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© 2000
Team C001515

1933

Overview:

Corizon Aquino was a mother of five and the wife of the opposition leader in the Philippines during the Marcos reign. When her husband was assassinated she took up his position and won the election, which forced Marcos into exile. Through sheer determination, she overcame a military coup, a corrupt political system and restored the economy and civil rights for the people in her country.

Country: Philippines

Type of hero: Civil and Political Rights

Attributes: Civil rights

Biography:

Corazon was born in Manila and was the sixth of eight children. Her family owned a sugar and rice empire so she grew up in a relatively wealthy family.

She studied in the United States and graduated from the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York City in 1953. While her original intention was to study law, she gave up studying when she married Ninoy Aquino who became leader of the opposition to the then Marcos regime. She raised five children as well as providing support for her husband in his political career. Marcos had ruled the Philippines under martial law for 21 years. It was no easy task to oppose him and Aquino was arrested and imprisoned for a number of years. He was released to undergo heart surgery in the USA in 1980 and the Aquino’s spent 3 years in exile. When they returned in 1983, Ninoy Aquino was shot at the airport.

Under pressure from supporters, she agreed to head the opposition and despite attempts to sabotage the party by the Marcos supporters, she was declared the winner of the election. Marcos and his wife fled the country, leaving behind an enormous foreign debt, a corrupt political system and an ongoing internal war.

She has persisted through a series of plots and upsets to establish a series of checks and balances on power in the country. Upon her election, she ensured the release of over 500 political prisoners as well as setting in place a number of other reforms. She was able to see through an attempted coup in August 1987, which was followed by several weeks of fighting. As well as maintaining control through the volatile political situation, she was able to ensure stability despite a series of natural disasters including a volcano, numerous earthquakes, droughts and floods. She was able to restore civil rights including free speech, and freedom of the press. She helped the slow process of economic recovery in a country that had suffered for such a long time. Despite her limited improvements in the economic field, she was at least able to restore the democratic processes in a country that had long been under a corrupt government.

In 1992, she supported her Secretary of Defence, Fidel Ramos in his campaign to be elected as president.

Citations & References:

Links:
http://www.wic.org/bio/caquino.htm
http://cybernation.com/victory/quotations/authors/quotes_aquino_corazon.html

References
Uglow, J., (Ed) 1999 The Macmillan Dictionary of Women’s Biography London, Macmillan (p. 24)

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