It’s designed to limit Aquino’s legacy

By Raissa Robles

Happy birthday, President Corazon Aquino.

Your protegé, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is rushing to build you a monument after calling you a “bully”.

Does she have the presidential power to order your memorial erected in Rizal Park, in effect declaring you a national hero equal or second only to Jose Rizal?

Is there a mischievous political purpose behind the planned memorial?

President Arroyo has not told the nation how she personally feels about Aquino, whom she once told me was her only “living role model”, during an interview in October 2000, four months before Aquino helped her to power.

But there are enough indications to show that her four-year rift with Aquino, while the latter was still alive, has not been laid to rest.

Arroyo’s message of condolence upon Aquino’s death sounded stilted.

When she said “our hearts go out to the family in this hour of grief and sorrow,” she sounded and looked the same as when she said “I am sorry” following the leak of the infamous wiretapped tapes of her talking to an election official, which caused Aquino to quit her side.

Listen to the video below:

Then compare it to her message of condolence.

Arroyo’s terse message of sympathy on the death of her benefactress deviated from her usual, highly personal style of speaking. She used the word “I” only once, never mentioned Aquino’s bereaved children by name nor extended her own personal condolences or those of her own family.

If you want to read her message of condolence, click on this.

When she issued this message,  she was abroad.  And the 10 days of mourning she ordered for the entire nation excluded her and her entourage. They had the time of their lives wining and dining in the swankiest restaurants.

See my earlier postings:

What kind of  New York transport cost the Arroyo trip US$182,957 in just two days?

Psssst, Conressman Mikey, President Obama ate in a hamburger joint

Upon her return home, she visited Arroyo’s wake for all of seven minutes and skipped the requiem mass altogether.

Why then would she want to erect a monument in her honor?

Once the shrine is built, guess who will unveil it most probably during next month’s Edsa People Power Anniversary, based on the six months deadline announced by the late presidential spokesman Cerge Remonde.

Because Arroyo ordered it built, guess whose name will forever be engraved on the same plaque embedded on the said monument.

Guess, too, who will give the keynote speech during the occasion defining the Cory legacy for future generations. And in so doing, could a kinder and gentler Arroyo also emerge for the yet unborn Filipinos who will thank her for memorializing Aquino with a shrine?

It was, ironically, Aquino and her family who gave Arroyo the head start in politics. Arroyo has since boasted that she played a major role in installing Aquino as president in 1986 by knocking on various foreign embassies for their support. But reporters and sources interviewed do not remember Arroyo at Edsa.

Arroyo’s reward for helping Aquino – an appointment to head a minor trade bureau – does not seem commensurate to a key role.

Arroyo told me in October 2000 that it was Aquino’s brother-in-law Paul who had drafted her to the Senate slate in 1992. Since she placed 13 out of 24 winning senators she had to run again in 1995. She topped that.

“That was when the thought came to me that probably he (God) wants me to try to go for a higher position (the presidency in 1998),” Arroyo said.

But Aquino refused to anoint Arroyo’s presidential bid despite the personal prodding of three people close to her: her brother, ex-Congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco; the late Philippine Star columnist Teodoro Benigno; and Pastor “Boy” Saycon.

Three sources, including marketing man and now Philippine Star columnist William “Billy” Esposo” separately confirmed to me that Aquino rejected Arroyo saying ““I find her too pragmatic. She will do anything to gain the presidency.”

In the year 2000, Aquino herself would make the pragmatic move of backing Arroyo against Estrada. Six months before her death, she publicly apologized for this “mistake”.

Contrasting Presidents Arroyo and Aquino

Interestingly, both women appeared to lead parallel lives early on. Born 14 years apart, both have “Maria” appended to their baptismal names – Maria Corazon and Maria Gloria – meaning heart and glory. Their very names reflected the driving force of their personalities.

Both were locally schooled by nuns, studied at American Catholic universities, spoke European languages and married at age 21.

Both were born to political families but neither was raised to wield power. Both accidentally became president at the age of 53 after spending the early part of their adult lives rocking the cradle – producing eight children between them.

When each became president, however, the differences became marked.

Aquino wore the mantle of power like a massive allergy. She used her revolutionary powers sparingly because, as Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. told me, “she wanted to be the opposite of (the strongman Ferdinand) Marcos.

