Official Senate photo

Senate chief Juan Ponce Enrile is nimbly transforming himself into a champion of democracy and honest elections, trying to leave behind like an abandoned snakeskin his long-held role as suppressor of basic freedoms.

But what is he really up to?

The May 31, 2010 issue of Tribune newspaper quoted him as saying on radio station DZBB that “my target” for proclaiming the next president is June 15. But then he added:

If there will be any snag, it still should not be later than the 28th or 29th of June.

He vowed:

I will not allow this country to be without a president by June 30. I will not let that happen even if they hang me.

Should we clap now that he is the people’s champ for democracy?

I would clap except for this tiny bit of information that I got two weeks ago that makes me suspect Enrile is up to something that in the end will benefit himself. Of course it could also benefit the Filipino people but that remains to be seen.

Two weeks ago, I was doing a story for my newspaper SCMP and I managed to talk
to ex-president Joseph Estrada’s closest ally, former Senator and Philippine ambassador to Washington Ernesto Maceda.

Enrile told Estrada – don’t concede

Maceda explained to me why Estrada will not concede to Senator Benigno Aquino III just yet. And he mentioned in passing that it was Enrile who advised Estrada not to concede.

He told me: “Manong Johnny advised (Estrada) against early concession.” Maceda quoted Enrile as saying that despite the swift counting of Smartatic and Comelec, as of 5 pm of May 11th, not a single COC (certificate of canvass) had arrived at the Senate.

Maceda is used to my being makulit – now how do I translate that into English? Bothersome with questions?

So I asked Maceda – are you saying Enrile met with Estrada and personally told him not to concede?

Maceda replied:

It was Enrile who strongly recommended that Erap not issue a statement.

For days I waited for Enrile to disclose that bit of information. But to this day he continues to give the public the impression that he has nothing to do with Estrada’s refusal to concede. That he will try mightily to resolve all issues that will snag Aquino’s proclamation when in reality, all he has to do is tell Estrada that he, Enrile, no longer has any objections to it and Estrada can already concede defeat.

Perhaps Enrile could explain why he is holding the entire nation hostage when he knows perfectly well that Aquino had nothing to do with the election cheating.

As for Estrada’s complaint, I believe now that he has reason to complain but it doesn’t mean he was robbed of his victory by Aquino, as what Koala Bear claimed in that suspicious videotape.

Enrile is the last person to take up the cudgels for someone who was cheated in an election. Fifteen years ago, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr accused Enrile of cheating him of victory in the 1995 Senate race. Pimentel won his case against Enrile before the Senate Electoral Tribunal. Enrile tried to have the decision reversed by the Supreme Court but lost.

Here is the link to the ruling dismissing Enrile’s appeal.

I asked one of my sources why Enrile did not want Estrada to concede. My source laughed and said Enrile must be “horsetrading”. Perhaps he wants to remain Senate President for starters?

It must hurt Enrile so

That’s entirely possible. But there might also be another reason.

The sudden election of Senator Aquino to the presidency must hurt Enrile so. When he was around the same age as Senator Manuel Villar is today, Enrile lusted after the presidency. I interviewed him then for Business Day when he was at the height of this Martial Law administrator powers. He cut a dashing figure.

He made it known without saying it aloud that he intended to foil the presidential ambitions of then First Lady Imelda Marcos and the military chief Fabian Ver. He intended to succeed Marcos.

The plot that would have installed Enrile to power was unfortunately discovered by Marcos. Then people power came to Enrile’s rescue and prevented Marcos from killing Enrile.

And Corazon Aquino became president. She had no choice but to embrace Enrile
and make him defense secretary.

But that did not stop Enrile from wanting to be president. His chief aide-de-campe Gregorio Honasan led a series of bloody coup attempts – including one that laid siege to the Makati business district -  to try to dislodge Aquino from Malacañang Palace.

Fighting back, Mrs Aquino charged Enrile with the crime of “rebellion complexed with murder” and jailed him overnight, I think. It was sweet revenge to all the human rights victims of Enrile and Marcos. And that included the Aquino family, I guess.

Now Enrile is again confronted with the difficult task of proclaiming as president the son of the woman who foiled his precious ambition. Ooh, that must hurt.

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?

Now that our politics have gone retro – with the son of Joaquin “Chino” Roces vowing to gather more than a million signatures to persuade the son of global democracy icon President Corazon Aquino to run for  president – you might want to read exactly how Cory was drafted.

