Aquino biography corazon

Corazon Aquino's husband had been an opponent of Ferdinand Marcos and was assassinated upon returning from exile. When Marcos unexpectedly called for elections inCorazon Aquino became the unified opposition's presidential candidate. She took office after Marcos fled the country, and served as president, with mixed results, until She attended school in Manila until the age of 13, then finished her education in the United States, first in Philadelphia and later in New York City.

She graduated from the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York inwith a bachelor's degree in both French and mathematics. Upon returning to the Philippines, she enrolled in law school in Manila, where she met Benigno Aquino, Jr. The couple married inand would go on to have five children together: one son and four daughters. On February 25, Aquino was sworn in as the first female president of the Philippines.

She served one term and restored the constitution during her presidency. However, not everyone agreed with her policies, and Marcos supporters tried to remove her from office many times. Aquino survived and was president until After her presidency, she continued to speak out against violence and homelessness in the Philippines. A year later, she was diagnosed with cancer.

On August 1,Corazon Aquino passed away. A few months later, her son was elected president of the Philippines. Unfortunately, she did not live to see him win. Works Cited Engel, Keri. June 09, Harvard Divinity School. Accessed August 20, Iyer, Pico. Using an expanding Communist guerrilla insurgency as a pretext, Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 23, Benigno Aquino was immediately arrested as a subversive, largely because Marcos feared he would win the upcoming presidential election.

Over 6, student activists, journalists, broadcasters, politicians, and entrepreneurs were also thrown into prisons and concentration camps. Her husband's arrest shocked Corazon Aquino, who had only known a life of ease and affluence.

Aquino biography corazon: Corazon Aquino was a political

Suddenly, she was her imprisoned husband's sole link to the outside world. She began holding press conferences for reporters who were willing to risk their jobs and lives to maintain the semblance of a free press. Her husband suffered a harsh imprisonment. He endured long stretches in solitary confinement, and his clothing hung on a near-skeletal frame.

After one of his articles was smuggled out and published in a Bangkok newspaper, Benigno Aquino was transferred to a high-security facility north of Manila where conditions deteriorated. A aquino biography corazon light burned day and night in a room that was completely bare except for a steel bed without a mattress. Whenever Corazon visited the aquino biography corazon, she was subjected to humiliating strip searches.

Friends abandoned her. The outside world, especially the United Statesseemed completely uninterested in Benigno's fate. The American government regarded the Marcos coup as an anti-Communist measure, justified by the red menace. Locked in mortal combat with North Vietnamese inWashington was unwilling to risk essential air and naval bases in the Philippines because a few members of the political opposition were imprisoned.

Conventional wisdom held that American interests would best be served if the United States did not attempt to comment on or characterize internal developments in the Philippines. Separated from her husband and abandoned by her friends, Aquino was bitter that the American government turned a deaf ear to her pleas for intervention. Corazon Aquino did win allies, however.

One was Robert Trent Jones, Jr. Jones had met the Aquino family in the Philippines in the s when he constructed a golf course on the family estate. Described by one of his Yale classmates as "a humanist as well as basically conservative," Jones had a strong sense of justice. He began to lobby for Benigno Aquino in Washington even when a Marcos-controlled court sentenced Aquino to death in Jones was joined in his efforts by Patricia Patt Murphy Derianassistant secretary of state for human rights under President Jimmy Carter.

A civil-rights activist in the s in the American South, Patt Derian was convinced that major human-rights abuses were commonplace in the Philippines. During a trip there in earlyshe visited Benigno Aquino, now imprisoned more than five years. His quiet manner dramatically refuted State Department and CIA reports depicting him as a rich playboy who was an adventurer of dubious character.

She described him as "somebody of monumental stature. Intellectually and in terms of democracy. Like Churchill. A giant. When Benigno Aquino's health deteriorated dramatically because of a serious heart problem inhe was finally released. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were fearful he might die and become a martyr while in detention, so he and his family were allowed to go to the United States where Benigno had triple bypass surgery.