Aquino seemed to have one foot inside a nunnery and was never seen dancing nor jetting around, although reports said she played mahjong to relax. She was frugal in spending people’s money on herself. Her clothes mimicked the habit of nuns in their shapelessness and length.

While some relatives were accused of enriching themselves, her own integrity was never questioned.

Aquino knew the seduction of power but never succumbed to it. Once, her former spokesman Rene Saguisag told me an anecdote about her. During a massive adoring crowd chanted out her name, Aquino had turned to Saguisag and said, “kaya pala mga pulitiko gustong gusto ito. Nakakalasing.” (No wonder politicians love this sort of thing. It’s intoxicating.)

In stark contrast, Arroyo seems to thrive and become more comely with power although she told me once: “I’ve never been known as a great beauty.”

Last Friday, when she hosted a dinner for members of FOCAP (Foreign
Correspondents Association of the Philippines) she was stylishly turned out although in deep mourning.

She works very hard but also enjoys the perks of a traveling head of state, staying in the best hotels and eating gourmet. Since 2001, she has spent abroad the equivalent of 10 months. In last year’s first half alone, she spent over a month (43 days) overseas, according to government records.

She often stretches the powers of the presidency beyond what the 1987 Cory Constitution provides, especially when protecting herself from corruption probes.

With the planned Cory monument, it is unclear whether she has the power to even undertake it. Because before and after the regime of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, all major shrines were approved by Acts of Congress.

Only Marcos, using dictatorial powers, decreed such memorials.

Both Aquino and Arroyo once promised to be transition presidents and then step down. But Arroyo went back on her word. And when the nation heard an electronic recording of  Arroyo asking an election official whether she would win by one million votes during the 2004 presidential polls, Aquino bluntly told her to resign.

This episode in their intertwining lives is something Arroyo hopes history will forget. She and her aides have clearly indicated what Aquino should be remembered for. Immediately upon Aquino’s death, they confined her historical legacy to the 1986 Edsa people power uprising.

Arroyo herself called Aquino “a national treasure” because she “helped lead a revolution that restored democracy” 23 years ago. Period.

For her to call Aquino a hero for one part of her life and a heel and bully in another part could confuse the yet unborn Filipinos about Aquino’s worth as a hero. To confine Aquino’s legacy to just 1986 and disregard the 2005-2009 period could lead to a reality distortion.

Aquino’s legacy had two phases

Aquino’s struggle had two phases. The initial phase began when she returned to Manila a widow of an assassinated senator and ended when she stepped down from the presidency in 1992.

The second phase started when she stepped out of retirement three times as Citizen Cory to force all her successors – Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Arroyo – to behave as she thought presidents should.

On July 8, 2005 she publicly asked Arroyo “to make the supreme sacrifice of resigning from office” after wiretapped tapes surfaced which Aquino said “cast serious doubt on the electoral victory of the President in the recent elections.”

Two months later on September 13, 2005, she nagged Arroyo about resigning and lectured her protegé:

According to moral principles, a government that assumes or retains power through fraudulent means has no moral basis. For such an access to power is tantamount to a forcible seizure and cannot command the allegiance of the citizenry.

If such a government does not of itself freely correct the evil it has inflicted on the people, then it is our serious moral obligation as a people to make them do so.

But days later on September 22, 2005, Arroyo fired back saying -

I’m tired of chasing the bully around the schoolyard…. those who will not (heed my call) and continue to sow trouble, we will enforce the rule of law.

Although Aquino’s name wasn’t mentioned, it was clear she was among “those” being referred to.

A close Arroyo ally, Senator Miriam Santiago,then proceeded to blacken
Aquino’s name a week later by accusing the global icon of democracy of plotting to kill Arroyo. (Isn’t there a move to disqualify Santiago from running on grounds of …just asking, just asking.)

Since 2005, Aquino has never wavered from her demand for Arroyo’s resignation. From her deathbed last June, she lashed out at “the shameful abuses of the powerful that seek to destroy our sacred laws.” She clearly meant Arroyo.

Now the presidential palace, which Aquino restored to the people, wants
Filipinos to forget Arroyo ever said all those things about Aquino. Once the Arroyo-sponsored memorial is built, it would be a strange one indeed, intended for Filipinos to forget.

What do you think?