A woman who defined that ‘yellow’ is not for cowardice, but for bravery!
A woman who had overthrown dictatorship and restored democracy.
A woman who showed that authority is synonymous to humility.
A woman who, up to her sickbed and down to her grave, brought faith and unity!
Thank you and goodbye, President Cory!
At five in the morning of August 1, 2009, Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III gave the statement that deeply saddened the Filipino nation— President Cory passed away. After more than a year of battling colon cancer, the former president, Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco-Aquino passed away peacefully, 3:18 in the morning at the Makati Medical Center where she had been confined the past weeks.
Songs, poems, music videos, countless tributes, and prayer offerings were made as a tribute to the 11th President of the Republic of the Philippines not because she is the first woman president of the country but because she is Cory— the woman who gave back democracy to Filipinos.
A lot of Filipinos, especially the young ones, may be wondering why many people, not only in the Philippines but all over the world, are really affected by her death. Some of them do not even know who Cory is. Perhaps, the only information they know about her is that, she once became the president of the Philippine Republic. Probably, some of them now ask what it is in Cory that could not be found in others. Why is she considered a hero by many?
The answer is simple – SHE MADE A GREAT DIFFERENCE FOR THE FILIPINO PEOPLE.
On January 25, 1933, the woman destined to lead the Filipino people in the first peaceful revolution in world history, was born. She is the sixth out of the eight brood of the first Cojuangco family in the country.
Even at an early age, our ‘woman in yellow’—as what some people dubbed her—was already seen with intelligence and aptitude. In grade school, she graduated valedictorian of her class in St. Scholastica College in 1943.
After studying for a year in high school at the Assumption Convent in 1946, Cory was sent to the United States because there was war in the Philippines. In the United States, she studied at the Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia, the Notre Dame Convent School in New York, and the College of Mount Saint Vincent also in New York. After studying Liberal Arts, she graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor of Arts in French Language, with a minor in Mathematics.
Cory then returned to her motherland to study law at the Far Eastern University. Eventually, she stopped schooling when she met the man of her dreams, the late Senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr. They were blessed with five children namely Maria Elena ‘Ballsy’, Aurora Corazon ‘Pinky’, Benigno Simeon III ‘Noynoy’, Victoria Eliza ‘Viel’, and Kristina Bernadette ‘Kris’.
Having been born as a member of one of the richest Chinese-mestizo families ever known in the history of the Philippines, Cory did not live an extravagant life as what other people usually think. Her neighbors and fellow parishioners would usually describe her as a low profiled woman. She lived just like everyone else—ordinary and simple—the same kind of living that she taught to her children.
During the Marcos Regime, Cory’s other half, Ninoy, was the leading critic of the administration in the country. In her husband’s political career, Cory was very supportive and remained a ‘plain housewife’ for her family despite her educational attainment.
But though she remained a housewife to Ninoy, some people didn’t know that Cory served as Ninoy’s personal adviser. Ninoy always asked for her personal opinion and usually considered them.
The time came when former President Ferdinand Marcos got so fed up with Senator Ninoy, thus, giving an order for him to be persecuted during the onset of the Martial Law while Cory was pregnant with her youngest, Kris. Ninoy was jailed for seven years and seven months leaving Cory with their five children. During those times, Cory remained a strong woman for her husband as well as her children.
Undoubtedly, the happiest moment of the Aquinos was the day their padre de familia was released from jail and went to the US to undergo a heart by-pass operation. They lived the next three years of their life in Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. They lived there happily until Ninoy decided to go back to the Philippines where he was assassinated just after the plane that carried him landed the Manila International Airport, now known as Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
After three years of living in Boston, the mourning Aquino family went back to the Philippines for Ninoy’s burial rites, one of the most attended and biggest funerals ever in the history of the Philippines.
Wanting to end the dictatorial regime of the then president Marcos, Cory did what no woman has yet dared to do in her era, she ran for presidency against Marcos.
Just two years after Ninoy’s assassination, Marcos called a snap election in the last week of November 1985. Different opposition groups, believing that Cory was the one who could unite the opposition, pleaded Cory to run for president, but she was reluctant at first.
Later, with more than a million signatures, asking her to run against Marcos, Cory agreed to be the standard bearer of the United Nationalists Democratic Organizations or UNIDO. Just after she announced her candidacy, Marcos dubbed her as “just a woman” whose only place was in the bedroom.
During the February 7, 1986 snap elections, the official tally of the Commission on Elections indicated that Marcos was leading, but the unofficial tally of the National Movement for Free Elections showed otherwise. The Batasang Pambansa declared Marcos as the president eight days after the elections, despite obvious election-rigging in favor of him.
The fateful election proved to be the undoing of Marcos’ 20-year dictatorial regime. Unsatisfied with the election result and angered by the obvious rigging in the elections, Cory and the Filipino people marched to Epifanio De los Santos Avenue (EDSA) on February 22, 1986. The historical march is one of the most significant events in Philippine history and was later known as the People Power Revolution.
