Cory Aquino - A Woman of Substance

Cory Aquino was hesitant to become president. She did not plan to be a politician. She was a mother, a housewife of the most popular political oppositionist to the Marcos dictatorship, Benigno Aquino Jr. After the treacherous assassination of her husband in 1983, Corazon Aquino ceased to be the quiet person she had been all through her role as politician's wife. She became the leading spirit of the Philippine's people power revolution that led to the downfall of the Marcos regime.

As foreign correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review, I had on many occasions been to the Aquino's residence on Times St in Quezon city, where former Senator Benigno Aquino - on a temporary freedom from Camp Crame prison held court and met journalists, politicians and friends almost every day. The senator was a fantastic source of valuable information and made excellent copy for my Hongkong-based paper. In all those sessions with him, Cory was almost invisible in the house. She was in the living room only to see that the guests were attended to. During some late interviews I made with the Senator, she was very solicitous with dinners and once she actually had dinner with me and spoke about her concern over the Senator's situation in prison.

When I returned to the Philippines in 1986 for a short visit, she had just been elected president of the Philippines. The whole nation was jubilant and yellow became her symbolic colour of victory. I saw her in Malacanang during her first days and she looked like she wasn't sure she was actually the President. She still rode her old car to Malacanang Palace. When my younger sister Daisy was murdered in 1989, I saw her again in Malacanang. She had called her Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Fidel Ramos and asked him to expedite the search for the killers of my sister.

As a President, she was a compassionate person. She had a program of reform that was blocked by old powers and the military - accustomed to getting its way with Marcos tried to topple her government a few times. If she was given the chance she needed, she could have rebuilt a country demoralised by years of abuse, corruption and greed. Even then, she tried her very best and her countrymen will remember her for what she was - an incorruptible moral leader of her country.