Corazon Aquino promised democracy and she delivered it
By Mila Glodava
I never met Mrs. Aquino, but I have been a big admirer of hers since she was propelled into the limelight after the assassination of her husband, whom people lovingly call Ninoy. She was then a symbol of strength and integrity which she manifested during her term as president of the Philippines and even as she battled her illness. Of course, as we know now she was "an icon of democracy." This is the very essence of a letter which I wrote and was published in the Denver Post on June 30, 1992. It was a response to a not-so-flatering article on June 21, 1992 about Mrs. Aquino and her presidency.
Here’s what I wrote.
June 30, 1992. The Denver Post
Corazon Aquino promised democracy, and she delivered it
I read with interest The Denver Post’s Sunday Spotlight on Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino (“Philippine uprising largely a failure,” June 21).
However, I could not disagree more with Robert H. Reid and Eileen Guerrero, especially the headline. It was not the uprising that failed; rather, it was some of Mrs. Aquino’s major programs. Let us not minimize, however, one of the most dramatic achievements in modern history –– a feat that not a few world leaders would want to have on their resume.
Mrs. Aquino inspired what Filipinos call the “People Power Revolution,” which now is credited as the motivation behind recent uprisings in Burma (Myanmar), Pakistan, Eastern Europe and South Korea, among others. Why? Because the Philippine Joan of Arc-led revolution not only toppled a dictator and restored democracy, it also did so unlike other revolutions, without bloodshed. These achievements alone have assured Mrs. Aquino and the Filipino people a special place in history –– to inspire generations upon generations to come.
To say that the Philippine uprising is a failure is to distort perspective. And I take exception to Rep. Bonifacio Gillego’s comment that “It is easier to depose a dictatorship than restore social order.” If it were that easy, “Where was he, or any other Philippine seasoned politicians, before Mrs. Aquino came into the picture? Would he much rather have a martial law, where oppression of citizens is the rule? Would he much rather have graft and corruption, violence, imprisonment without cause, tortures, and even murders? And these from the top down, without fear of exposure, because the press is controlled by government.
Certainly there is still much to be done in the Philippines. I don’t think six years can sufficiently clean up 20 years of alleged plunder and economic mismanagement, not to mention the effects of more than 380 years of foreign domination (including Spain and the United States).
As far as I am concerned, however, Mrs. Aquino gave the Filipino people what they only had dreamed of, or simply talked about, six years before. Mrs. Aquino laid the foundation for progress in a truly democratic form of government. More than that is, to me, icing on the cake. I just pray to God that President-elect Gen. Fidel Ramos and other successors, who are now benefiting under the democratic process (of free election), will continue what Mrs. Aquino has started and take the country forward to what it once was before martial law.