President Cory Aquino turned 76 years old today. I thought I'd like to share with you the editorial of today's issue of The Manila Bulletin. You may check this link, or read the article below. (Pasensya na, you may hate her or love her, but I am a Cory fan)
BORN in Manila on January 25, 1933, former President Corazon "Cory" Cojuangco Aquino was the sixth of eight children of Jose Cojuangco, a former Congressman, and Demetria Sumulong Cojuangco, a pharmacist. Both her grandfathers were also legislators.
For the most part, however, Cory’s life revolved around school, church, and vocations in Antipolo in Rizal province, the Sumulong bailiwick, and in Tarlac, where the Cojuangcos owned huge tracts of land.
Among her forebears, it was Grandfather Sumulong – Cory called him Lolo Juan – who encouraged the little girl to read. "His eyesight was getting bad," she recalls. "I was seven or eight and I would read the newspapers to him." A nationalist who believed that the elite should not dominate Philippine politics, Lolo Juan died when Cory was about to turn nine. But his influence lived on. In President Cory’s own words, my grandfather insisted that all of us learn Tagalog (the dialect on which the national language is based) first before we learned English, I continued this practice, so all my children were taught or spoken to in Tagalog. I’m proud of the fact that all of us are fluent in Tagalog." She also learned to interact with ordinary folk from the down-to-earth maternal side of the family. "We got a taste of what it was like doing what other people did," she recounts, from eating halo-halo, the iced dessert of Antipolo’s masses.
President Cory got a similar patriotic orientation from her father’s side. The Cojuangco patriarch, Jose, who came to the Philippines from China in the early 19th century, was so eager to be assimilated into Philippine society that he did not teach any of his children Chinese. A self-made man who subsequently amassed a fortune, Jose and his children remained hardworking, a value that was passed on to the succeeding generation.
President Cory manifested hard work even in her studies. She finished grade school as class valedictorian at St. Scholastica’s College, Manila in 1943. After the war, she studied at the Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia, the Notre Dame Convent School and the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, major in French language and minor in mathematics in 1953. She returned to the Philippines to study law at the Far Eastern University, but she gave up her law studies when she married Benigno Servillano "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. in 1954.
President Cory was always at the side of her husband throughout his political career. After her husband’s assassination in 1983, she quickly took the initial steps to reconcile a fractured opposition. Subsequently, with all humility and with the firm commitment to continue her husband’s crusade, she accepted the nomination to be the opposition’s presidential candidate in the 1987 snap elections.
The events that happened after she declared her candidacy are now part of Philippine history. Her administration from 1986 to 1992 was tested several times and all through those years, she remained resilient, never wavering in the pursuit of furthering democracy.
One of the most manifest attributes of President Cory is her unwavering faith in God. From personal debacles to incidences of political crisis, President Cory would turn to prayer, knowing that God would never send problems that a person of faith could not handle. "God calls each of us to do what God expects of us," she said. "I try my best to adjust to whatever circumstances are and I will not shrink from whatever is before me."
Happy 76th Birthday, President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. May you have many more years of fruitful life.
For the most part, however, Cory’s life revolved around school, church, and vocations in Antipolo in Rizal province, the Sumulong bailiwick, and in Tarlac, where the Cojuangcos owned huge tracts of land.
Among her forebears, it was Grandfather Sumulong – Cory called him Lolo Juan – who encouraged the little girl to read. "His eyesight was getting bad," she recalls. "I was seven or eight and I would read the newspapers to him." A nationalist who believed that the elite should not dominate Philippine politics, Lolo Juan died when Cory was about to turn nine. But his influence lived on. In President Cory’s own words, my grandfather insisted that all of us learn Tagalog (the dialect on which the national language is based) first before we learned English, I continued this practice, so all my children were taught or spoken to in Tagalog. I’m proud of the fact that all of us are fluent in Tagalog." She also learned to interact with ordinary folk from the down-to-earth maternal side of the family. "We got a taste of what it was like doing what other people did," she recounts, from eating halo-halo, the iced dessert of Antipolo’s masses.
President Cory got a similar patriotic orientation from her father’s side. The Cojuangco patriarch, Jose, who came to the Philippines from China in the early 19th century, was so eager to be assimilated into Philippine society that he did not teach any of his children Chinese. A self-made man who subsequently amassed a fortune, Jose and his children remained hardworking, a value that was passed on to the succeeding generation.
President Cory manifested hard work even in her studies. She finished grade school as class valedictorian at St. Scholastica’s College, Manila in 1943. After the war, she studied at the Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia, the Notre Dame Convent School and the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, major in French language and minor in mathematics in 1953. She returned to the Philippines to study law at the Far Eastern University, but she gave up her law studies when she married Benigno Servillano "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. in 1954.
President Cory was always at the side of her husband throughout his political career. After her husband’s assassination in 1983, she quickly took the initial steps to reconcile a fractured opposition. Subsequently, with all humility and with the firm commitment to continue her husband’s crusade, she accepted the nomination to be the opposition’s presidential candidate in the 1987 snap elections.
The events that happened after she declared her candidacy are now part of Philippine history. Her administration from 1986 to 1992 was tested several times and all through those years, she remained resilient, never wavering in the pursuit of furthering democracy.
One of the most manifest attributes of President Cory is her unwavering faith in God. From personal debacles to incidences of political crisis, President Cory would turn to prayer, knowing that God would never send problems that a person of faith could not handle. "God calls each of us to do what God expects of us," she said. "I try my best to adjust to whatever circumstances are and I will not shrink from whatever is before me."
Happy 76th Birthday, President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. May you have many more years of fruitful life.
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