We thank Tita Cory for our democracy!

For our Special Presentation on Straight from the Sky, we bring you a new challenge for Cebu or call it a dream, a dream to make Cebu the World Hub of English Language. This idea is the brainchild of Dr. Paul Robertson, founder of the Asian EFL Journal and Time Taylor Group of Companies who is our guest tonight together with his Korean partner Mr. Shin Yong Young of GV Enterprises. Thousands of Koreans come to Cebu to learn how to speak in English. So what’s the difference? Mr. Robertson and Mr. Young will explain this project tonight on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 pm.

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After those false text messages that reported the passing of former Pres. Corazon “Tita Cory” Aquino, this brave housewife-turned-President has finally passed into immortality last Saturday dawn. After those false and vicious texts, I thought that Tita Cory wouldn’t yet die and would wait till August before she would move on to the great beyond. My hunch was right; after all, the month of August is significant to the Aquino family (and to those who fought the Marcos Dictatorship) because her husband former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was assassinated on Aug. 21,1983 or 26 years ago. Now she has rejoined Ninoy in God’s fold.

I was only 32 years old when the Marcos Regime assassinated Ninoy Aquino and Tita Cory had to return from Boston to be with her husband’s body to bury him. I remember that she didn’t allow the funeral parlor to clean up his badly mangled body so the Filipino people could view him as he made his last breathe. It was the beginning of the public Cory Aquino.

I was with the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) before I began my career as a journalist. Our UNIDO Party leader was then Sen. Salvador “Doy” Laurel, one of the few opposition leaders who taunted and dared to take on the Marcos Regime, but with the opposition hopelessly splintered, they needed some kind of unifying factor to glue them together. Ninoy’s untimely death gave the opposition its unity.

When push came to shove, even if Doy Laurel was already fully prepared to battle with Pres. Ferdinand Marcos for the Presidency, he made the ultimate sacrifice. He settled as Tita Cory’s Vice-Presidential candidate in one of the dirtiest elections this country had ever seen. When the computer operators working at the PICC walked out because they could no longer stand the cheating, it was the sparkplug that ushered the EDSA Revolt. The rest is history.

Tita Cory wasn’t the perfect President, but she represented the nation’s cry for a return to our Democratic processes. If this housewife would carry the torch of democracy to the streets, the Filipino people who were sick and tired of the Marcos Regime gained their strength in Tita Cory’s weakness. This is what toppled the Marcos Dictatorship!

There is no question that Tita Cory was a good person, but she was manipulated by her followers when she became President. First was that tragic split with Doy Laurel, especially after the latter suggested that the nation revert back to the 1935 Constitution that was thrown out by Marcos. That would have been a simple Executive Order and we would have truly returned to normalcy, especially with our political system, which once had the most stable two party system.

But Cory listened to her advisers and created the 1987 Constitution instead, a Constitution that today needs to be changed. The Cory Presidency was wracked with various coups, done by those who wanted to wrest control of the reins of government for their sinister purposes.

If there was anything big and a positive change in the Cory Administration, I submit that it was the entry of the private sector to government agencies, like the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) and allowing Private Sector representatives to be directors in government controlled or owned corporations, including the Local Government Units (LGU).

No doubt history will judge the life and times of Tita Cory Aquino for she came to the nation at the right time, when we had lost our moral compass. She may have restored Democracy, but you can be sure that there are still many groups out there who in their lust for political power wouldn’t hesitate to bring this nation into the brink of another dictatorship.

If and when our democracy is threatened once more, we will be reminded of the days when Tita Cory and Doy Laurel faced the monolith of the Marcos Dictatorship who brought this nation to darkness, but people like Tita Cory didn’t waste time cursing the darkness, but instead lighted a candle. So we thank you Tita Cory for being with us at the right time when we needed a leader to bring us back to normalcy. May she rest in God’s peace.