Cory gave up power, a rare phenomenon

What are my thoughts as we observe Cory Aquino’s thirteenth death anniversary today, August 1?

At the height of the EDSA People Power fervor in 1986, Cory Aquino gripped the attention and held the support not only of millions of newly-awoke Filipinos but of the entire free world.

For a brief moment, as the tumultuous throngs of freedom-starved Filipinos put their trust in her hands, she literally became as totally powerful as the dictator she had ousted.

Suspending the moribund 1973 Constitution, which Ferdinand Marcos had mangled with numerous amendments to concentrate power in his hands, Cory quickly cobbled together a “Freedom Constitution” that would enable government to run on autopilot for at least a year.

From Batanes to Tawi-tawi, Cory replaced the entire grassroots political leadership across the whole archipelago—appointing Officer-in-charge (OIC) governors, mayors and Sanggunian councilors in every province, city and municipality in the entire Philippines.

She named a full Cabinet with a complement of fully-staffed regional offices, bureaus and agencies in every executive department. She revamped every branch of service in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and sent new ambassadors to all foreign consulates of the Philippines, including the United Nations and the Vatican.

She took control of the National Treasury and dispatched legal hounds to track down and recover all the ill-gotten wealth that was fleeing the country or finding shelter in dummy caches of cash and liquid assets hidden in the deepest bowels and recesses of the country’s banking and finance apparatus.

She did not enjoy strong support from government employees still largely loyal to Marcos—the only president they have ever worked for in the last twenty years. But Cory did not strip down the national civil service. She left it untouched.

The business, commercial and industrial sectors were four-square behind her, including many of the crony-owned industrial institutions who had made hay under the Marcos sunshine. Simply told, they knew that Cory represented a new era of honest capitalism--fitful and problem-plagued to be expected, but honest still.

To everybody, Cory was the national “reset button” and they were just willing to let her take a crack at re-launching our collective pursuit of the Filipino Dream.

If she wanted to—and everyone around her wanted her to want to—she could have made herself President-for-life. The economy had just improved so much that many sectors clamored for “sustainability.” They kept asking her, will she or won’t she run for a second term. Even the framers of the 1987 Constitution had left just a little bit of daylight to permit an interpretation that the single-term limit for President did not apply to her. It was all hers for the asking—would she run again?

Famously, Cory gave her answer to the tune of Nonoy Zuñiga’s famous ballad “I’ll never say goodbye” and sang to the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) her own retooled lyrics: “I’ll never run again…pang Snap-election lang ako!”

And thusly the legend was carved in granite: Cory Aquino who would have still been unbeatable in the 1992 election turned her back on active politics and resumed her austere life as the widow in yellow.

She did what no Marcos, then and now, could ever do—decline the opportunity to perpetuate herself in power. She oversaw the first successful peaceful transition of power in post-EDSA history.

She gracefully exited the national stage, making room for new voices, and giving generous limbering space for the slowly-strengthening muscle of Philippine democracy. Instead of growing moss permanently seated in power, Cory gave way to FIVE more democratically-elected, if questionably morally-qualified, popular presidents after herself.

Yet, up to the last minute, Cory was the consummate anti-trapo. All conventional wisdom expected her to anoint her closest ally, House Speaker Ramon “Monching” V. Mitra, Congressman of Palawan, as the official standard bearer of the party that had totally supported her throughout her administration: the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP).

For six years, Monching Mitra had pimped this political machine to Formula One invincibility. It would be a walkover for the candidate who held this party’s flag at the election—provided Cory gave her blessing. Mitra worked hard for that endorsement, he deserved it, the public expected it, the party demanded it.

Cory endorsed Fidel V. Ramos.

To a man, almost everyone said at the time that THAT was a colossal mistake.

Today, I have not heard anyone who said that was a mistake who has not recanted and said, instead, “that was a stroke of brilliance.”

This is who Cory Aquino was. If you were born after 1986 and you have an unflattering opinion of her, I don’t care how you got your education. You are ignorant.

If I hurt your feelings, I’m glad I did.*