Corazon Aquino, the unassuming housewife who toppled a dictator and restored democracy to the Philippines as its 11th president, has died of heart failure. She was 76.
She died early Saturday, said Sen. Benigno Aquino III, her son.
Aquino was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2008 and was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit in June.
An elegant icon of democracy, Aquino served six turbulent years as president of the Philippines after leading hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in a “people power” revolution that brought down the corrupt regime of strongman Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986.
The civilian-backed military uprising, with its stirring scenes of nuns kneeling to stop Marcos’ tanks, made the Philippines a leader in the global wave of democratic movements that climaxed in the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In what she called her greatest achievement, Aquino presided over free elections, appointed an independent judiciary, encouraged a free press and restored other democratic institutions gutted by Marcos during his 20-year authoritarian rule.
Aquino left office in 1992, but remained politically active until beset by illness.
She married journalist Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in 1954. When her husband’s activities led to his imprisonment at the start of Marcos’ martial law period in 1972, Aquino visited him frequently but mostly stayed out of the limelight.
She continued to live in the shadow of her husband after he was released under international pressure in 1980 and allowed to move to the U.S. for a heart bypass operation. But in August 1983, her husband returned to Manila and was gunned down at the airport by soldiers loyal to Marcos. Corazon Aquino returned to the Philippines to lead an impassioned throng in a lengthy funeral march that became a unifying symbol for the anti-Marcos forces.
A courageous woman who emerged as a reluctant leader at a time of national crisis, Aquino left a mixed legacy as president. Her government was beset by bloody coup attempts — seven in her six years in office. Challenges from communist rebels, terrorists and armed Muslim secessionists, along with debilitating government scandals, left her administration lurching from crisis to crisis and, it seemed, constantly on the edge of collapse.
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rdrogan@tribune.com
