Cory shrugs off loss of ‘magic’

Former President Corazon Aquino doesn’t care that she has apparently lost her "magic" after failing to rally the Roman Catholic Church and a majority of Filipinos behind her call for President Arroyo to step down.

Lourdes "Deedee" Sytangco, Aquino’s spokeswoman, said yesterday that the former president is standing firm in her decision in asking Mrs. Arroyo to make the "supreme sacrifice" by resigning from office to save the country from further turmoil.

"If the Cory magic was lost because of that (failure to get the people’s support to oust Mrs. Arroyo), she would not care," Sytangco said during the Bulong-Pulungan forum held at the Westin Philippine Plaza in Pasay City.

After her husband, former senator Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated in 1983, Aquino — with her trademark yellow outfits — became a symbol for those who opposed the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was ousted in 1986 after he called for a snap election.

Aquino, then the opposition’s standard-bearer, replaced Marcos and held on through several bloody coup attempts. Her successor, Fidel Ramos, sought her blessing when he ran for president. It is said that the "Cory factor" contributed to his victory at the polls.

Sytangco denied reports that Aquino engaged in a shouting match with President Arroyo during a visit to Malacañang with Bataan Bishop Socrates Villegas last July 7 in which she asked Mrs. Arroyo to resign.

Sytangco disclosed that Aquino and Villegas were accompanied by Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and Cavite Bishop Chito Tagle, who also urged Mrs. Arroyo to resign.

"The night before Mrs. Aquino’s public declaration (calling on the President to resign), she went with the three clerics to the Palace... Mrs. Aquino said (the President) was very gracious and there was no shouting match between them. They even kissed each other good-bye," Sytangco said.

She added that Aquino would speak on the issue when the proper time comes to debunk the rumored shouting match and to explain her withdrawal of support for the woman she appointed as trade undersecretary under her administration.

"Bishop Soc said the same thing. President Arroyo said to them, ‘I’m sorry you feel that way.’ She was very gracious about it," Sytangco said.

Asked why Aquino issued her call on the same day that 10 of Mrs. Arroyo’s Cabinet members and advisers resigned, Sytangco said she was not consulted about the matter.

"I really do not know. Maybe, like the ladies here said, the climate was not right. I was not consulted and I was a little Ms. Echo of Cory," she said.

Angie Barrera, a civil society leader and former teacher of Mrs. Arroyo at the Assumption College, said during the forum that the nuns at the school refused to join in Aquino’s call for the President to resign. Aquino had delivered her statement in the school’s campus last July 8.

"I do not know if the nuns refused her. In the case of Assumption, she said if she is invited to lead in praying for the community she will be there. But she did not call on the people to join the street protest," Sytangco noted.