Pres.

Corazon Aquino’s
Background
“ As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it”

Introduction

• 11th President of the Philippines

• First Female President of the Philippines
• First Female in Asia to become President of a Country
• In Office February 25, 1986 – June 30, 1992
• Preceded by President Ferdinand E. Marcos
• Born January 25, 1933 – Paniqui, Tarlac Philippines
• Political Party member : United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO)
• Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN)
• Liberal Party
• Spouse : Benigno Aquino, Jr.
• Occupation : Housewife, Politicians
• Real Name: Maria Corazón Sumulong Cojuangco
• Signature :

President Corazon Aquino Quotes

• I just do whatever it is that I believe I should do, regardless of the risks to my life.
• It wasn't until we got over the self pity that we were able to accept suffering as apart of our
life with Christ.
• I don't have any formula for ousting a dictator or building democracy. All I can suggest is to
forget about yourself and just think of your people. It's always the
people who make things happen.
• As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it.
• I know my limitations, and I don't like politics. I was only involved because of my husband.
• It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then
neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.
• I've reached a point in life where it's no longer necessary to try to impress. If
they like me the way I am, that's good. If they don't, that's too bad.
• National leaders who find themselves wilting under the withering criticisms by members of the
media, would do well not to take such criticism personally but to regard the media as their allies
in keeping the government clean and honest, its services efficient and timely, and its
commitment to democracy strong and unwavering.
• It is not I who have been consigned to the bedroom of history.
• Reconciliation should be accompanied by justice, otherwise it will not last. While we all hope
for peace it shouldn't be peace at any cost but peace based on principle, on justice.
• The media's power is frail. Without the people's support, it can be shut off with the ease of
turning a light switch.
• Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit
that bears things - with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.
• Freedom of expression - in particular, freedom of the press - guarantees popular participation
in the decisions and actions of government, and popular participation is the essence of our
democracy.
• I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.
• One must be frank to be relevant.

Biography : Early Life And Education

• Corazon Cojuangco was born into a wealthy, politically prominent family in
Tarlac, a member of one ofthe riches Chinese-mestizo families in the Philippines.
She was born to Don Jose Cojuangco of Tarlac province and Dona Demetria
Sumulong of Antipolo, Rizal. Her ancestry was one-eighth tagalog in maternal
side, one-eighth Kapampangan and one-fourth Spanish in her paternal side, and
half-chinese in both paternal and maternal sides.

• She is fourth among sixth (6) siblings: Pedro, Josephine Reyes, Teresita Lopa,
Jose Jr., and Maria Paz Teopaco. She was sent to St. Scholastica College Manila
 and finish grade school as class Valedictorian in 1943. In 1946, she studied
highschool for one year in Assumption Convent Manila, Later she was sent
overseas to study in Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia where Princess Grace
Kelly of Monaco once studied, the Notro Dame Convent School in New York.
Aquino worked as a volunteer in the 1948 United States Presidential campaign of
Republican Thomas Dewey against President Harry Truman. She studied liberal
arts and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree major in French Language and
minor in Mathematics in 1953. She had intended to become a Math teacher and
Language Interpreter.

• Aquino returned to the Philippines to study Law at the Far Eastern University,
Owned by the Family of the Late Nicanor Reyes, Sr., who had been the Father-
in-law of her older sister Josephine. She gave up her Law studies when 1954,
she married Benigno Servillano “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr., the son of the former
Speaker of the National Assembly. They had five children together: a son,
Benigno Simeon Aquino III , who was elected to the Philippines Senate in 2007,
and four daughters, Maria Elena A. Cruz, Aurora Corazon A. Abellada, Victoria
Eliza A. Dee, and actress television host Kristina Bernadette A. Yap. Aquino had
initial difficulty adjusting to provincial life when she and her husband moved to
Concepcion, Tarlac in 1955, after her husband had been elected the town’s
mayos at age of 22. The American-educated Aquino founde herself bored in
Concepcion, welcoming opportunities when she her husband would have dinner
inside the American military facility at nearby Clark Field.

