(Editor’s Note: We have excerpted the stories below from the book, “Cory Aquino, an Intimate Portrait” edited by Margarita P. Juico on the occasion of the former President’s 76th birthday today. Juico was Aquino’s Appointments Secretary from 1987 to 1992. The book will be launched on Tuesday at Bestsellers in Robinson’s Galleria in Ortigas Center.)

A true democrat
By Joker Arroyo
Executive Secretary

WHEN President Cory assumed office under the Freedom Constitution, she was vested with both executive and legislative powers, thereby making her practically a dictator, one as powerful as Ferdinand Marcos. She did not like that. She said she had been elected only to the executive position of president, not also as legislator, who makes laws.

So, as early as two months into office, she constituted a commission that would enact a new constitution within four months. Thus came about a constitution, subsequently ratified overwhelmingly in a plebiscite, providing for an elected president, an elected Congress, and a Supreme Court, appointed by the president and vetted by a congressional commission, the three branches of power operating co-equally.

This sums up Cory Aquino’s concept of governance, which makes her a true democrat of the first order.

A woman with a core of steel
By Eddie Ramos
Department of National Defense

Not just one, or two, but nine memorable experiences with President Cory define the steel core within her. From 1986-1992, the Aquino administration was confronted by nine coup attempts, all of which failed although some at great cost of lives and blood:

July 6-7, 1986—The Manila Hotel takeover, bloodless, but destructive, with 500 rebel soldiers and 5,000 Marcos loyalists involved.

November 23-24, 1986— God Save the Queen, bloodless, but came close to shooting inside Camp Aguinaldo and three other military camps, and at the Batasang Pambansa, with a complete Cabinet revamp as a result.

January 27-28, 1987—Assault on GMA 7 Television Station, bloody, destructive, but casualties were minimized by the use of teargas against the rebels.

April 18-19, 1987—Black Saturday revolt among enlisted men, bloody, but limited to Army headquarters.

July 9-13, 1987—Manila International Airport takeover plot, pre-empted, bloodless, engineered by pro-Marcos politicians and foreigners involving the airlifting from abroad of vast amounts of weapons and ammunition good for three months’ operations.

August 28, 1987—Takeover and burning of the Armed Forces headquarters with armed clashes in eight major areas: Malacañang; Camp Aguinaldo; PTV4 and Camelot Hotel; Broadcast City; Villamor air base; Camp Olivas, Pampanga; Recom 7 Headquarters, Cebu; and Legaspi City airport.

November 29-December 9, 1989—Takeover of the Makati Business District and Mactan air base, extremely bloody with 99 dead and 570 wounded, mainly civilians; 3,000 rebel troops under seven generals, 21 colonels and 44 other officers attacking nine major military installations, including bombing raids on Malacañang and Camp Crame.

March 4-5, 1990—Takeover of Cagayan Province led by the governor of Cagayan who had organized his own private army; bloody—a general was killed.

First Week, October 1990—Creation of the Federal Republic of Mindanao, bloody; four provinces in Northern Mindanao attempting to break away with their own government, with the participation of hill-tribe guerrillas.

Throughout all these politico-military conspiracies to overthrow her, I saw how steady she was as commander in chief. Being our first woman President all the more adds luster to her defense of our democracy.

To cap this testimonial, let me add this excerpt from an article in the Bulletin dated 26 February 2006.

“The events of 24 February 2006 (Friday) constitute a powerful wake-up call for change and reform on the part of the Arroyo government and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. This is also true for the two chambers of congress and all other elected officials down to the grassroots. Our people want change—and quickly—but it must be quality change done peacefully, without the disruption of their daily lives and with foreseeable hope for the solution of the long-standing problems of poverty, corruption, injustice and inequity.

Granting that a coup conspiracy had been nipped-in-the-bud—as it was bound to fail due to the lack of a supporting response from the senior AFP commanders—the authorities must not misread the signals. The street protests, red banners, and yellow vests plus angry rhetoric that filled the airwaves should not stampede the commander in chief and her generals into harsh measures that would be tantamount to a repetition of Marcos-style repression. Legally speaking, on the basis of Republic Act 6968 [the Anti-Coup d’ Etat Law], there was no coup attempt yet. The declaration of a ‘state of national emergency’ by PGMA, under her Presidential Proclamation 1017, may already have been an overkill, if we recall that during the more violent and more widespread coup attempts mounted by Gringo Honasan, which were shoot-or-be-killed situations, then President Cory Aquino did not panic into declaring such a state of national emergency. As articulated by the young rebellious officers and freely, the causes of their unrest must be attended to. The issues are well known and have been aired continuously since the Oakwood incident of July 2003, and have to do with just one key word: Pagbabago [Change, Reform].”

Talk about guts, Cory had it because she is a woman with a core of steel.