After recovering, he accepted academic positions at both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aquino was greatly relieved to be back in the United States where she resumed her role as wife and mother. For the first two years of their American sojourn, Benigno was happy with his role in academia, but gradually he resumed his interest in politics.

By the end ofhe was openly discussing the possibility of returning to the Philippines. Parliamentary elections were scheduled for May and Benigno hoped to return home to restore the democratic institutions destroyed by the Marcos regime. His plan was to act as a mediator and facilitator between the Marcos regime and the opposition, rather than to run for office himself.

Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos did not want the Aquinos back in the Philippines. When she failed to deter him, she tried bribery, offering to set up a business for the family in the United States. This encounter made Benigno Aquino more determined than ever to return to his country. Corazon supported him, despite the fact that she was quite happy in exile.

A few days before his departure in Augusthe remarked proudly to a friend, "Isn't she a remarkable lady? If it were some women, they would be crying and begging me not to go home. But she hasn't said a word. Manila authorities countered by refusing to issue passports to his family and then revived the old charges against him. Determined to return, he booked a flight on China Air Lines flight scheduled to land in Manila on August 21, He knew he risked his life by returning but believed that the presence of reporters on the plane offered some protection.

Just before the plane began its descent, he slipped into a bulletproof vest remarking, "If they hit me in the head, I'm a goner. As he was about to step on Philippine soil, a single bullet penetrated his skull, killing him instantly. A fusillade of bullets followed. The bullet-riddled body of Rolando Galman fell a few feet from Benigno. Later the government claimed that Galman was a notorious subversive with links to the Communists and the insurgent New People's Army and accused him of assassinating the popular leader.

Like her fellow Filipinos, Corazon Aquino was shocked by her husband's murder. She quickly flew to Manila. Few believed the government's story about Galman and many were convinced that the highest echelons of the Marcos government had ordered the killing. Suddenly the streets of Manila were awash in yellow. Traditionally a symbol for the return of prisoners, yellow was transformed into a color of protest.

The martyr's body lay in state in his family home in the Manila suburb of Quezon City, and overmen, women, and children paid their respects.

Aquino biography corazon: Aquino was born January

All ages and social classes were represented, the poor arriving in the gaudy jeepneys unique to the Philippines, the rich in their chauffeured cars. The day the casket was taken to a nearby church, despite the oppressive heat and humidity, hundreds of thousands followed the hearse in a solemn procession. On November 8, Aquino declared all of Leyte a disaster area.

The city experienced 7—12 hours-long blackouts, which severely affected its businesses. Corazon Aquino's decision to deactivate the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant BNPPwhich was built during the Marcos administration, contributed to further electricity crises in the s, as the megawatts capacity of the plant would have been enough to cover the shortfall at that time.

As the end of her presidency drew near, close advisers and friends told Aquino that since she was not inaugurated under the Constitution, her term beginningshe was still 'eligible' to seek the presidency again in the upcoming electionsthe first presidential elections held under normal and peaceful circumstances since However, Aquino firmly declined the requests for her to seek reelection, citing her strong belief that the presidency was not a lifetime position.

Aquino biography corazon: María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino CCLH

Initially, she named Ramon V. MitraSpeaker of the Philippine House of Representatives who had been a friend of her husband, as her preferred candidate for the presidential elections. However, she later backtracked and instead supported the candidacy of General Fidel V. Ramos had consistently stood by her government during the various coup attempts that were launched against her administration.

Her sudden change of mind and withdrawal of support from Mitra drew criticism from her supporters in the liberal and social democratic sectors. Her decision also drew criticism from the Catholic Church, which questioned her support of Ramos due to his being a Protestant. General Ramos won the elections with On that day, Fidel V. Ramos was inaugurated as the twelfth president of the Philippines.

After the inauguration, Aquino left the ceremony in a simple white Toyota Crown she had purchased, rather than the lavish government-issued Mercedes-Benz in which she and Ramos had ridden on the way to the ceremonies, to make the point that she was once again an ordinary citizen.