he called for "people power". People flocked the areas of concern to protect the "rebels". For some reason, I wasn't concerned about these things, and there was no sense of urgency or danger. Perhaps the millions of people who went at EDSA were also unaffraid. Perhaps there was safety in numbers. Perhaps as Filipinos it's in our nature to be fatalistic and just go go go! I guess religion also played a role--the government soldiers still didn't want to massacer millions just to protect a few people. The rest was history. Cory was installed as the eleventh president of the country, and the first female to take the post.

There was euphoria everywhere, and it took some time to put things back as before. That was a great achievement by all, and particularly for the new president. While I maintain my admiration for Tita Cory (fondly called by many), there are many things that could have been done to translate this revolution to benefit the majority of our countrymen who are poor. [What could have been done is anyone's guess; positives and much negatives in her administration--better discussed in another post. Because of this, people should not overdo the lip-service for the fallen leader. Let's give her the respect and not use this for personal or political purposes. I placed this side note because Filipinos have a penchant for turning anything to politics.]

President Cory Aquino... farewell! Now you're with Ninoy, your spouse and our hero, and there's no longer any pain from the illness. Now you can do much more for the country from there.