Fourteen years ago today, an extraordinary lady passed away and millions accompanied her to her grave to say farewell, and “Maraming salamat.”
The late former President Corazon Aquino, who led a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in the Philippines in 1986 that inspired many peaceful mass actions worldwide, and battled seven coup attempts during her presidency, was serene yet steely.
“I always still remember Mom’s serenity of mind and spirit. No matter how tough life got, she would remain calm and be at peace,” her daughter Viel Dee told me on the eve of her mother’s 14th death anniversary.
Cory was not one to trumpet her achievements or toot her horn. She believed she would ultimately be judged by the Filipino people, not by the media. Those were the days before social media, before fake news. Cory, with her enduring faith in the goodness of man, truly believed that a good conscience was the reward for honest toil, and as she said in her final State of the Nation Address in July 1991, “I honestly did the best I could. No more can be asked of any man.”
“I have consoled myself that great men like Gandhi were not spared criticism either, but — regardless of it — he pursued the path he believed was true, mindful only of harmful effects on the people, but not of the consequences to him. He believed that God demands no less of us than that we follow our conscience. God will take care of the rest…
“I could have said, ‘Let my successor be presented with the bill for my popularity today.’ But it is the people who would pay the price, and I am not made that way…
“As President, I have never prayed for anything for myself; only for our people… And it is for them that I was placed in this office.
“Someone who will do better may stand in this place next year, for I believe in the inexhaustible giftedness of the Filipino people. I only hope that he will be someone who will sincerely mean you well.
“I hope that history will judge me as favorably as our people still regard me, because, as God is my witness, I honestly did the best I could. No more can be asked of any man.”
***
I worked with President Cory in her media bureau during her campaign in 1985, with now Ambassador to London Teddyboy Locsin, Popoy Juico and the late Billy Esposo as my bosses. After she became President in 1986, we moved to the Kalayaan Hall at Malacañang, where the press office was set up, with Teddyboy joining President Cory in the Premier Guesthouse, Popoy in the Department of Agrarian reform and Billy in PTV-4.
As she shared with nephew Rapa Lopa in her recollections of those days, “So there I was, from housewife to President, the highest position in the land. I suppose it was all providential. If Ver had not discovered the coup plot, there would be no reason for Enrile and Ramos to go hiding in Camp Aguinaldo. But if I had not participated in the elections, what would they be protesting about? Everything just fell into place. I would say that all this was wrought by prayer and that it was through the people’s sacrifices that God came to our rescue and did things in a very peaceful way.
“Let’s just say that we need different leaders for different times. The people thought I was the only one who could unite the opposition, who had a chance. They felt they needed someone who was the complete opposite of Marcos. They believed that someone was me.”
Her six-year presidency was a rollercoaster of sorts, but the lady on the front seat of the rollercoaster was always steadfast. As retired Justice Adolf S. Azcuna said in his memoirs, quoting Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
The best of times really was seeing how Cory’s courage and simplicity won over her countrymen from north to south of the Philippines (of course, not the entire north), and the world; from the halls of the US Congress, to City Hall in Paris, Rome, Canada, and many other countries that she had visited before she decided to cut foreign travel after the 1989 coup attempt that nearly toppled her government. The aftermath of the seven coups was among the worst of times.
***
My most treasured memory of Cory is personal. She was in the vicinity of our townhouse in BF Homes Parañaque, and she asked me out of the blue as she had heard I had moved south, “Is your house near here?” We were then in the home of Chris Carrion in Ayala Alabang.
“Yes, Ma’am,” I replied. I thought she was just making small talk. Then she added, “May I visit your home?”
I was floored and excited and I immediately called up my husband Ed to tell him to ask our two helpers to prepare the home for no less than the “Icon of Democracy.”
Cory was no longer President and her aides told me she had the habit of stopping at checkpoints and guardhouses, not using her face value to gain access to anywhere. Since I rushed home to prepare the house, I implored at least two checkpoints in BF Homes, which is huge, to let Cory Aquino in without asking for her driver Norie’s license. To my relief, I found out later they waved her through.
“She will be delighted with mango ice cream,” Margie Juico, her former Appointments Secretary, told me when I asked what I should serve my VVIP guest. Indeed, Cory loved it.
Aside from posing for photos with Ed and me, she gamely posed with our helpers.
In 2012, when then President Noynoy Aquino (“PNoy”) and his sisters visited the house of someone who worked with their mother Cory at Malacañang, he asked their host if he could have as souvenirs the yellow Post-Its with handwritten instructions that she had left with him.
“You see, all of them had ‘Please’ in them,” Cory’s second daughter Pinky Abellada recalled at the time. She said they reminded PNoy, who unfortunately passed away in 2021, of how considerate their mother was of others, even subordinates, and how polite.
***
On her 75th birthday on Jan. 25, 2008, Cory told me, “I have a lot to be thankful for. I really want to thank the Lord for the 75 years of so many blessings. And even the trials have turned out to be blessings. If it weren’t for the trials, I would not have been the person I am today.”
“I know that we had to go through those difficult times. Jesus Christ had gone through difficult times as well. Who are the people you know who have not gone through suffering and yet have turned out to be complete individuals?”
When the end was near for Cory, she told me she was at peace. “If this is the end of the road for me, so be it. I have lived a full life.”
(You may e-mail me at joanneraeramirez@yahoo.com. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.)