SETTING aside the ambivalence and mistrust that have characterized their relationship, members of the political Left honored on Saturday night the late President Corazon Aquino, saying she was a sincere leader who was one with the Filipino people in their fight against corruption, fraud and dictatorship.
The tribute was held at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani during the eighth-day prayer led by the Samahang Demokratiko ng mga Kabataan (SDK) Foundation. In the turbulent Sixties and Seventies, the SDK was among the militant youth groups in the country.
In her message on Mrs. Aquino’s death, Carolina S. Malay, a former member of the National Democratic Front panel that negotiated with the Aquino government in its early years, said the late president’s life offers many lessons on the role that one plays in history. One of these is being in touch with the sentiments of the people, something which Mrs. Aquino was able to do despite her elitist background.
Admitting that she was among those who advocated a boycott of the 1986 snap presidential elections called by then President Ferdinand Marcos, Malay now says “the movement made a big mistake when it tried to stop the people from asking Cory Aquino to take over from Marcos.”
Malay said the decision of the Left at that time was a reflection of “a grave misreading of the people’s temper.”
The Left had felt that participating in the elections would “only mitigate the people’s righteous anger, give new life to the decaying system, and revive the people’s reliance on foreign intervention. In short, taking part in this method of ousting Marcos would mean turning our backs on the revolution,” she said.
“Another reason for such a costly mistake was the failure to humbly recognize, and accept, the people’s judgment in casting their lot with the peaceful option offered by Cory Aquino,” Malay said. “I know now that it will always be a big mistake to go against the wishes of the sovereign people.”
Through the years, Malay said, “I have grown in solidarity with her as a woman, a fellow citizen and a fellow human being. I admire the way she stretched the limitations imposed by society upon women, upon the wives of politicians, and upon those who were born into privilege. Although I did not share all of her advocacies, I came to believe in her sincerity, the goodness of her heart, her lack of pretense.”
Walking the talk
Judith Taguiwalo, a former political detainee and now faculty regent at the University of the Philippines, said Mrs. Aquino “walked the talk” in the fight against corruption, fraud and the dictatorship.
Pregnant at the time of her detention, Taguiwalo said she was in prison when the People Power revolt brok out. When Mrs. Aquino came to power, Taguiwalo was among the political prisoners who were ordered freed.
Twenty-three years after, Taguiwalo noted that the former president “did not go into easy retirement but continued to fight.”
She recalled that the last political message of Mrs. Aquino was on June 10 this year, when she was already gravely ill with cancer. Because Mrs. Aquino could not deliver the message herself, her grandson, Kiko Dee, read the speech which reiterated her opposition to efforts by the Arroyo administration to change the Constitution.
Lessons in courage
Former Senate President Jovito Salonga, chairman emeritus of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation Inc., said in his message that watching Mrs. Aquino’s life in politics gave him “one of my greatest lessons in courage.”
The former senator—leader of the Liberal Party of which Mrs. Aquino’s husband, former Sen. Beningo “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was also a member—was among the victims of the bombing of the opposition rally in Plaza Miranda on Aug. 21, 1971.
Of Mrs. Aquino’s death, Salonga said, “Although I expected it any time because of her colon cancer, I nevertheless felt very, very sad, as if she was my daughter or sister.”
He said he had written to her on July 9, telling her he was praying for her.
Salonga said that even though there were times when they disagreed on important issues, such as the continued stay of the U.S. military bases, “to (her) lasting credit, (she) never bore a grudge” against him. In fact, when he asked her to write the foreword to his memoirs in 2001, Mrs. Aquino unhesitatingly agreed.
“All of us must die, but you are truly special,” Salonga said, addressing the late president.
Independent minded
Quintin Doromal, executive director of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation, recalled an incident during the People Power Revolt that showed Mrs. Aquino’s independent-mindedness.
In the early morning of Feb. 25, 1986, Doromal was in the office of then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile who had led the military revolt against Marcos. Enrile’s room was next door to Fidel V. Ramos, who was then chief of the Philippine Constabulary.
In the flurry of activities that shifted from Enrile’s room to that of Ramos, Doromal remembered the presence of Jaime Ongpin who was then talking with Enrile. Ongpin, who later became finance secretary, was in touch with Mrs. Aquino during the conversation with Enrile.
“The question at that time was: where will the swearing-in be held?” he said.
Enrile wanted Mrs. Aquino’s oath-taking to take place in a military camp, but the incoming president did not want this.
After 30 to 40 minutes of conversation between Enrile and Ongpin, it seemed that “Enrile was winning,” Doromal said. He understood that the swearing-in would take place in Camp Crame.
The following day, Doromal and his family went to Camp Crame. From the live coverage on the radio, he heard that Club Filipino would be the venue for the oath-taking. But he dismissed the report as a mere diversionary tactic that must have been part of a security plan.
But then, “I saw vehicles going in the direction of Club Filipino,” he said. And it was then that Doromal realized that Enrile did not have his way.
“She had enough of being in a military camp because her husband was imprisoned there,” he surmised, adding, “Cory knew what she wanted.”