My Memories Of Cory

I was born in the Dekada '70 (1970's) of immigrant parents. Martial law didn't really mean anything to me. Curfews? I was a child, I didn't go out without my parents anyway. Activist activities, Plaza Miranda bombing etc? I was blissfully unaware. I don't watch the news and preferred the cartoons on our black and white TV set. Aquino, Laurel, Diokno, Pimentel etc? Sino sila? (Who are they?) As far as I know, they were enemies of Marcos. Beyond that, I really didn't know much. Didn't care much either. I did hate it when they cancelled Voltes V and the other similar shows, but that was it.

In 1983, I was watching some show on a lazy late afternoon when there was a news flash. Former Senator Benigno Aquino ("Ninoy") was gunned down in the tarmac of Manila International Airport (now Ninoy Aquino International Airport). I didn't think much of it, just thought that it was some Marcos enemy being killed. Little did I know that it would be the start of what would be a big, big change as far as the Philippines' political landscape is concerned.

Before this, nobody knew who Cory was. She was, in her own words, just a plain housewife to Ninoy. I was in high school when the events leading to the toppling of the Marcos administration occurred. Since our school was just beside Malacanang Palace, we were unwilling witnesses to truckloads of soldiers being sent to JP Laurel Street just before an expected rally erupted.

The 1986 snap elections was the first election that I really remember. (There was one in 1981 but it was unmemorable to me). Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino, Ninoy's widow, was persuaded to run against Marcos.

We had no classes for quite a while, 2 weeks if I remember correctly. Then COMELEC (Commission on Electrions) announced that Marcos-Tolentino tandem won over the Aquino-Laurel combination. NAMFREL (National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections) says otherwise.

People, unbelieving of the official election, marched to EDSA to protest. And the rest is history. Cory Aquino became the first woman president of the Philippines. She was to go through 7 coup attempts. I cannot say that she was the most competent president, but she certainly was the most sincere of them all.

I realize that a big group of teeners and young adults didn't live through EDSA I, when there were no cellphones (thus no text brigades), no liberty of press (thus official newspapers were biased towards those in power), and government controlled most radio and TV outputs. It was so different from EDSA II.