madam Cory Aquino

Faye Hazel R. Douglass mrs. Cathy Rivera
Epistemology

The enigma that is Cory Aquino

I was born on july 26, 1990, four years after the bloodless people’s power revolt by the Filipino people against a ruthless dictator who was entrenched in power for twenty years who ruled through the barrel of a gun through his infamous Martial Law.
The Filipinos are used to being oppressed and manacled for centuries. That started with the Spanish colonizers who enslaved the country for more that 300 years until the Filipinos started to revolt and had Jose Rizal as the rallying paint. Then, the country was granted it’s independence on july 12, 1890- two years after Rizal’s death.
Shortly after, the country was again colonized by the Americans- from 1911 to 1946 which was shortly after the end of world war II. And then after that, the Japanese came and violated all human rights without question, again, from the barrel of a gun and through the use of technology.
Up until the present day, Filipinos continue to struggle for equality, education and peace- a system cory Aquino aimed for.

Cory was born on January 25, 1933 to a brood of 8. She had always considered herself to be insignificant which propelled her to excel academically. Her family had always been wealthy and politically influenced.
In 1946, the family left for the U.S. and cory studied high school in Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia then at Notre Dame convent school in New York where she finished high school. She graduated at the college of Mount Saint Vincent in New York- majoring in math and French.
In 1953, she came back to the Philippines and enrolled at Far Eastern University for a Law degree but as fate would have it, met the dashing Ninoy Aquino. They both got married and had 5 children. All her married years, cory stayed in the background, supporting the political career of her husband and taking care of her family until one day, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law on sept. 21, 1972 and ordered the arrest of his opponents, including people from the media, closed down all TV and radio stations, suspended all civil liberties of the people including the writ of habeas corpus (human rights).
Ninoy was imprisoned for seven years and seven months. All this time, cory and her children did not waver, did not beg marcos to free her husband. She had to be a strong person, both for her family and the country. She was a person of deep faith and conviction. Somehow, she was strengthened by the furnace of the war- and this is where marcos was mistaken when he dismissed her by saying, “she is just a woman”.
But this woman became the rallying point of the bloodless revolt of Febuary 1986- using not guns but people power that was occupied and emulated by the other nations around the world namely: Haiti, Germany and Russia. Eventually, Thailand followed the same example.
Now that she’s dead, she cannot be forgotten. She left us a legacy of honesty, love, sacrifice and patriotism beyond measure. She gave her all for us to experience the democracy we experience now.

Hannah Arendt explains that violence is only existent for as long as there are implements or instruments. During the Martial Law, the only thing which kept Marcos in his seat were the people around him. He used violence as an instrument to organize the people which for arendt was the entire point of violence. But the abuse of violence became the ultimate striking point of the Filipinos.
The common misconception of the Marcos presidency was not that he was powerful, he was just purely violent. He used everything and everyone to his advantage with clear disregard to those who would suffer the consequence.
Power for Arendt was measured by number, as in the case of the peaceful war which was the People Power or commonly known as EDSA I. people came together from all parts of the country to step out and step up against a corrupt leader. People in the government, again for arendt, are not powerful people, rather, they are empowered people. They are empowered by the people who vote for them, by the law which states their obligations and human rights which remind them of what not to do. And also, the government is made for the people, by the people and is with the people no matter what situation.
However, during the Marcos presidency, good governance was not followed. Confucius’ wise words about the superior man and the right leader were ignored all for two things: greed and vanity.
Cory, the first woman president took into her hands and heart and decided to do something for the people. And the best thing about her was not that she became a symbol of Philippine Feminism, but that she never ever claimed to beat the apathetic leader which was Marcos single handedly. Instead, she pushed everyone to grab what they had always deserved, and that was a just and humane society.

During her presidency, she did nothing but revise the constitution which became the 1987 constitution of the Philippines. She made sure that the constitution was not to any person’s advantage, but that it made equality evident.

Cory’s greatest legacy to the Filipinos was and is that she tried to unite the Philippines when she was still alive, now, we are united in grief and gratefulness. She was the best example of the vision of an Atenean- man and woman for others.