After the three-day peaceful revolution, the Filipino people cheered as Cory Aquino assumed the presidential seat making her the first woman president not only in the Philippines but in the whole Asia as well.
The woman whose only place is in the bedroom has toppled the dictator and proved to the world that she is more than just a plain housewife.
Cory’s participation in the People Power Revolution paved the way for her to be recognized not only in our country but in the world as well.
The role she played in restoring the democracy of the Philippines gained her the Time Asia’s “Woman of the Year” award twice in 1986 and 2006 (20 years after she successfully fought for the freedom of the Filipino people). Along with two most influential figures in Asia, Mahatma Gandhi of India and Deng Xiaoping of China, Cory was also cited by Time as one of the 65 Great Asian Heroes.
Internationally acknowledged as an “Icon of Democracy”, she was also nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. In the same year, she received the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award, the United Nations Silver Medal, and the Canadian International Prize for Freedom, as well as, the International Democracy Award from the International Association of the Political Consultants.
Cory has obtained many more awards and citations during and after her presidency. In her reference book, Gail Meyer Rolka cited her as one of the 100 Women Who Shaped World History. The Europe-based A Different View selected her as one of the world’s 15 Champions of World Democracy in 2008. These are just some of the awards given to our beloved President Cory.
“I can’t imagine how life would be, now that she’s gone [cries]…” says daughter and TV personality, Kris Aquino-Yap who is said to be very close to her mother. She expressed this in an interview a day after her mother’s death.
According to Kris, her Mommy Cory was a very thoughtful person. She shared that every time she would have a new show, her mother was always the first one who wished her luck before the show starts. Her mother was also the first one who congratulated her when her new show ends, she said.
Kris sadly said that her mother cannot do that anymore. She said that it’s one of the things that she will miss about her mom.
“Ang mother ko very strict,” Pinky said when asked to describe her mother, while Noynoy described his mother as a woman who do not usually comment. “Ang nanay ko ho…bihirang bihira magkomentaryo, ” he shared.
“It is her wish for all of us to pray for one another and for our country.”
Thus, said Noynoy few hours after her mother, a true nasyonalista, passed away. According to him, though his mother suffered from colon cancer, she still died peacefully.
“Very, very peaceful siya. Hindi siya talaga naghirap, ” Pinky said in an interview echoing Noynoy’s statement earlier. Pinky narrated that in the last minutes of her mom, she was still able to say “Mom, magrest ka na…we’ll all be okay. I want you to be happy with God”.
And as Cory was finally laid to rest beside her Ninoy, millions of Filipinos all over the world recognize the many things that Cory has contributed to the Filipino people. Millions of people were on the streets proclaiming her as a national hero, neglecting the drops of rains just to give honor to her. Indeed, it was the Philippines’ biggest and most participated burial after Ninoy’s.
She may be dead but her memories and contributions will remain alive in the heart of every Filipino. The woman in yellow, the first woman Filipino-Asian president, the woman of the year, the icon of democracy, the national treasure, and most of all, the ‘hero’ will forever be in our hearts. She will be written in the books of history not only in the Philippines but also in the world. Her story will not end in this generation, but it will be told to every Filipino who lives and will live.
What makes Cory distinctive from others is that, she is not just Ninoy’s Cory nor is she just her brood’s Mommy. She is the Filipino people’s Cory and the Mother of Philippine Democracy.
Cory as President
- The new Philippine Constitution, now known as the 1987 Consitution, was enacted. She suspended the 1973 Constitution which was installed during the martial law and promulgated a provisional “Freedom Constitution” while the new Constitution is still pending.
- She reorganized the membership of the Supreme Court and closed the Batasang Pambansa.
- She issued Executive Order 229 and Presidential Proclamation 131 on July 22, 1987 which she made enacted the land reform program and expanded the land reform to sugar lands.
- Made possible the Republic Act 7079 or the Campus Journalism Act of 1991 which gives freedom of the press to campus journalists and promotes the growth and development of campus journalism in the country.
- During her presidency, Aquino released 441 political prisoners as well as forced the retirement of 22 pro-Marcos generals.
- After she assumed office, she reinstated the writ of habeas corpus or the right of a prisoner to appear before a judge.
- She also abolished the ability of the government to enforce imprisonment which then took effect since 1991.
- The Aquino administration weathered 7 coup de etat attempts during her six year term which then resulted in great financial losses.
- The administration also has to deal with several major natural disasters such as the 1990 Luzon earthquake which left 1600 persons dead and Mt. Pinatubo eruption, among others as well as a severe power crisis.
- She led the PinoyME Foundation, a non-profit organization that assists microfinance institutions through provisions of loans.
- Oversaw social welfare and scholarship assistance projects through the Benigno S. Aquino Foundation and good governance through the EDSA People Power Commission and the People Power Movement.
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