Note: This post was originally written on July 6th, but I did not post it and published another one instead, titled: Hey Stormy! I am publishing it now because the Matriarch of EDSA I , is dead. May she rest in peace.She comes from a very rich family in the North. Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. Or Tita Cory to her millions of followers and fans.
She's very ill today.
In 1983, Cory's husband, Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquiono would travel from Boston, Massachusetts to Manila only to be gunned down at the Manila International Airport. His funeral became one of the biggest and most celebrated one not only in the Philippines but throughout the world. The hearse took half a day to travel from the Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City to the Himlayang Pilipino in Paranaque. Millions of Filipinos lined the streets of Manila.
Right after this, Mrs. Aquino, though inexperienced, would swim through the dirty waters of Philippine politics, and rallied the people against the Marcos dictatorship.
I remember leaving the office early one afternoon to join her in a rally at the Liwasang Bonifacio (Post Office) . She was there as a speaker, wearing her traditional yellow dress. It was the first and only time I saw her in person.
A few years after Ninoy Aquino's assassination, the multi-national office where I worked in Manila closed shop because of the political and economic chaos but would later re-open. That was the time I left Manila.
Barely arriving in the U.S, I heard news that Cory Aquino toppled Ferdinand E. Marcos out of office via the "peaceful revolution" of EDSA I.
I remember my American brother-in-law asking: "why did it take so many years for the Filipinos to kick out Marcos?" To which I replied, "we did not have a weapon then, called Cory Aquino."
The anniversary of the EDSA I revolution gets to be celebrated every 25th of February. Gentle Cory's big day.
To contrast it, is the "evil seed" which germinated the Marcos rule, Martial Law, which was declared on September 21, 1972.
The gutsy wind continues to blow in the Philippine Islands. Philippine politics gets stormed, calms down.
1 comment:
She is a prime example of a woman of strength, because she carried on with her life after Ninoy with total dignity, inspite of all adversities. Truly someone to be admired and draw inspiration from.
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