Honorary doctorates
• Doctor of International Relations, honoris causa, from:
○ Boston University in Boston
○ Eastern University in St. David, PA
○ Fordham University in New York
○ Waseda University in Tokyo
• Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from:
○ University of the Philippines
○ University of Santo Tomas in Manila
• Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from:
○ Ateneo de Manila University
○ College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York
○ Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan (Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines)
• Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa, from:
○ San Beda College in Manila, 2000
 ○ Seattle University, 2002
○ Stonehill College in Massachusetts
○ University of Oregon, 1995

Awards and achievements

• 1986 Time Magazine Woman of the Year
• 1986 Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award
• 1986 United Nations Silver Medal
• 1986 Canadian International Prize for Freedom
• 1986 Nobel Peace Prize nominee
• 1986 International Democracy Award from the International Association of
Political Consultants
• 1987 Prize For Freedom Award from Liberal International
• 1993 Special Peace Award from the Aurora Aragon Quezon Peace Awards
Foundation and Concerned Women of the Philippines
• 1994 One of 100 Women Who Shaped World History (by G.M. Rolka, Bluewood
Books, San Francisco, CA)
• 1995 Path to Peace Award
• 1996 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding from the U.S.
Department of State
• 1998 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding
• 1998 Pearl S. Buck Award
• 1999 One of Time Magazine's 20 Most Influential Asians of the 20th Century
• 2001 World Citizenship Award
• 2005 David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Awards
• 2005 One of the World's Elite Women Who Make a Difference by the
International Women's Forum Hall of Fame
• 2006 One of Time Magazine's 65 Asian Heroes
• 2008 One of A Different View's 15 Champions of World Democracy
• EWC Asia Pacific Community Building Award
• Women's International Center International Leadership Living Legacy Award
• Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize
• United Nations Development Fund for Women Noel Award for Political
Leadership
Biography : A Politician’s Wife
• Aquino's husband belonged to a family whose involvement in politics went as far
back as the last century. One year after they were married, Aquino's husband
was elected mayor of the city of Concepcion at the age of 22. Her husband was
considered one of the Philippines' brightest political hopes.
• Moving up in politics, Aquino's husband became the youngest territorial governor
and later the youngest senator in the Philippines. Through out all
her husband's political successes, Aquino stayed in the background, preferring to
concentrate her energies on raising their four daughters and a son.
• As her husband rose in prominence, as a Nacionalista Party member he became
an outspoken critic of the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. There’s also
wide speculation that he will run in the 1973 Presidential Election. When Marcos
declared martial law on September 21, 1972, and later abolished the 1935
Connstitution, allowing him remain in office. Aquino's husband was one of the
first persons arrested and put in jail. During the long years of her husband's
incarceration from 1972 to 1980, Aquino's role as a quiet wife slowly changed. As
a measure of a sacrifice, she drew strength from prayer, attending daily Mass
and saying three Rosaries a day, a Priest also advice her and her children to live
as normal lives as possible. Becoming her husband's main link to the outside
world, she was instrumental in having his statements passed along to the press
and to activists outside the prison walls. From inside his cell, Aquino's husband
even ran for a seat in Parliament, with his wife conducting a large portion of the
campaign.
• In 1978, despite her initial opposition, Auino’s imprisoned husband to run the
1978 Batasang Pambansa Elections. Aquino campaigned in behalf of her
imprisoned husband and for the first time in her life, delivered a political speech,
though she willingly relinquished having to speak in public when it emerged that
her six-year old daughter Kris was more than willing to speak on stage.
• In 1980, Aquino's husband was released from jail in order to undergo heart
surgery in the States, upon the intervention of the United States President Jimmy
Carter. President Marcos allowed exile Senator Benigno Aquino and his family to
move in Boston and they lived there for three (3) years. husband worked as a
research fellow at Harvard University for the next three years. Corazon Aquino
described the time as the best years of her life.
• In 1983 supporters of the anti-Marcos factions persuaded Aquino's husband to
return to the Philippines and to lead their cause. He returned