Without even trying
By Ted Locsin Jr.
Presidential Adviser/Speechwriter

I had just spoken to—well, I suppose I still can’t say the name of this businessman who had just talked to the US ambassador about sending in warplanes. Things weren’t going too well for our side.

I was walking across the sward fronting the Palace over to the office I retained in the Guest House after being fired from the president’s staff—I kept it to the last day of her term.

Amid sharp sounds of gunfire and shelling from not too far away, a presidential security guard, crouching as though he were approaching a helicopter, came up to me. He said the president wanted me at the Arlegui house. I hadn’t told her yet what the businessman, the US ambassador, and I had been up to. I thought it might be about the same matter, but then again it might be about something else. You never knew with her. Cory Aquino never allowed current circumstances to dictate her agenda.

The door opened and I was shown into a parlor rather too sumptuously decorated for both our tastes. “I just had to have you try this cake,” she said and, turning to the maid, added, “give him a generous slice. Maur made it.”

I must say I could not disagree, and I always spoke my mind to her. The cake was just properly moist, excellent in every respect. Most of the thick curtains were drawn so flying glass would not hurt the children, she casually explained, except over the tall window that threw sunlight on the tea table between us. It was afternoon, that time of day.

Meanwhile, the arrangements she had secretly put in place long before, without telling any of us, even her closest advisers, were about to go into effect. Key and hitherto unknown combat officers whom the rebels assumed would side with them would suddenly turn their men and guns on the rebels. In retrospect, I can only compare—but only in respect to the quality of shared aplomb—that placid setting in the soft morning light to the one of Al Pacino standing godfather as the priest intoned, “Do you reject Satan? Do you…” and his men quietly went to work.

Another time, another place. There were planes overhead, not ours yet, although her spokesman, Rene Saguisag, had been casually referring to her as “Her Excellency.” Her close though numerous advisers were milling on the veranda of her brother’s house, within shooting distance of Camps Aguinaldo and Crame. It was mid-afternoon and a gray day, with that peculiar stillness that falls on a crowded Christian city on Good Friday. Things were touch and go. She had returned from taking her oath of office at Club Filipino and committed rebellion and usurpation thereby. Yet she declined the advice to go into hiding, especially that of dashing into a motel, which came from a niece of hers. “With the mirrors on the ceiling,” the niece tittered and shrank noticeably when she realized what she had said.

We were looking up at the sky, listening to the quiet from the crowded highway. Then she and close family members began to stir and move toward the dining room. It was obvious we were not included. It was that time of day, and while we could have merienda on the veranda, the family would have theirs inside, where there would be no talk except about personal matters.

Yet another time was when she looked up from the papers on her desk, while another coup was going on—not too well again, for us—and said to me as I stood with my Banana Republic bush jacket flung open to show I was packing, “You have no bullets.”

“What?” I said.

“You forgot to put in a clip,” she said, pointing to the hollow grip sticking out of the calfskin shoulder holster I got in New York.

And then there were the words that humbled and haunted me and finally made me throw my hat in the political ring. I had complained that Joker Arroyo, Rene and I, in spite of our comprehensive talents, were asked our views only on policy, never on politics: “Until you have begged for every vote, and prayed to keep it safe, I really don’t want to hear your opinions on local politics.”

I don’t know yet what to make of these few of many more incidents involving my relationship with Corazon Aquino except to say that you really don’t have to shout to be heard, nor to repeat to be understood, nor to impress in order to influence, nor to throw a fit to show that you are at the very heart of things. There are people in politics who, by just being there and being themselves, shape the world around them in deep and enduring ways. There are many more, of course, who, by insisting on being there, even when they were neither invited nor wanted, and doing the outlandish things so people may remark their presence, still make no difference at all. Of the former I have met only one—Corazon Aquino.

I do not believe in the aristocracy of the blood; all Filipinos are descended from colonized natives and colonial dregs unlike Spanish Peru. I certainly don’t believe in a Philippine aristocracy of money; our richest are new to their wealth and blind to its responsibilities. But there are clearly aristocrats by nature, who unconsciously behave that way, with few if any in the same family and certainly no others in the same circle revealing anything like the same qualities. I have been fortunate to meet one or two more like that but it is in the privileged character of the encounter never to mention their names. And that, I think, is all we can ask of life.

The prayer

December 3, 2008

My Dear President Aquino:

It has been 8 months since my letter to you dated March 25, 2008. The prayer continues.

This year, I went to various places (India, Nepal, Ireland and Scotland) and I continue to pray everyday. Not a day passed without a prayer for your recovery and good health.

I pray everyday. This is not to say that I have become prayerful. I have just made praying a habit: when I wake up and before I sleep.

In fact, in one of those moments, I came up with a prayer for your recovery and good health. It has been with me for quite some time and have been mulling over whether I should send it to you or not. Today, I send it to you because I realize that all words of supplication and prayer to God are good.

Again with fervent prayer for your speedy recovery and good health, I remain.

Most sincerely,

Frank Chavez