I am therefore reposting two articles written by veteran journalist-turned-peace advocate Paulynn  “Meiling” Sicam during that amazing period  when ordinary  Filipinos stunned the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and themselves, and planted the seeds of people power. She gave her permission.

Of course circumstances are changed now. But the same dreams remain – a country NOT going to the dogs, a people NOT fleeing in droves to foreign lands.

I am not campaigning for Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. But it makes better political sense for the Liberal Party to put him up as standard bearer for the following reasons:

1. With Senator Mar Roxas running, it is unlikely any of the non-administration-backed candidates  would give way to him. And so they would split the votes the way Fernando Poe Junior and Sen. Panfilo Lacson split the votes in 2004.

2. Sen. Roxas has not been able to excite voters enough to propel him to the top of the heap. His coming marriage with ABS-CBN broadcaster Korina Sanchez could give him some points. But what makes Ms. Sanchez a good, feisty news commentator may not be necessarily what people are looking for in a First Lady.

3. With Sen. Aquino running for president, ex-Pres.Joseph Estrada may give way to him and back him. That’s a lot of votes from the masses.

Don’t you find it weird that it is Sen. Roxas wearing the yellow shirt while Senator Aquino, who is the most logical person to wear this color is not? Instead he is wearing black, the color of mourning.

Having said all these, Sen. Aquino knows people’s expectations are sky high when it comes to him. It also comes at a great price. He would have to ask his clan to place the family-owned  Hacienda Luisita under land reform.

He might also compromise his health, what with a bullet still lodged in his neck as a result of a coup attempt against his mother.

Unlike his mother, though, he will find it easier dealing with the military since he is likely to have the backing and loyalty of the supporters of detained officers Lt. Col. Ariel Querubin and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, thanks to his mother’s support for them.

Below are Meiling’s articles that appeared in 1985.

Drafting a reluctant candidate

Cory, Don Chino and “our last chance to save democracy”

National Midweek November 6, 1985

By Paulynn P. Sicam

The lady has said she isn’t for drafting but Don Chino Roces and company have gone ahead anyway and formed the Draft Cory Aquino for President Movement. Word has it that Cory actually received the old man icily the day before the launching of the movement and asked him not to go through with it. But Don Chino and company, the likes of self-proclaimed Unido and Liberal Party political mechanic Tony Gatmaitan, businessman Victor Sison, recording industry executive Danny Olivares, former Bureau of Fisheries executive Benny Bengzon, angry Air Force wife Lorna Verano Yap, hard-working concerned citizen Imelda Nicolas, and several others, undauntedly proclaimed their intention to gather one million signatures in an attempt to persuade Ninoy Aquino’s widow to run or President.

“Our gathering here this afternoon could be a great moment in our history,” declared Don Chino at the National Press Club last October 15 [1985]. On the other hand, the press seemed to think it could be just another less than great beginning, one of those flights of fancy carried by balloons that burst before they can really take off.

The press sat there cynically questioning every idealistic argument put forth by Don Chino, who that afternoon, looked like Don Quixote de la Mancha fighting windmills. With no guarantee that his candidate for president would accept the draft, he spoke of her as the “healing, inspiring, unifying voice” that our country needs at this time, the sorrowing widow who he hopes “will shed her mother’s garments for the battle tunic of a political warrior.”

“Cory Aquino is our only hope,” said the revered old man of the Parliament of the Streets. Thus, the movement he was launching.

Cory, he elaborated, incarnates the Aquino legacy  “of blood, courage, integrity and martyrdom” bequeathed by Ninoy Aquino on that hot August afternoon in 1983.

Secondly, “only Cory can bind the factional wounds of the opposition, persuade them to close ranks, bestir them to march for the country, and rouse the Filipino people to feats of dignity, honor and courage.” Third, Cory’s “moral stature” which, his group thinks, would make even “men of valor in the armed forces…recoil from desecrating and brutalizing the elections if she were a candidate.” Finally, Cory Aquino can bring to government “the best minds that the nation can offer in terms of  dedication, sincerity and integrity, talent and patriotism.”

This, declared Roces gravely,  “could be our last chance to save democracy in the Philippines. The darkness thickens and we have to move.”

