RIP Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino
Former Philippine president Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino died on 1 August 2009, on complications due to colon cancer.
I was born during the Marcos regime, and the friction between being a Marcos loyalist and being an oppositionist at that time was intimate in the family (inasmuch as my grandfather from the mother’s side was a Marcos loyalist). Due to the influence of a childhood friend, I got to run around sourcing textile inks for the Ninoy shirt printing in Tarlac back in 1983. I got to march towards the Tarlac municipal hall with anti-Marcos protestors, who were usually dispersed by teargas and water cannons. I was in elementary (intermediate) school, when People’s Power (EDSA I) commenced and ran to its course.
I got to college when her term wound up, and national leadership — through the outcome of a democratic election — was handed over to former President Fidel Ramos. During my studies in college, I would somehow have certain reservations in giving full praise to the Aquino government because of certain issues: (a) a socialist-inclined Constitution, (b) the immediate concession to the United States for debts incurred by her predecessor, (c) the energy crunch due to neglect in energy policies, (d) the unabashed iconification of Ninoy Aquino under her watch [which would have been better under a subsequent regime] and (e) the failure to determine and prosecute the masterminds of Ninoy’s murder.
Nevertheless, I admire Corazon “Cory” Aquino for her leadership during that unstable period of history. Failure had better odds at that time, but it was not the outcome. For the most important facts of (a) allowing a successful democratic transition between regimes as a norm and (b) providing avenues for the deterrence of political polarization, I owe her thanks.
Image: Background study for Corazon Aquino’s talk for the 10th anniversary of the People’s Power Revolution, 1996, Ateneo de Manila University. This was created on February 1996, the last couple of months before I graduated from college.