without his family. When his plane landed on the Tarmac of the Manila
International Airport on August 21, 1983, Aquino's husband was assassinated,
which later renamed on his Honor. Corazon Aquino returned to the Philippines
few days later and led hes husband’s funeral rites, where more than (2) two
million people were estimated to have participated, the biggest ever in Philippine
History.
Homemaker Turns Politician
• Her husband's assassination served as the turning point of Aquino's life. As her
dead husband became the rallying focus of anti-Marcos groups she, as his
widow, became the unifying figure for the different factions of the opposition.
Aquino was catapulted into the role of keeping the unity alive. On October 15,
1985, the Aquino presidential campaign was launched at the National Press Club
in Manila by 250 founding members, many of whom were businesspeople and
professionals.
• Aquino agreed to run if one million supporters signed an
endorsement of her candidacy and if President Marcos called for a snap
election. The supporters collected more than one million signatures,
and her candidacy was endorsed by six opposition political parties as the
common candidate for president in the election called for February
7, 1986. The political support she a massed, and the exoneration of the military
men tried for her husband's murder, made Aquino accept the mandate
to run for the presidency, "not in vengeance but in search of
justice."
• She picked Salvador Laurel, leader of the opposition's largest faction, as her
running mate. Initial negotiations fell through in a disagreement about which
party's name to carry--her husband's LABAN (Fight) Party or Laurel's UNIDO
(United Nationalist Democratic Organization). Before the deadline for filing
candidacy she and Laurel agreed to run under the UNIDO banner.
• In the succeeding political campaign, Marcos charged that Aquino was being
supported by communists and agreed to share power with them, to which she
responded that she would not appoint one to her cabinet. Marcos also accused
Aquino of playing “political football” with the United States with the respect to the
Subic Naval Base. Marcos also derided Aquino as “just a woman” whose place
was in the bedroom.
• Countering Marcos's charges of her political inexperience, Aquino counted as her
main asset as her diametrical opposition to the president. Her supporters
considered her a fresh new face with a reputation for moral integrity. Her main
assets in the campaign were her reputation for moral integrity along with her vow
of her slain husband's ideals. To these were added the quiet support of the
influential Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines, whose prelate
Jamie Cardinal Sin was instrumental in the Aquino-Laurel reconciliation.
• The homemaker-turned-politician responded to the challenge with enthusiasm
and a singular commitment to the cause of justice. Her opponent, Marcos, had
extended his term of office for more than 20 years through a declaration of
martial law and constitutional changes that increased his powers. The true
results of the election may never be known as the incumbent forces
used intimidation, scattered violence, and overt fraud to declare Marcos the
winner.
 • The elections held on February 7, 1986 were marred by the intimidation and
mass disenfranchisement of voters. Election day itself and the days
immedediately after were marred by violence, including the murder of one of
Aquinno’s top allies, Antique Governor Evelio Javier. While the official tally of the
Commission on Elections (COMELEC) consistently showed Marcos on the lead,
the unofficial tally of the National Movement for Free Elections indicated that
Aquino was leading. Despite the Job walkout of 30 COMELEC computer
technicians alleging election-rigging in favor of Marcos, the Batasang Pambansa,
controlled by Marcos Allies ratified the official count and proclaimed Marcos the
official winner on February 15, 1986. The country’s bishop and the United States
senate condemmed the election, and Aquino called for a general strike and a
boycott of the business enterprises controlled by Marcos allies. She also rejected
power-sharing agreement proposed by the American Diplomat Philip Habib, who
had been sent as an emissary by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to help defuse
the tension.
• The people took to the streets in protest; some army leaders revolted; the United
States expressed its indignation. Less than three weeks after his alleged
election victory in February 1986, Marcos fled the
Philippines. On the morning february 25, 1986, at the club Filipino in San Juan,
Aquinotook the presidential oath of office administered by Supreme Court
Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee and became the acknowledged president
of the republic. Marcos himself was sworn inot office at Malacanang
Palace on that same day, but fled into exile later that night.

