Cory Aquino: “powerful icon of freedom and courage”

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/01 August) – Corazon Aquino, she who said upon arrival in August 1983 to bury an assassinated husband, that “courage, like cowardice, is contagious,” and proved this to the Marcos dictatorship by running for President in the snap elections of 1986, passed away peacefully at 3:18 a.m. at the Makati Medical Center, surrounded by her children praying the Holy Rosary.

Fr. Eliseo Jun Mercado, executive director of the Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG) said, “she remains a powerful icon of freedom and courage.”

Mercado says President Arroyo’s legacy for Mindanao is that “she was not afraid to personally come and talk to rebels. Remember Jolo with Nur Misuari.”

Against the advice of her military and defense advisers, Ms Arroyo broke protocol and met with Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chair Nur Misuari in Maimbung, Sulu, on September 5, 1986. The meeting resulted in an agreement to hold formal negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Southern Philippines.

Irene Santiago, executive director of the Mindanao Commission on Women, said “here was a woman who, when country called, pulled herself out of her private space to become our public beacon of hope. Her fight was moral. It was for God and Country and People. We bless such a woman!”

Aveen Acuna-Gulo, who writes the column, “The Voice” said “I think Cory made sure she waited for August that she may rest, the same month her husband Ninoy died 26 years ago. I shed tears of joy, feeling so blessed to have had her as my President. I believe her legacy is already with us – the people she had served. It’s only a matter of time.”

For Datu Michael Mastura, historian, former Maguindanao congressman and now senior member of the peace panel of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), “Cory’s demise is the end of our post-colonial era.”

“Her legacy is her own Freedom Constitution. The 1987 Constitution crafted by her Constitutional Commission is but a means for transforming the national wedge to an unfinished new national consensus,” he said.

Fr. Roberto Layson, parish priest of Kulaman in Senator Ninoy Aquino town in Sultan Kudarat, told MindaNews Ms Arroyo was “a true mother.”

“Even in her old age she continued to nourish our motherland with her selfless commitment to freedom and democracy,” he said.

MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal said he is still awaiting the official statement of the MILF leadership but told MindaNews his view is “Cory is an epitome of patience and reconciliation.”

Davao City Councilor Mabel Sunga-Acosta said Ms Aquino “had strength of character and showed a lot of fortitude as the supportive wife of a prominent senator, as a devoted mother, and as the first woman president of our country that suffered long years under martial rule. She will be sorely missed and always be fondly remembered as an icon of People Power at EDSA and as a symbol of hope and democracy.”

Acosta recalls she was “there at EDSA when I was a student at UP wearing a yellow shirt with the battlecy ‘Di ka nag-iisa.’ Cory as Ninoy’s widow was practically the embodiment of an antithesis to all that is Marcos. She was like a beacon of light at the end of a dark and dreary journey, a respite for a weary nation desperate for change. She is well loved and highly admired and respected even in the international community.”

Senator Rodolfo Biazon, the first military officer President Aquino met with after People Power in 1986 and who would later be appointed superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy and later Armed Forces Chief of Staff,” said “you and I know the grief of the nation. She fought for restoration of democracy in our county and up to her last breath she maintained her vigil to protect that democracy.”

Biazon was commander of the 3^rd Marine Brigade in Davao City when People Power broke out in 1986.

Davao would have been where Ms Aquino would have set up a provisional government if Marcos had held on. She was in Cebu attending a rally on February 22 and was supposed to leave for Davao City for another protest action on February 23 but then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Philippine Constabulary Chief Fidel Ramos bolted the Marcos dictatorship, Jaime Cardinal Sin and Butz Aquino called on people to proceed to EDSA and the rest is history.

“She should serve as inspiration to us that there is one housewife who never thought of possessing the powers of the Pesidency, who fought for the restoration of democracy, the maintenance of democracy and who continues to fight even beyond her term..” Biazon said. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)