She warned against using extra-constitutional means to oust President Arroyo, who is battling allegations of vote fraud and illegal gambling payoffs to her relatives.
"People power has succeeded only if it is for others. It was so in 1986 when those who led the revolution led from the front. It was so in 2001. But people power for oneself will never succeed," she said in a statement read before the media at the Cojuangco Building in Makati yesterday.
Malacañang thanked Mrs. Aquino for the reminder, saying that the conditions that brought about the popular uprisings in EDSA in 1986 and 2001 were different from the situation facing the country today.
"We must work within the framework of our Constitution and our laws if we truly want a stable government that rests upon the rule of law," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.
Aquino, who would not specify what political course of action she would recommend to Mrs. Arroyo, said she had been pressured to speak, and so decided to break her silence yesterday "after praying hard and praying for light, for myself and our country."
"Last night, I paid a call on Susan Sonora Poe. I congratulated her on the passion of her speech and the sincerity of her convictions," Aquino revealed.
However, she stressed that she made it clear to the widow of Mrs. Arroyo’s former political rival, Fernando Poe Jr., that she would always stand by the Constitution.
In a fiery speech Wednesday, actress Susan Roces accused Mrs. Arroyo of stealing the presidency and declared that she was ready to replace the President if she decided to step down.
"I believe that the Constitution contains all the ways by which one may safely effect even the most difficult political changes," Aquino said in her statement.
"There is no need to step outside it. To step outside the Constitution will only expose us to greater danger than the injustices we want to correct," she explained, apparently referring to calls for another EDSA people power revolt.
Deposed President Joseph Estrada, however, challenged Mrs. Aquino’s remarks, saying she had conveniently forgotten that in 2001, she and the elite forces supporting then Vice President Gloria Arroyo turned their backs on the Constitution.
Estrada, who was ousted from the presidency in a popular revolt in 2001 after the collapse of the Senate impeachment trial hearing jueteng allegations against him, said that it was he who strictly upheld the Constitution while in office.
"Was she true to her Constitution when she, together with Jaime Cardinal Sin and the elite mob, demonized me, demanded my ouster and convicted me in the streets? Or was she unfaithful to the Constitution she and her 50 or so chosen commissioners drafted?" Estrada asked.
Aquino herself came into power in a bloodless military-backed uprising that ousted strongman Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. It was during her administration that the present Constitution was drafted.
Aquino, who granted no interviews or entertained any questions after reading the statement, centered her speech on requests that Filipinos pray.
"I don’t know how many people still believe in the power of prayer but I do. I really believe in prayer and prayer has always guided me rightly, both in what I should say and when I should say it," she said.
Looking back at the time when she was the one in the limelight, she said she was criticized for being naive in running against Marcos in the snap elections in 1986.
"The victories of the opposition, notwithstanding a rigged election, gave the friends of freedom the true measure of their strength and the unwavering confidence to go on to the snap election and the EDSA People Power Revolution," Aquino said.
She emphasized that prayer and the strength and courage it brings had restored freedom to Filipinos and helped to protect it.
"Prayer and prayerful reflection have never failed me or failed our country. It will not do so now," she said in a closing statement. — Michael Punongbayan, Aurea Calica, AFP, AP