Providing the counterpoint to Don Chino’s emotional approach was Tony Gatmaitan who confessed that he sees in this Draft Cory Aquino for President Movement an “exciting opportunity” to measure the depth of the ordinary citizen’s desire to have her as president. He and his group feel that it is there, an emotional conviction in many people’s hearts that this quiet, unassuming widow is the only one among the oppositionists who has the moral leadership to unite the opposition and defeat Marcos in an election.

Should they succeed in generating one million signatures, and enough enthusiasm from the ordinary unorganized Filipinos to persuade Cory to run, Gatmaitan intends to represent the numbers to the political parties. This should be interesting, he said, his eyes twinkling at the idea: “people power” versus the machine. Indeed, for a political mechanic, it is an exciting proposition.

The idea of a Draft Cory Movement, observed a member of the foreign press, seems to stem from a feeling of frustration at the inability of the opposition to get its act together and present a unified stand versus the Marcos dictatorship.

True, in Don Chino’s opening remarks, he referred to the disarray among traditional political parties, the bickering among the oppositionists, and the cacophony of voices wasted on trivial issues.

The movement is not only for the purpose of drafting Cory Aquino as a candidate for president, explained Secretary General Victor Sison, a soft-spoken heretofore non-political former Atenean. It is also to achieve unity among the opposition groups. And, he maintained, Cory is the person who can do this.

But what if the National Unification Council, of which Cory is a major force, selects another candidate other than Cory? What will CAPM and its one million signatories do?

Why, support that one candidate, said Chino Roces. There is no one person or party we are trying to put down, assured Sison. We are trying to get them to get  their act together. And we believe only Cory can do this.

It was beginning to sound like  a mantra. Only Cory can do it. Cory is our only hope. If only Cory would run. If only she were willing.

Tony Gatmaitan, chairman of the movement’s finance committee said he thinks he can get P30 million in pledges before the end of the year for the idea of Cory as candidate. “If Cory is to be really the people’s candidate, then the people should put their money where their mouth is.,” he said.

So far, after one month of quiet work, the CAPM people have gathered 18,000 signatures. What started as a small force in Quezon City now has chapters in the whole of Metro Manila and Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Sorsogon, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Iloilo, Capiz, Davao Oriental and Quezon Province.

More chapters are expected to be set up as the movement snowballs and the grandest hopes of the organizers about Cory’s acceptability to the Filipino people are confirmed.

Thus, concluded the CAPM, Cory will not possibly be able to turn down the draft. Meanwhile, expect to read and hear that urgent mantra for the next few months as Don Chino and company make good their promise to give all they’ve got to what they perceive is the last chance to save democracy in this land. (Paulynn P. Sicam has just come back from Stanford University where she was a journalism fellow.)

<span style=”font-weight:bold;”>Cory Joins the Race </span>
<span style=”font-weight:bold;”>December 18, 1985 </span>
<span style=”font-weight:bold;”>National Midweek</span>
<span style=”font-weight:bold;”>By Paulynn P. Sicam
</span>
When Cory Aquino announced her candidacy for the presidency last December 3, the audience inside the auditorium of the Mondragon Building in Makati broke into prolonged applause. Not a few wept tears of joy and relief. The waiting was finally over. Now her prodders could finally be called her followers. They could finally buckle down to work and get the show on the road.

The tension had been building up for more than a month. It began when Don Chino Roces, former publisher and everyone’s favorite street parliamentarian , decided to form a citizen’s movement that would urge Cory Aquino to run for president via one million signatures. Roces and his gang of idealists (who at the time seemed destined for failure) called Cory “our last hope for democracy.” investing her with a mantle of moral righteousness.

Cory reacted to the draft with something akin to hostility. She pleaded with the group to desist from what they were planning, and when her plea fell on Don Chino’s deaf ears, she declared that she was not interested in the presidency and would have nothing to do with the Cory Aquino for President Movement (CAPM).

Finally, after some lonely days in the doghouse, Don Chino’s persistence began to pay off. At a luncheon with the Sigma Delta Phi Sorority late in October, Cory gave two conditions that would make her decide to run if Don Chino and company could get one million signatures, and if the election was a snap election.

Meanwhile, she said, she would be praying and reflecting and seeking advice, both human and divine. She asked everyone to pray for her too and help her make the right decision. Every inquiry, every request for an interview was turned down as Cory went into partial seclusion searching her mind and her heart for answers.

The high premium she put on prayer and trust in God made Cory’s quest for an answer, in the minds of many, seem as noble and as difficult as the search for the Holy Grail. It also created the impression that every act of many that met her conditions was really an act of divine intervention, telling Cory what to do next.