The Presidency and Beyond

• Aquino admitted that she faced numerous challenges as the new Filipino
president. The release of 441 political prisoners and the forced retirement of 22
pro-Marcos generals were among her first actions as president. She also
reinstated the writ of habeas corpus, the right of a prisoner to appear before a
judge, and abolished the government's ability to imprison people at will, which
had been in effect since 1981. Aquino promised to promote the right to assemble
peaceably, and free speech along with prosecuting corruption and abusers of
human rights.
• Protecting the countryside was another of Aquino's goals. She planned to
accomplish this by disarming the private armies that roamed the rural areas and
establish industries there. Aquino said she would revitalize the sugar industry by
breaking the monopoly. She acknowledged the special relationship with the
United States but emphasized that her concern was with the Filipinos, not the
Americans.
• Aquino knew her popularity would wane and that her leadership would be harshly
criticized. At least seven coups were directed at her government during her
tenure as president, many times by former allies who had helped her come to
 power. Besides dealing with factious parties both within her cabinet and in the
nation.
• Natural Disaster occurred during her term:
1. The 1990 Luzon Earthquake left aroun 1,600 dead, with around thousand
of fatalities in Bagiuo City.
2. The 1991 eruption of the long-dormant Mount Pinatubo was the second
largest terrestial eruption of the 20th century, killing 300 people and
widespread long term devestation of Agricultural lands in Central Luzon.
3. Tropical Storm Thelma also known as Typhoon Uring caused massive
flooding in Ormoc City in November 1991, leaving around 6,000 dead in
what was the deadliest typhoon in Philippine History.
• In 1991, a constitutional amendment was passed by referendum which enabled
Aquino to remain president until June 30, 1992. Her successor was Fidel Ramos,
her former secretary of defense and Marcos' former deputy chief of staff of the
armed forces. Ramos, who assisted Aquino in fending off the coup attempts, has
continued to support Aquino's democratic ideals. Aquino has still retained her
popularity with the Filipino people and works for reform by participating in
cooperatives and non-governmental organizations in the
Philippines.
• Following the end of her term, Aquino retired to private life and become ordinary
citizen after she rode away from the inauguration of her successor.
• On May 24, 2008, the Aquino family annouced that the former President had
been diagnosed with colon cancer. Aquino underwent chemotherapy, and in
public remaks made on May 13, 2008, she announced that blood test indicates
she is responding positively to the medical treatment. Aquino died of
cardiopulmonary arrest after complications of colon cancer at the age 76 on
August 1, 2009, 3:18 a.m., at the Makati Medical Center. Her body lies at a public
wake at the St. Benilde Gymnasium of La Salle Green Hills in Mandaluyong up to
August 3 when it would be tranferred to the Manila Cathedral; the fianal rites will
be done on August 5 which was declared non-working holiday by President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. She will be buried in Manila Memorial Park in
Paranaque.

Constitutional and Law Reform

• April 1986, issued Proclamation No.9 creating a Constitutional Commssiion to
draft a new constitution as provided for in the Freedom Constitution.
• February 11, 1987 issued Proclamation No. 58 declaring that the new
Constitution has been approved by the Filipino people and is therefore in “Full
force and in effect”. On the same day President Aquino and other government
officials pledged allegiance to the New Contitution.
• Significant features of the New Constitution:
1. It icludes safeguards that will prevent a new dictatorship.
2. Seeks to prevent Human Rights Violation.
3. The New Constitution recognized people power.
• Republic Act # 6655, providing for free secondary education in the puublic
schools.
• Republic Act # 6657, implementing the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform
Program (CARP) – The law authorized the redistirbution of Agricultural lands to
tenant-farmers from landowners, who were paid in exchange by the gopvermetn
just compensation and allowed to retain not more than five hectares of land
• Republic Act # 6675 The Generic Law, encouraging the use of lost cost generic
medicine