By Tess Cruz-del Rosario
Author's note: An original version of this article appeared in the Singapore Straits Times on 4 August 2009, entitled "Cory Aquino's One Great Legacy." Tess Cruz-del Rosario is a visiting associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. She can be reached at tdelrosario@nus.edu.sg.
SINGAPORE--In 1981, I went to Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Mason Fellow. There, I met Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino who was then in exile with his family.
He was a fellow at the Center for International Affairs and had been giving speeches all over the intellectual community in Massachusetts. I made sure I listened to each one of them.
From the first night he spoke at Kennedy School in the fall of 1981 to talk about Philippine-US history, I recognized the power of his speech. His voice was unwavering; he was sharp, fast, and crisp as he recanted the bitter memories of the Philippine-American War at the turn of the 20th century.
Harvard honed his speaking skills as well as his propensities for methodical research. From the glib politician I listened to as a student activist in the early 70s just before Martial Law was declared, Ninoy became in my eyes a seasoned public speaker, the kind that held audiences at the edge of their breath, as he traveled across a range of topics that was the envy of any aspiring politician and public lecturer.
Then he was shot dead on August 21, 1983, minutes after his plane touched down in Manila, supposedly by an assassin on a hit mission by the New People's Army--the armed guerrilla force of the Communist Party. The television news showed both dead bodies on screen lying on the tarmac, deathly cold on the sweltering airport pavement.
In Manila, the entire city was awake and agitated with the news of his assassination. Cory Aquino, his widow, was already being interviewed non-stop in her Newton home. That old familiar rage of my undergrad years as a student activist returned.
Shortly after the 1986 uprising, I returned to the Philippines and interrupted my graduate student career. Cory Aquino became president of the newly-democratized Philippines after a spectacular four-day people power uprising. I decided it was time to shed the cloak of safety at Harvard and venture into the messy task of democratic governance.
For two years, I worked with Cory Aquino's government, contributing my share to what I regarded was an important period in my country when the structures of democracy were being crafted and made to work. Her government, besieged by seven coup attempts, was struggling to recover its footing with each military misadventure and preserve the infantile democracy that it had just won through the popular uprising of 1986.
At the same time, this period comprised the acid test of applying the lessons learned during my activist and graduate student days to the concrete tasks of reform and social change within the context of state power.
It was tough.
Cory Aquino inherited a collapsed economy that was the result of excessive cronyism and outright misrule. She also inherited a centuries-old social structure that was beset by severe inequality, made worse by years of government neglect for the conditions of the poor and the marginalized.
At the Department of Agrarian Reform where I served as assistant secretary, my colleagues and I faced severe policy conflicts--those that in graduate school termed "policy trade-offs." Government however was non-textbook stuff, but constituted a real struggle between an industrialization agenda and a social redistribution program. The tensions were clear:
Convert thousands of agricultural land into industrial zones to give way to domestic and foreign investment or award land tenure rights to farmers to provide them with economic assets.
In the end, the policy choice was made: economic redistribution and social equity took a backseat, and land conversion out of agriculture saw its heyday in Cory Aquino's government. Not very long after, we--a bunch of ex-activists wanting to give government a fair shake--resigned in frustration.
In circles too many to enumerate, Cory Aquino was often criticized for having missed the "reformist moment," succumbing instead to the dictates of family and clan interest to preserve social status, power, and wealth derived from concentrated landholding.
Perhaps this is a fair judgment of her six years as president, but it is a fairer judgment still, that her contribution to the global democratic movement through peaceful and direct citizen action cannot be discounted. If indeed she inspired the succeeding people power movements across the globe, this alone towers above her domestic shortcomings. Hers was a one-term presidency to accomplish a monumental task--to restore a democracy, however imperfect and oftentimes flailing, so that it can resist any and all future attempts to demolish it.
And now, three presidents and 24 years later, her son is President. Both mother and son, the embodiment of a national trait to never give up on hope. He inspires it daily, from the Tagalog speeches to the refusal of privilege. President Noynoy, born into power and privilege, has elevated ordinariness to the status of virtue. Suddenly it is alright to be frisked at airports, to queue up, to bear slow-moving traffic with Buddhist patience. Perhaps these will not solve the national deficit nor usher double digit growth. But if hope is social capital, it is a wonderful time to be Filipino again.
Back to the hallowed halls of academe, I reflect on Cory Aquino, the only president I have ever served. I recognize full well what she has left behind: She gave the Philippines its one singular moment when millions of Filipinos took their courage and ventured out into the streets, armed with nothing more than their faith to confront a bankrupt dictatorship and force its demise. That's surely more than anyone can expect from one lifetime.
Well written.
The author has presented a succinct analysis of the case presented. What is more inspiring to me in this article is highlighting the greater achievement of the late Cory Aquino's government and her great courage standing up for her people. More importantly, giving recognition to the hopes and aspirations of the Filipino people at that time, needing and wanting for CHANGE.
Indeed, YES we CAN!!!