First came Marcos’ announcement on American television last November 3  that he was calling a snap election. It did not matter that Marcos was succumbing to American pressure to hold early elections. It did not even matter that Marcos’ rules were dubious. The call for snap elections fulfilled Cory’s second condition. After that, the Cory Aquino for President Movement was unstoppable. Volunteers set up tables on street corners and in marketplaces, went into towns and barrios, seeking signatures who wanted Cory to run. From Aparri to Jolo, Chino Roces said, the signatures came in bunches – from three names to thousands sent via special air freight, or hand carried to the office by concerned citizens. By November 26, Chino Roces was borne on the shoulders of his fellow-volunteers as they counted the one millionth authentic signature of the nationwide campaign.

For people who have been used to the instant groundswells of support that the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan is so adept at producing when the need arises, 41 days seemed an awfully long time to gather one million signatures. So, six volunteers did nothing but go through sign-up sheets, eliminating questionable entries, (such as the names of Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda Marcos, Bongbong Marcos, Imee Marcos Manotoc, Tommy Manotoc and Irene Marcos Araneta), or a series of signatures seemingly done by one hand, and other such anomalies.

On November 27, Ninoy’s birthday, Cory attended a rally in Tarlac where politicians and friends took turns extolling her virtues, and giving every reason why she should be the next president of  the Philippines. Cory shook her head with every praise, every campaign pitch. But when her turn to speak came, she quoted Ninoy: “I will never be able to forgive myself if I have to live with the knowledge that I could have done something and I did not do anything.”

That was good enough for Cory-ites who clung to her every deliberate phrase. They knew her to be a careful speaker, not one to waste her words. She measured the weight and meaning of everything she said.

On December 1, one million two hundred thousand signatures were presented to Cory by a crowd of 15,000 at the Santo Domingo church after evening mass. Th sheets of paper, fastened in fat bulging folders tied with yellow ribbons, were blessed by a priest and received by Cory.

Cory was no longer cryptic at Santo Domingo Church. “I will announce my decision after Mr. Marcos signs Cabinet Bill No. 7,” she promised.”but I assure you, you will hear what you want to hear.”

And then the seemingly insecure non-politician came to the fore once again: “If I were a traditional politician, I would be very happy standing before you tonight. But I am not a traditional politician and so I am very nervous when I think of the difficult days that lie ahead.”

The following morning, Monday, December 2, the Sandiganbayan’s verdict on the Aquino-Galman murder case was handed down. Innocent, said the three-man court of General Fabian Ver and 24 other officers and enlisted men of the Armed Forces, and one civilian. Debunking the findings of the Agrava Board that Aquino and Galman were both victims of a military conspiracy, the Sandiganbayan ruled that all 26 were not guilty of any crime because the military team that killed Galman did so in the performance of their duty. And, of course, Ninoy Aquino was killed by Galman.
Within an hour, Cory was facing the press and reiterating her stand holding Marcos responsible for the murder of her husband. “He is my number one suspect,” she declared, as she has always said since August 21, 1983.

But, speaking with tact and diplomacy, with an eye on being the future commander-in-chief, Cory wooed the military establishment. She said it was misguided elements who had a direct hand in the assassination of her husband; she was not prepared to condemn all 13,000 officers and the enlisted men of the AFP. In a direct message to the “decent elements” in the military she asked for help to get to the truth behind her husband’s savage killing.

On Monday evening, the Batasang Pambansa passed Cabinet Bill No. 7 during its last session for 1985, paving the way for snap elections. Later that night, President Marcos signed the bill into law.

Tuesday morning, true to her word, Cory announced her intention to run for president of the Philippines.

“How Ninoy must be laughing!” was how Butz Aquino spoke of Cory’s dilemma some weeks back when she prayed and sought advice on what to do about the snowballing draft. The position Ninoy had sought so avidly in 1972 was now being given to his wife on a silver platter. His wife, whom he had kept at home because that was where he believed a woman ought to stay. His wife, who had accepted Ninoy’s chauvinist attitude toward women because she did not want to frustrate the kind of life her husband found fulfilling.

“Talk of poetic justice! Marcos wanted Ninoy out of the way, but Ninoy’s spirit lives to haunt him forever,” said an ecstatic Makati matron.

