WE remember today, on her 10th death anniversary, the first woman president of the Philippines – Corazon C. Aquino – who led the period of transition back to democratic government in 1986 after 20 years of martial law and authoritarian rule.
President Aquino found herself at the center of a national upheaval after the 1986 People Power Revolution. She had been thrust to national attention with the death of her husband, opposition leader Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr., who was assassinated on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983. She had never held any political position before, but now the nation’s leaders saw her as the one who could unite and lead the country in a period of recovery.
President Aquino proceeded with a sure hand and led in the drafting and ratification of a new constitution in 1987. The nation had lived under the 1935 Constitution since its establishment as a Commonwealth, then a Constitution of the Second Philippine Republic during the Japanese occupation, a 1973 Constitution under martial law. Now, in 1987, the country led by President Aquino, ratified a new democratic constitution, the one which we have to this day.
During her six-year administration, Congress, now reestablished as an independent branch of the national government, approved such landmark laws as the Family Code of 1987, the Administrative Code of 1987, and the Local Government Code of 1991. The Philippine Senate voted against a new military pact with the US and the American flag was lowered from its last military base at Subic in 1992.
President Aquino turned over the national leadership to President Fidel V. Ramos in 1992 and returned to an active private life with continuing interest in the country’s political and social activities, until she passed away on August 1, 2009, ten years ago today.
Her funeral route was lined by hundreds of thousands of grieving people – from Quezon City to Manila, to Pasay, and finally Parañaque, where her remains were interred on August 5 beside those of her husband Ninoy Aquino.
On this, her 10th death anniversary, we remember and once again pay tribute to Corazon C. Aquino, who will always be known as our “icon of democracy” for her singular role in the history of our country.
