MANILA - Corazon Aquino gave the world "People Power" - the inspiration for
popular movements pitted against repressive regimes in all corner of the globe.
With her passing over the weekend at the age of 76, she will be remembered as
one of the 20th-century's icons for democracy and non-violent struggle,
especially in Asia, where authoritarian rule is still the norm.
A housewife-cum-national leader, Cory, as Filipinos affectionately referred to
her, led a street movement in 1986 that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos' corrupt and
abusive regime. She rose to power on a popular wave despite the strong backing
he maintained from the Philippines' former colonial ruler, the United States,
as an anti-communist bulwark
Even after Aquino's symbolic rise, historical accounts show that
then-US president Ronald Reagan was reluctant to ditch the authoritarian Marcos
for the unproven and inexperienced Aquino. She was by all accounts an
accidental leader, thrust into the limelight by the 1983 assassination of her
husband and opposition leader, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr.
His murder ignited waves of public indignation against Marcos, who they
presumed orchestrated the killing, and an outpouring of sentimental support for
the widowed and religious Cory. More than two million people were estimated to
have attended Ninoy's funeral rites, setting the stage for the mass popular
revolt three years later that set the stage for Cory's rise to power.
She cloaked her protest movement in yellow, and blessed by the highly respected
Cardinal Jaime Sin, her movement was the embodiment of moral authority. When
Marcos attempted to short circuit the growing calls for his resignation by
declaring snap elections, over one million people signed a petition urging
Aquino to run against the dictator.
The polls were marred by vote-buying and violence, with some of Aquino's top
allies assassinated on the campaign trail. In the lead-up to the poll the
independent National Movement for Free Elections showed Aquino leading by a
huge margin. This put pressure on the Marcos-controlled Commission on Elections
to anoint a Marcos win and several of its officials walked out in protest.
The Catholic hierarchy condemned the attempted manipulation and two key Marcos
allies, defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces vice chief of staff
Fidel Ramos, finally called on Marcos to resign on February 22. Thousands of
protestors gathered outside of their military camps to serve as a human
barricade to protect the top military defectors.
Lady in yellow
Two days later, Cory, clad in a simple yellow dress, took the presidential oath
of office administered by Supreme Court Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee. On
the same day, Marcos had himself sworn into office again at the Malacanang
Palace.
Less than 12 hours later, Marcos, his family and close associates, climbed
aboard four US Air Force helicopters bound for exile. Aquino went on national
television, declaring simply that "We are finally free".
She maintained the same modesty during her six-year tenure, and her
administration was in the main untainted by the allegations of graft and
corruption that hounded Marcos' rule. She set in motion still ongoing efforts
to restore what the Marcoses had allegedly taken, with estimates ranging as
high as US$10 billion the amount he and his family pilfered during his over two
decades in office.
Aquino's political inexperience eventually caught up with her in office. She
lacked a politician's touch at a time when the country faced grave economic
difficulties, including a spiraling national debt, double digit inflation, and
rolling electricity shortages. The military launched no less than seven coup
attempts against her wobbly administration, though none succeeded in unseating
her democratically elected government.
Foreseeing those troubles, her fallen husband had once said, "I pity the next
president after Marcos." Never would he have imagined that his wife would
inherit all the country's troubles wrought by Marcos' graft and mismanagement.
She faced the uphill task of restoring democracy, including drafting a new
constitution, installing an independent judiciary, unshackling the press, and
sowing peace with various rebel groups.
Over time her popularity declined amid the high expectations her People's Power
street movement unreasonably and unattainably raised. Her decision to back
Ramos, the renegade air force chief of staff under Marcos, proved to be one of
her more savvy political moves and set in motion a democratic transition of
power. Ramos sustained her various democratic initiatives, including abiding by
the constitutionally mandated single six-year term in office.
Aquino retired to private life, but the pull of politics occasionally led her
back to the streets. In 2001 she was front and center, together with Cardinal
Sin, in the People's Power II street movement that drove the corruption-riddled
and populist President Joseph Estrada from power.
She later took to the streets against his replacement, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,
speaking out publicly against her scandal-plagued government and pretensions to
extend her tenure beyond her legal six-year term limit.
Aquino's successful street movements have served as particular inspiration in
Southeast Asia, where a popular revolt in Indonesia in 1998 succeeded in
ousting dictator Suharto, but have been variously crushed by troops in military
run Myanmar, both in 1988 and 2007.
Malaysian opposition leader and pro-democracy champion, Anwar Ibrahim, said in
a statement read by his wife in Manila upon Aquino's passing that "the
Malaysian people have a special reason to view her as an iconic figure" as
"their striving for a return of their country to the dispensation entrusted to
it by its founding constitution mirrors hers and Ninoy's successful struggle"
to achieve Philippine democracy.
He thanked her in the address for "the generosity of her support during the
years of my incarceration. Cory treated my wife and children as family,
exemplifying the solidarity of all hearts that thirst for justice."
That said, Aquino's willingness later in life to take lesser political
complaints than those she lodged against Marcos will have to some degree
obscured her democratic legacy. Although Estrada was undoubtedly corrupt, some
believe in retrospect his ouster should have come through more democratic
channels than a street mob. Estrada has since invoked the threat of mobilizing
his own masses as leverage to have his political way.
Indeed, the success of past Philippine street movements has set a sometimes
unsettling precedent in the region. The endless cycle of competing
anti-government street protests in today's Thailand have paralyzed the workings
of successive elected governments and in 2006 paved the way for military rather
than democratic rule. Another "pro-democracy" street protest group blocked
roads and set fire to buses in Bangkok to make its political point in April.
Aquino's movements, in comparison, always carried the weight of moral
authority, which never diminished in the eyes of Filipinos even after her
lackluster presidency. During her dying days, millions of Filipinos prayed for
her miraculous recovery from advanced colon cancer.
It was the hope that light could triumph over darkness that Cory demonstrated
during her political life and times.
Joel D Adriano is an independent consultant and award-winning freelance
journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business section of The Manila Times
and writes for ASEAN BizTimes, Safe Democracy and People's Tonight.
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