It was a very difficult decision, said Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma of Cory’s announcement. “I could not have made that decision for her. She made it all by herself.” the justice confided that ever since she advised Ninoy to come home, she swore she would never again be part of other decisions in th future.

If Ninoy could only see Cory Now! The shy housewife who kept herself busy reading light fiction and doing bonsai in the year before martial law was now holding her own in discussions on US bases in the Philippines (out by 1991, if the global situation allows it); on the insurgency (home-grown, with no external help and therefore no external threat to the country); on General Ver’s immediate reinstatement as Chief of Staff (if General Ver could not provide adequate security for one man, how can he secure 54 million Filipinos?) With candor and confidence, Cory revealed that she had been having daily talks with Doy laurel and that she had offered him the vice-presidency.

Was this the inexperienced political neophyte whom people feared would buckle under pressure and intimidation – this woman who was married to the ultimate politician for 28 years, who endured eight years as a political detainee’s wife under th most difficult years of martial rule, who upon the killing of her husband stood up to the most awesome powers in the land and accused them of the murder of her husband, and who, today, against almost insurmountable odds, would pit herself against Marcos’ machinery, machinations and resources, knowing full well the might of her opponent? Was this the woman whom some solicitous souls in the Opposition wanted to protect by keeping her out of the snap election?

“I can be very stubborn,” Cory has said of herself. And though she may seek advice from all and sundry, in the final analysis, she makes her own decisions. Yes, including this tremendous decision to run, preempting Doy Laurel with her early announcement , and leaving him little room to maneuver except around her

The Quezon City government should buy Corazon Aquino’s house and turn it into a museum which I believe would become a famous tourist spot, as world-famous as Anne Frank’s house in the Netherlands.

I felt sad when I read today that President Corazon Aquino’s house at No. 25  Times Street would be renovated by her family because, as the eldest son Senator Benigno Aquino III said, “it has many defects now” and renovation would help the family to move on.

I wish the QC government could come to an arrangement with the family to buy the house now, with  perhaps an agreement that the family would continue to occupy it but preserve its basic elements. Instead of renaming Times Street to President Corazon Aquino Street. Please retain the name because it is also historically signifant – being named after the Manila Times, the newspaper which gave Senator Benigno Aquino Junior the break, which boosted his political career.

The purchase by the QC government headed by Mayor Feliciano Belmonte would have a special resonance.  His wife, Betty Go-Belmonte, and  President Aquino had a rare friendship that asked each other nothing except prayers.  I know because Mrs Belmonte was once my boss at Philippine Star and I reported directly to her as a roving investigative reporter.  She used to talk a lot about Mrs Aquino.

I hope the family would preserve President Aquino’s room as it is now, not for sentimental reasons but to show the Filipino nation and the world – this is how a president lives and should live – simply and  modestly. Her very lifestyle is an indictment of the nation’s political class but sets an example for future generations.

I know this is asking a lot from the Aquino family. But how many Filipino families have produced two heroes and would be remembered a century from now?

I don’t want the nation to move on from the example set by Mrs Aquino. And one way to do that is to preserve her room and her home for the generations to come .

Senator Mar Roxas has proposed renaming “portions” of Edsa as Cory Aquino Avenue. He is obviously riding on the late president’s popularity in order to get elected president himself.

Let’s tell him we object vehemently because Edsa is associated worldwide with the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, and is recorded in world history as such.

Besides, why throw away an authentic hero? Using his scathing wit and pen, Epifanio de los Santos helped fight for our independence against Spain. He was with La Independencia, El Renacimiento and La Libertad newspapers. He helped build up the National Museum and National Library, where most of his valuable collection ended up.

Let’s urge the good senator to instead make the supreme self-sacrifice and offer to rename Roxas Boulevard in honor of Cory Aquino. Roxas Boulevard is the nearest stretch of road to the Quirino Grandstand where “a million came for Cory” to protest the cheating in the 1986 snap elections.

Between Manuel Roxas and Epifanio de los Santos, the latter is more deserving to have a street named in his honor.

It was Roxas who enabled the United States to get a 99-year lease on vast tracts of land to use as military bases. He gave Americans the right to exploit Philippine natural resources, own land here and do business in sectors and industries reserved for Filipinos. Despite such generous accommodations our economy did not prosper.

I’m not even going to go into the fact that Manuel Roxas was accused of collaborating with the Japanese or that graft and corruption marred his presidency which lasted barely two years.

Sincerely,
Raissa Robles
Filipino