Remembering Tita Cory... Thank You

Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco Aquino (January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office. Aquino was also the first popularly and democratically-elected female president and head of state in Asia. She is best remembered for leading the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, which toppled the authoritarian regime of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines. "Tita (Auntie) Cory", as she is affectionately known, is considered and revered by many Filipinos as an icon of Democracy, and has been hailed by TIME Magazine as the "Saint of Democracy," due to her well-known spiritual life and strong adherence to non-violence and democracy.

After her husband's assassination, the widowed Aquino became the unwilling and reluctant leader of the opposition against the authoritarian rule of the Marcos regime. She united the fragmented opposition and strengthened its moral crusade against the abuses and excesses of President Marcos' martial rule. In late 1985, when President Marcos called for a snap election, Cory Aquino was called upon by the people to challenge his regime. Reluctant at first, Aquino thrust herself into the political arena after one million signatures urging her to run for president were presented to her.
Despite having no prior political experience, except being her husband Ninoy's wife, Aquino proved to be a cult leader, inspiring orator and skilled campaigner. She ran for president with former senator Salvador Laurel as her vice-presidential running mate. When the Marcos allies-dominated Batasang Pambansa proclaimed Ferdinand Marcos as the winner in the 1986 snap elections, Aquino called for massive civil disobedience protests against him, declaring herself as having been cheated and as the real winner in the elections. Filipinos enthusiastically heeded her call and rallied behind her. These series of events eventually led to the ouster of Marcos from power grabbing and the installation of Aquino as president of the Philippines in February 1986, an event which is now known as the historic 1986 EDSA .

Now in power, Aquino oversaw the restoration of democracy in the Philippines and the promulgation of a new constitution, which limited the powers of the presidency and established a bicameral legislature. Her administration gave strong emphasis and concern for civil liberties and human rights, peace talks and dialogues with communist insurgents and Muslim secessionists. Aquino's economic policies, meanwhile, centered on bringing back economic health and confidence and focused on creating a market-oriented and socially-responsible economy. Despite these achievements, Aquino's presidency was not smooth-sailing as she had to face series of nine coup attempts against her administration and destructive natural calamities and disasters until the end of her term in 1992. After her term expired in 1992, Aquino returned to private life although she remained active in the public eye, constantly voicing her views and opinions on the pressing political issues in the country.
In 2008, Aquino was diagnosed with colorectal cancer (the same ailment that killed her mother Doña Demetria "Metring" Sumulong Cojuangco) and after a one-year battle with the disease, she died on August 1, 2009.Today August 5, 2009, the funeral procession for former Philippine Pres. Corazon Aquino, which lasted for almost nine hours and more than 250,000 people took to the rain-soaked streets of Manila on Wednesday to bid farewell to former president Corazon Aquino, whose “People Power” democracy movement ended decades of dictatorship and for the second time she brought back the People Power era. Her funeral procession was the same as her husband former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, where people lined up the street to make a glimpse of the former senator and then followed the procession up to his last resting place.
Amid chants of “Cory, Cory!”, the funeral convoy carrying Aquino’s body wheeled into the Manila Memorial Park after an eight-hour long funeral procession skirting the Philippine capital’s gleaming business towers and teeming shantytowns.
Aquino, who died aged 76 after a long battle with cancer, received full military honors in a private ceremony in Parañaque. Family members wept as representatives from the country’s Army, Navy and Air Force lifted Aquino’s casket off the flatbed trailer and placed it on a caisson festooned with yellow and white flowers.
Aquino is to be buried next to her husband, Benigno, whose assassination in 1983 catapulted her to the national stage.
With a national holiday called as part of 10 days of official mourning, thousands of people surrounded her coffin as it left Manila Cathedral following a mass just before noon. Eight police officers in full dress uniform served as pallbearers, carrying the casket to a flat-bed truck festooned with yellow and white flowers.
Police had estimated the crowd in central Manila alone to have reached 150,000 by mid-afternoon, but as the procession continued on its 18-kilometer (11-mile) route, thousands more braved the rain to join in.
At Manila Memorial Park and the stretch of highway leading to it, up to 50,000 more people were estimated to be in attendance, officials and reporters at the scene said.

Millions more, including from the 8.7-million-strong overseas Filipino community, monitored the slow progress of the cortege on television and Internet streaming sites.
“She made me proud again to be a Filipino,” said Father Catalino Arevalo, recalling Aquino’s bloodless triumph against the 20-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, three years after her husband’s assassination.
East Timor President and Nobel Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta, who flew to Manila to attend the funeral, described Aquino as “one of the greatest people of the 20th century,” likening her to India’s independence hero Mahatma Gandhi.
Men and women standing at least 10-deep on both sides of the road openly wept as the truck crawled through the swelling crowd, while military helicopters circled overhead, showering them with yellow confetti.
People in buildings lining Manila’s streets opened their windows, hung yellow banners and dropped confetti onto the sea of mourners below.


A crowd of nuns, their blue habits wet from the rain, released white doves and yellow balloons — yellow was Aquino’s signature color. Ships docked along Manila Bay sounded mournful horns.
At the cemetery she was given a beautiful highest honorary rites by the military. Remembering her important contribution in the 1986 People Power that toppled the then president Ferdinand Marcos. It will be a long time that this will ever happen again.