People Power swept Cory Aquino to the presidency, the first woman to occupy the post. The first post-Marcos leader, and the one, Cory herself said, who inherited all the problems the dictatorhsip wrought on the country. Under Marcos the Philippines had been the pariah of the world.
No one really adequately prepares for the presidency and this was true of the housewife who calmly answered the sniping of Marcos – “Cory, isang bala ka lang!” – during the snap elections with “Marcos, isang balota ka lang” in her speech before the Manila Rotarians at the Manila Hotel.
The euphoria of Peaceful People Power died down and the problems were still with us. What the whole world admired in the Filipinos were soon forgotten by the Filipinos themselves.
Cory was keenly aware of this. She pointed out to us in some of our quiet moments in the Malacanang, “People forget easily the freedoms we won and gave back to them. Remember, I never promised instant economic success and solutions to unemployment, more investments, and so on!”
Oftentimes, governing became difficult with grousing among the contending forces in her government – the activists who wanted more drastic changes and the rightists who felt that building up the economy was the top and sole priority.
“People want the best of democracy and the best of a strong leadership… that is not possible. Democracy comes with its flaws and as a fledging democratic nation,we learn to deal with them and perfect them. We cannot go back to a strong-man rule.”
This led her to convene a Constitutional Commission to draft a new post-Marcos Constitution even if this meant giving up some of her presidential powers in the revolutionary government. The sooner the country had a new democratic constitution, the better it would be, she declared.
There were many things to be done, but she prioritized the restoration of freedoms, the institutions of government — the Legislative and Judicial branches of government. And she prepared for clean and peaceful elections.
On hindsight, I suppose people really wanted to see dramatic changes in their lives after EDSA. Democratic space in media and business, the academe, even in the military was lost to the “masa” who began to wonder if the new freedom was worth it.
Cory strove hard to repair the mistrust people felt against the military who, after all, had represented the strong arm of Marcos.
She herself was a victim of military oppression — from Ninoy being jailed for seven years and getting sentenced to death by a military tribunal. She would, on our prodding, recount how she and her daughters suffered indignities like being bodily searched by WACs before they could visit Ninoy in his cell.
Yet, she reached out to the military as soon as she became their Commander-in-Chief, getting her Cabinet ladies and civilian friends to set up a Bigay Puso Foundation with the wives of military officials. She knew how the military and police personnel had served the citizenry faithfully despite the corrupting influence of top politicians during the Marcos years.
In her first speech at the PMA graduation in Baguio as the new Commander-in-Chief, she greeted the new graduates and the alumni with the now famous line, “Welcome home, my soldiers!”
It was her way of getting the message across to them that old wounds were now healed and that she wanted them to trust her to lead them. Her most important first step then, she confessed, was to learn to salute smartly and troop the line of honor guards.
The great majority of the military returned her trust during the many coup attempts against her mounted by the RAM soldiers. The “adventurism” of the RAM set back the economy by many years.
To Cory, who became the Icon of Democracy and the symbol of Peaceful People Power in the world, her legacy was clear – the restoration of our freedoms and institutions and empowerment of the people through opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty through education, livelihood skills, and good governance.
As best as she could, during the coup attempts that almost cost Cory the life of her only son Benigno Simeon Aquino III, now the country’s President, she remained calm and firmly in charge.
I remember asking her after the bloody coup led by then renegade Col. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan how she intended to serve out her term.
“As President,” she tersely replied.
There were also those who wished that she would step down during the coup attempts and be simply part of a junta which would include the Vice President and top military officials.
“No way,” she replied to the suggestions. “I have a covenant to my people to serve as their duly elected president and I shall do so until the end of my term.”
Which she did and on June 30, 1992, she proudly handed over the reins of government to the next elected president, her candidate, Fidel V. Ramos. It was the first post-Marcos free elections in 26 years, a fruit of the years of struggle for freedom and the peaceful People Power Revolution.
The glorious days for freedom-loving Filipinos may have ended in triumph in 1986, but we continue to reap the rewards of the struggles and sacrifices of the common heroes, the people –the unnamed thousands around the country who caught the spark of courage from the EDSA “troops” who tried to stop tanks and gave up their comfort zones to man the barricades. They are the real heroes of the People Power revolution.
They are, Cory reminded us, the trustees of the freedoms we won back. Today, we may have our differences in the way of remembering and honoring the event that shook the world and that welcomed us back in the community of nations, but we are united in rekindling the spirit of EDSA. Of love of country, our neighbors. And a yearning to keep the flame of freedom ever burning!
And now, as God willed it, her only son who still bears in his body shards of that near-fatal bullet, is leading the country in the post-EDSA era.
The beautiful dream continues.
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