The Cory Aquino Leadership: Perspectives from the Social Sciences

Third World Studies Center

Abstract

Is there anything left for the social scientists to explain? What part of Corazon
Cory Aquino have we not understood amidst the very public outpouring of grief
and deep gratitude during her passing last August? The University of the Philippines
(UP) Third World Studies Center (TWSC), together with the Office of the UP Diliman
Chancellor, the UP Department of Political Science, and the Philippine Political
Science Association organized this event to respond precisely to these concerns,
which are borne out of cynicism and our haste to get over the
former presidents death. The organizers believe that Cory Aquinos life as a leader,
her experiences, and the decisions she made that still strongly inform our society
today were all drawn from a wide range and sometimes conflicting mix of personal
convictions and political positions. Thus, to interpret her life in the same way we
attempt to comprehend the nations sorrow over her death, there is a need for the
different disciplines of the social sciences to come together and share their
understanding of her life and legacy. Equally important is the opportunity that this
forum provides to the current generation of students whose idea of her role in the
nations history is only a faint approximation of what their elders have lived through.
The forum challenges us to go beyond the narrow sentimentality of griefthat it be
an occasion not only for old war stories but also for new inquiries about a past and a
leader whom we have considered so deserving of our sacrifice, too worthy of our
tears.

Cory Aquino, Who Led Revolt in Manila, Dies at 76

'Plain Housewife' Headed Movement to Oust Marcos, Rebuilt Democratic Institutions
Email
Print
9 Comments
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

smaller
Larger

By
James Hookway
Updated Aug. 1, 2009 11:59 p.m. ET

Corazon Aquino, the self-described "plain housewife" who overcame a dictator to

become president of the Philippines, died early Saturday in Manila at age 76, after a
battle with cancer.

Corazon Aquino at a gathering of civic groups in Manila on Sept. 6, 2003. AFP/Getty

Filipinos revered Mrs. Aquino for rebuilding the country's democratic institutions and
surviving a series of military coup d'etat attempts to hand over power to her elected
successor. But it was the heady images of 1986 -- when Mrs. Aquino rose on a wave
of popular protest against the leadership of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his
wife Imelda -- that seared themselves into the imagination of millions of people
around the world.

The "People Power" revolt showed that ordinary people could mass together to
topple authoritarian leaders, influencing a series of similar pro-democracy

upheavals from Eastern Europe and Taiwan in the late 1980s to South Korea and
South America.

The Philippines' uprising began in 1983, when Mrs. Aquino's husband, opposition
leader Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., shrugged off death threats and returned from exile
in Boston to join a growing movement against Mr. Marcos, under whom the country
had fallen into a quagmire of corruption and poverty.

Mr. Aquino died in a hail of bullets as soon as he stepped off his plane in Manila's
international airport, in circumstances that have never been fully explained. Two
million people escorted his body to the cemetery where he was buried, in a startling
show of popular resentment. Mourners continued to show their support for Mr.
Aquino and the opposition's cause by tying yellow ribbons on anything they could
find.
Looking Back at Cory Aquino

Journal articles on Corazon Aquino's rise to power in the 1980s:

Aquino's Widow, Political Novice, Rallies the Philippine Opposition (Dec. 4, 1985)
Coup Attempt, Labor Leader's Murder Test Aquino's Conciliatory Leadership (Nov.
17, 1986)
Philippine Vote Signals Shift in Power To Senate From Still-Popular Aquino (May 18,
1987)

The swelling opposition movement still needed a uniting figure to push for lasting
political change. That person was the unassuming Mrs. Aquino, a widowed mother
of five. As local and international pressure on Mr. Marcos grew, he called elections in
February 1986, pitting himself against Mrs. Aquino, who took to wearing yellow
dresses on her campaign stops.

Both Mr. Marcos and Mrs. Aquino claimed to win the vote, which was followed by
widespread allegations of fraud, prompting some military leaders to revolt against
the dictator. A standoff in Manila followed, as more than one million Filipinos,
including Mrs. Aquino, took to the streets to protect the rebels from pro-Marcos
forces. As defections within the armed forces accelerated, Mr. Marcos fled the
country. Mrs. Aquino was sworn in as president on Feb. 25.

In later years, the "yellow-ribbon" movement gave way to other color-coded revolts,
including the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and
current movements in Thailand and Iran.

Former U.S. Congressman Stephen Solarz, a supporter of the democracy movement

in the Philippines, recalls traveling to Poland in the late 1980s, where Solidarity
union adviser Adam Michnik asked him and the U.S. to help do for Poland what Mrs.
Aquino did for the Philippines.

"It was obvious what had happened in the Philippines was a real source of
inspiration to the leaders of Solidarity and the Polish people," Mr. Solarz said. "If
democracy could succeed in the Philippines, they though it could succeed in Poland,
too."

After Mrs. Aquino's election, her subsequent victories as president were less
decisive. She rebuilt democratic institutions that had been emasculated under Mr.
Marcos. But an agrarian program wasn't comprehensive enough to end a
communist insurgency and restore prosperity to many rural areas, and the country
still labors under the burden of corruption.

Throughout her presidency, Mrs. Aquino showed a steely streak which often went
unnoticed by her many admirers, some of whom produced "Cory" children's dolls in
her likeness. While she did little to discourage the idea that she was elevated to the
presidency by fate or divine intervention, Mrs. Aquino also dug in her heels to stay
in office.

She faced down a wave of military coup attempts in her first three years in office.
She sued newspaper columnist Luis Beltran for suggesting she hid under the bed in
the presidential palace during a failed 1987 putsch, even going as far as to show
journalists that she couldn't fit under the bed in question. And when it was time to
step down -- as current President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is scheduled to do next
year -- Mrs. Aquino didn't hesitate.

Franklin Drilon, who served as chief of staff and labor and justice secretary under
Mrs. Aquino and who later became Senate president, recalls that during the final
year of her presidency, a number of people close to her suggested she consider
extending her term by running in the presidential elections to be held in 1992. Mrs.
Aquino would have none of it.

"Whenever the idea was mentioned in her presence, Cory would simply look out of
the window to the right of her desk, ignoring the suggestion," Mr. Drilon says. Mrs.
Aquino left no room for misinterpretation. "She knew that after more than two
decades under the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, the last thing we needed was
another leader desperately clinging to power," Mr. Drilon recalls.

She stepped down in 1992 after free elections elevated her successor, Fidel Ramos,
to the presidency, and departed his inauguration in her own Toyota sedan -- a
pointed move to demonstrate that she was returning to life as a private citizen.

Until diagnosed with colon cancer last year, Mrs. Aquino continued to take part in
the Philippines' fractious politics, underscoring the unfinished nature of the
revolution she helped lead. In 2001, she joined a second uprising to chase former
President Joseph Estrada from office for graft -- a charge for which he was convicted
and later pardoned by Ms. Arroyo.

Mr. Estrada and Mrs. Aquino since made up, joining forces in calling for Ms. Arroyo to
step down.

Despite occasional upheavals and some Filipino soldiers' continuing efforts to carve
out more power for themselves -- Ms. Arroyo herself has faced down a number of
minor coup attempts -- rule by the ballot box is more often the case than not in the
modern-day Philippines. That's in large part thanks to Mrs. Aquino.