Cory Aquino dies

By Maila Ager
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 05:18:00 08/01/2009

Filed Under: Health, death notices, Cory Aquino

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MANILA, Philippines – Former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino has passed away.

She was 76.

Her son Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III confirmed that she died of cardio-respiratory arrest at exactly 3:18 a.m. Saturday at the Makati Medical Center.

Mrs. Aquino has been diagnosed with colon cancer early in 2008 and has been confined at the Makati Medical Center for more than a month.

Mrs. Aquino, widow of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., will be remembered as an icon of democracy, having led a military-backed popular revolt in 1986 that ousted a dictator who ruled the country for 20 years.

At about 5 a.m. outside the hospital, Noynoy read a statement announcing the death of his mother.

The statement read:

"Our mother peacefully passed away at 3:18 a.m., August 1, 2009, of cardio-respiratory arrest.

“She would have wanted to thank each and every one of you for all the prayers and your continued love and support. It was her wish for all of us to pray for one another and for our country.

“Hinihiling po ng aming pamilya ang kaunting panahon para makasama namin ang aming mahal na ina.

“Later today, we will be announcing further details of her wake para sa lahat ng ating mga minamahal na kababayan na nais magbigay ng respeto sa aming ina. Maraming salamat po.”

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed her condolences to the family of the former President, Arroyo's press secretary said.

The President is set to declare a week of national mourning, said Press Secretary Cerge Remonde in a live phone patch from the US where he is accompanying Arroyo who is on official visit there.

Remonde said the President could cut short her trip but that they were going to discuss the matter when they get to New York, their next stop after Washington D.C. where she met President Barack Obama at the White House.

Arroyo is expected to be back in Manila on August 5.

Remonde also said that under the law, all presidents were entitled to a state funeral but added that this would be subject to the family's approval.

Popular TV host Boy Abunda, a close friend of the Aquino family, told reporters on Saturday that the Aquinos were praying the Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary when Cory gave her "last deep breath.”

Abunda said all five children of Mrs. Aquino, and her close friends and relatives were at her bedside when the former leader passed away.

After that last breath, Abunda said, Mrs. Aquino's children quietly cried.

"Malungkot. Tahimik na nag-iiyakan. Tahimik, except for Kris who was very quiet," he said, referring to the youngest daughter of Mrs. Aquino.

"Kris was very quiet. She was displaying such courage pero noong dindadala palabas mga labi ni Tita Cory... because you have to remember that Kris was in the hospital, Kris was by the side of her mother since July 20 hanggang sa mga oras na yun. Hanggang ngayon si Kris ay nasa tabi ng kanyang ina," Abunda said.

He said a Mass, officiated by Fr. Catalino Arevalo, was held after Mrs. Aquino's death.

Abunda said Arevalo is a very close friend of the former leader and had been officiating a Mass for her at the hospital.

A family driver of the Aquinos was seen loading stuff into a white Toyota Hi-Ace van parked at the back entrance of the hospital. He said the boxes and luggage belonged to Kris who left the hospital early Saturday morning. With a report from Niña Calleja and Gil Cabacungan Jr., Philippine Daily Inquirer

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About Corazon C. Aquino

Corazon Cojoangco Aquino (born 1933) was the first woman to run for the office of the president of the Republic of the Philippines. The results of the 1986 election were so fraudulent that both Aquino and her opponent, the incumbent, Ferdinand Marcos declared victory. As a result of the election, the Filipino people rose in protest and Marcos was forced to flee the country and Aquino assumed the office of president.

Corazon Cojoangco Aquino was born on January 25, 1933, the sixth of eight children born to Jose Cojoangco of Tarlac, a prosperous province 65 miles northwest of Manila, the Philippines capital. The Cojoangcos were members of a wealthy landowning family prominent in politics.

Aquino attended an exclusive Catholic school for girls in Manila before travelling to America to attend Philadelphia's Raven Hill Academy. After earning a degree in French and mathematics from New York's Mount Saint Vincent College in 1953, she returned to the Philippines and enrolled in a Manila law school. While at law school she met her future husband, Benigno Aquino and married him in 1954. The marriage united two of Tarlac's most prominent families.

The Politician's Wife

Aquino's husband belonged to a family whose involvement in politics went as far back as the last century. One year after they were married, Aquino's husband was elected mayor of the city of Concepcion at the age of 22. Her husband was considered one of the Philippines' brightest political hopes.

Moving up in politics, Aquino's husband became the youngest territorial governor and later the youngest senator in the Philippines. Through out all her husband's political successes, Aquino stayed in the background, preferring to concentrate her energies on raising their four daughters and a son.

As her husband rose in prominence, he became an outspoken critic of the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. When Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972, Aquino's husband was one of the first persons arrested and put in jail. During the long years of her husband's incarceration from 1972 to 1980, Aquino's role as a quiet wife slowly changed. Becoming her husband's main link to the outside world, she was instrumental in having his statements passed along to the press and to activists outside the prison walls. From inside his cell, Aquino's husband even ran for a seat in Parliament, with his wife conducting a large portion of the campaign.

