I was 9 years old when I first heard of the name of Cory Aquino. She was motherly on television, but she also shows her fighting side especially as she tried to lead the country against tight reign of then Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.
We lived at Laon Laan Street, two blocks away from Gov. Forbes (now Arsenio Lacson Street). And from just outside our window, I could see thousands of Filipinos, all of them in a fighting mode, wearing yellow shirts, some wearing yellow strips rolled around their heads, flashing the “L” sign and shouting “Ibagsak si Marcos” (Sack Marcos).
I didn’t really know how serious the situation was back in February1986, because at that time, I was simply concerned with the no classes declared so I could play, wake up late and relax (which any nine-year-old kid would probably do).
Little did I know that what transpired on that purposeful month of February 1986 would literally shape the history not just of the Philippines, but of the world as well.
For one, when Cory Aquino finally rose to power via the revolution known as the “People Power”, that peaceful, bloodless revolution that eventually kicked Marcos and his cronies out of the country, the world literally stood still and watched the drama unfold within the entire archipelago.
Cory was obviously no political veteran, but as I read through her chronicles, hear from the people who worked with her through those six years she led our nation as the country’s very first woman president, I realized that her fight for the country’s freedom from dictatorship was all worth it.
Sure, she had her shortcomings as president, those long nights of blackouts that plunged the nation to literal darkness for eight to 10 hours a day during the late 1980s.
But her courage, her faith in God and her desire to see our country experience freedom were certainly her greatest contribution to the Filipinos.
Democracy was something that every Filipino dreamed of experiencing ever since Marcos ruled with iron fist starting in 1972 when he declared Martial Law.
But since February 26, 1986, the day after Marcos and his First Family fled to Honolulu, Hawaii, Filipinos tasted democracy for the first time in a long, long while.
Tita Cory, you may not know me personally, but as a Filipino, I want to say thank you for allowing God to use you to bring back democracy in the country and echo what your late husband Ninoy once said, that “Filipinos are worth dying for.”
Photo Source: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/philippines/images/tl03b.jpg