Referring to the following article of Rigoberto D. Tiglao:
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Outlook
China’s growth and the 4th June Movement
By Rigoberto D. Tiglao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:27:00 08/19/2010
Filed Under: Politics, Economy and Business and Finance
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The country had just emerged from dictatorships beginning from the reign of Joseph Estrada to Gloria Macapagal, and this person is already advocating for another dictatorship. I hope he is not a spokesman of PNoy Aquino, since this is very possible considering now that Juan Ponce Enrile, the architect of martial law, is allied with PNoy. I hope that PNoy will not dishonor the memory of Ninoy and Cory and become a dictator. Rigoberto Tiglao maybe born a filipino but his outlook is definitely not. Democracy is deeply ingrained in our culture starting from our Pre-historic ancestors. Tiglao did not even stop to consider the reason why communism did not prevail in the country. Tiglao's outlook is definitely foreign to us.
http://antipinoy.com/in-the-news-does-the-nation-owe-the-aquinos-tony-lopez-manila-times/
In the News: Does the nation owe the Aquinos? (Tony Lopez, Manila Times)
* Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 7:48
* Politics
The Aquinos owe this nation a lot. It owed the nation when Servillano Aquino sided with Aguinaldo to have Andres Bonifacio assassinated, when Benigno Aquino Sr sent Filipinos to death as a WWII Japanese collaborator, when the Aquinos were able to bring the Cojuangcos on board to work out a deal with Magsaysay and acquire Hacienda Luisita using Filipino taxpayers money under the condition of redistributing the land after 10 years – we know how that went.
In this article posted in the Manila Times, Tony Lopez raises the issue in the form of a question. This becomes more relevant as the Aquinos try to posit themselves as if EDSA I were an Aquino franchise. Sure, Ninoy Aquino died, but there are many more Filipinos who died (for instance, Dr. Bobby de la Paz, Gov Emilio Javier, Mayor Cesar Climaco, or closer to home – Salvador Mapansa, Nanding Torralba, Babette Prudencio- does that make their deaths any less significant because their surnames are not Aquino or Cojuangco?)
Come to think of it, EDSA is franchise of the Filipino nation. For the Aquinos to claim ownership of the EDSA uprising is downright ridiculous.
Read on as Tony Lopez answers the question.
***
Does the nation owe the Aquinos?
Tuesday, 04 May 2010 00:00
BY TONY LOPEZ
I now believe in luck. Senator Benigno Simeon Cojuangco “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd all his life has led the easy life of a hacen-dera’s son. He wakes up in the morning with one problem, “Ano ang ulam ko?” (“What’s my viand?”). Most kids from a poor family wake up with one problem, “May pagkain ba ako? (“Do I have food to eat?”).
By the way, Hacienda Luisita’s 6,443 hectares is worth potentially, P190 billion—P3,000 per square meter multiplied by 64.43 million square meters. The P3,000 per sqm is usually the price of an idle farm land in provinces immediately north and south of Manila, once a highway or a major development is injected into it.
I drove through Hacienda Luisita yesterday morning entering the Luisita gate of the SCTEX and I saw on both sides of the first-class expressway miles and miles of green fertile land. Noynoy and his sisters own 16.6 percent of the hacienda. Multiply 16.6 percent by P190 billion and you get P31.5 billion.
Noynoy has had a good education. The Jesuits take care of their alumni well. Look at what they did to Manny Pangilinan. MVP was easily let off the hook after plagiarizing his commencement day speech, which was also an acceptance speech for his Ateneo honorary doctorate degree.
Noynoy has had a good barkada. Ateneo has probably the best old-boy network a student can cultivate from his alma mater. (BV – What can I say, best old-boy network it is, unfortunately being used for asinine reasons)
Noynoy has had plenty of girl friends. A girl was killed with him in the middle of a coup during his mother’s presidency.
He has had plenty of gadgets and toys. Guns (at least nine licensed with his name). Noynoy has not had a stable job, except for brief stints as a sales manager for Nike shoes, shorts and shirts, a manager of the family-owned Hacienda Luisita, and the co-owner of a security agency that got sweetheart contracts from the government.
Noynoy has never run a household because he has none. He is single. There are 16 million households in the Philippines.
Noynoy has been member of the Philippine Congress—9 years as congressman and 3 years as senator. During those 12 years, he didn’t produce a single law that carries his name. Senator Lito Lapid, who is supposedly stupid and cannot manage a good English sentence, produced a law. Senator Antonio Trillanes, who is in jail and cannot attend Senate sessions, produced two laws that carry his name.
On May 10, if you believe surveys, Noynoy will be elected president of the Philippines, running away with 38 percent of the vote with at least 15 million votes—six million more votes than either Joseph Estrada or Manny Villar could garner.
Noynoy will be CEO of this country of 95 million people, CEO of the government, and CEO of 16 million households. Now, that’s luck.
In a way, the Cojuangco and Aquino families are one of the luckiest political families on earth. In 1983, Ninoy Aquino died, by assassination. In 1985, widow Cory Aquino, a plain housewife, ran for president.
Doy Laurel had to give up his presidential ambitions and downgraded himself to vice president. She promised to make Doy prime minister. Cory won. She swore in Doy as prime minister at 9 in the morning of February 25, 1986. By noon, Doy lost his job as pm. The government was changed from parliamentary to presidential.
In August 2009, Cory Aquino died, of cancer. Noynoy Aquino decided to run for president. Mar Roxas had to give up his presidential ambitions and downgraded himself to vice president. If Noynoy wins, I hope he gives Mar some useful, meaningful job, in addition to being a spare tire.
How come, when somebody dies in the Cojuangco-Aquino family, someone must ran for president, someone must downgrade to vice president, and an Aquino must win the presidency?
Isn’t one presidency enough? Look at what happened with Gloria Macapagal Arroyo—the second Macapagal president. The first and second Macapagal presidents were elected 42 years apart.
Isn’t the fact that we must again elect, after nearly a quarter century, another Aquino for president proof that the first Aquino presidency was a failure?
Does the nation really owe the family that much? How come Filipinos have so much faith in the Aquinos? Isn’t Hacienda Luisita enough reward for their years in politics?
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President Cory Aquino really one of the great leader of our country.Graphic design
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baju muslim yes she is. President Aquino is really a great leader, her achievement was tremendous.
The writer has offered a concise study of the case. The most stirring to me in this blog is highlighting the better achievement of the late Cory Aquino's government and her immense courage standing up for her people.
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