In 1980, Aquino's husband was released from jail in order to undergo heart surgery in the United States. Aquino's husband worked as a research fellow at Harvard University for the next three years. His family lived with him in the Boston area and his wife described the time as the best years of her life.

In 1983 supporters of the anti-Marcos factions persuaded Aquino's husband to return to the Philippines and to lead their cause. When his plane landed on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983, Aquino's husband was assassinated. A commission formed to investigate the murder indicted the military men assigned to escort him as well as their military superiors. However, the court which eventually tried them for the murder acquitted all 26 defendants.

Homemaker Turns Politician

Her husband's assassination served as the turning point of Aquino's life. As her dead husband became the rallying focus of anti-Marcos groups she, as his widow, became the unifying figure for the different factions of the opposition. Aquino was catapulted into the role of keeping the unity alive. On October 15, 1985, the Aquino presidential campaign was launched at the National Press Club in Manila by 250 founding members, many of whom were businesspeople and professionals.

Aquino agreed to run if one million supporters signed an endorsement of her candidacy and if President Marcos called for a snap election. The supporters collected more than one million signatures, and her candidacy was endorsed by six opposition political parties as the common candidate for president in the election called for February 7, 1986. The political support she amassed, and the exoneration of the military men tried for her husband's murder, made Aquino accept the mandate to run for the presidency, "not in vengeance but in search of justice."

She picked Salvador Laurel, leader of the opposition's largest faction, as her running mate. Initial negotiations fell through in a disagreement about which party's name to carry--her husband's LABAN (Fight) Party or Laurel's UNIDO (United Nationalist Democratic Organization). Before the deadline for filing candidacy she and Laurel agreed to run under the UNIDO banner.

Countering Marcos's charges of her political inexperience, Aquino counted as her main asset her diametrical opposition to the president. Her supporters considered her a fresh new face with a reputation for moral integrity. Her main assets in the campaign were her reputation for moral integrity along with her avowal of her slain husband's ideals. To these were added the quiet support of the influential Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, whose prelate Jamie Cardinal Sin was instrumental in the Aquino-Laurel reconciliation.

The homemaker-turned-politician responded to the challenge with enthusiasm and a singular commitment to the cause of justice. Her opponent, Marcos, had extended his term of office for more than 20 years through a declaration of martial law and constitutional changes that increased his powers. The true results of the election may never be known as the incumbent forces used intimidation, scattered violence, and overt fraud to declare Marcos the winner. The people took to the streets in protest; some army leaders revolted; the United States expressed its indignation. Less than three weeks after his alleged election victory in February 1986, Marcos fled the Philippines. Aquino became the acknowledged president of the republic.

The Presidency and Beyond

Aquino admitted that she faced numerous challenges as the new Filipino president. The release of 441 political prisoners and the forced retirement of 22 pro-Marcos generals were among her first actions as president. She also reinstated the writ of habeas corpus, the right of a prisoner to appear before a judge, and abolished the government's ability to imprison people at will, which had been in effect since 1981. Aquino promised to promote the right to assemble peaceably, and free speech along with prosecuting corruption and abusers of human rights.

Protecting the countryside was another of Aquino's goals. She planned to accomplish this by disarming the private armies that roamed the rural areas and establish industries there. Aquino said she would revitalize the sugar industry by breaking the monopoly. She acknowledged the special relationship with the United States but emphasized that her concern was with the Filipinos, not the Americans.

Aquino knew her popularity would wane and that her leadership would be harshly criticized. At least seven coups were directed at her government during her tenure as president, many times by former allies who had helped her come to power. Besides dealing with factious parties both within her cabinet and in the nation, Aquino had to contend with natural disasters and frequent power failures.

In 1991, a constitutional amendment was passed by referendum which enabled Aquino to remain president until June 30, 1992. Her successor was Fidel Ramos, her former secretary of defense and Marcos' former deputy chief of staff of the armed forces. Ramos, who assisted Aquino in fending off the coup attempts, has continued to support Aquino's democratic ideals. Aquino has still retained her popularity with the Filipino people and works for reform by participating in cooperatives and non-governmental organizations in the Philippines.

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THE PRESIDENTS REPORT 1986-1992

This volume covers the achievements of the Aquino administration from day one as President Aquino uneasily took over the reins of power until the day she bowed out of it, formidable and steeled. Although this volume records what the Aquino administration had accomplished from the more abstract feat as the restoration of democracy to the more palpable one as given in facts and figures, what is more revealing is that so much had been achieved in such a short span with so little space and lesser resources. It also says much of the management style of a President whose sole and simple desire was to serve the people but ended up in teaching the world the humane and benevolent way to reign.

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Her Presidency

The Aquino Management of the Presidency

"Ours is a government that came to power borne on the shoulders of our people; we must, therefore, govern on the basis of that same people power."

These were the very words of President Corazon C. Aquino - words that laid the foundation of the highest office of the land. For six years and four months, her people-powered presidency reflected itself in the very nature of the executive branch and on the implementation of several projects closest to the President's heart; closest, because they touched the warp and woof of our people's aspirations.

To document in part her people-powered presidency, the office of the Presidential Management Staff has compiled this series of volumes titled The Aquino Management of the Presidency.

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