Theres The Rub
by Conrado de Quiros
from Philippine Daily Inquirer

CORY never wanted to become President.
She never wanted to be the presidential candidate. When the idea was first broached to her after Ferdinand Marcos challenged his enemies to a snap election, she balked at it. She pointed to everybody else as the best man for the job. And Doy Laurel was more than ready—indeed eager—to do it. But at the end of the day, or after a long convention to decide it, the vote was unanimous. The best man for the job …

GLIMPSES
by Jose Ma. Montelibano
Next week, the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution will be replayed in the minds of many. There will be mixed reactions, of course, of course. Some, like the youth who were too young then, or not yet born, there is little or nothing to be remembered. Others, like those from the extreme Left or rebels from the military, would remember lost opportunities. To many, though, EDSA One was a miracle called freedom, the liberation of a people from the clutches of dictatorship.
Freedom is such a big word, …

Philippine Daily Inquirer

CORY AQUINO HAS EMERGED as the “most beloved” leader or politician the Philippines has had, a survey on voter preferences shows.

More than half (52 percent) of registered Filipino voters profess love for a leader and on top of their list is the late former President, according to the latest survey by Pulse Asia.
However, the same survey found that although love for a leader may influence one’s voting preferences, it does not necessarily translate into a sure electoral following.
The poll agency’s January 2010 preelection survey asked its respondents: “Among …

Theres The Rub
by Conrado de Quiros
from Philippine Daily Inquirer
IS the Cory magic gone?
Manny Villar’s camp proposed the idea, and Noynoy Aquino’s camp entertained it. That was after Villar narrowed the gap between him and Noynoy in the Pulse Asia survey to just two percentage points. The Liberal Party’s assessment showed so. Maybe, they said, Noynoy should start exploring another tack. Maybe, they said, the Cory magic has lost its magic.
Not at all.
The Cory magic hasn’t lost its magic, it has simply not been used. Or the Cory magic hasn’t lost …

Theres The Rub
by Conrado de Quiros
from Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE last time I saw Cory was sometime in March last year. It was in a gathering at La Salle Taft a week or so after the Edsa anniversary. Cory was the guest speaker, and her audience consisted mostly of students with a sprinkling of opposition personalities seated at the front rows. Cory looked healthy, her cancer was in remission, she walked with firm steps.

When her turn came to speak, she began by singling out Jun Lozada who, then as now, was …

Theres The Rub
by Conrado de Quiros
from Philippine Daily Inquirer

DEATH and resurrection. That’s the story of the year that was.

The death was literal enough. The year saw the deaths of many musicians in particular. Most of them in the prime of their lives, felled by disease, notably cancer, a scourge that has spread as fast as its social counterpart. Must be the diet, the pollution, and the stress, the three horsemen of the urban apocalypse. Some of them were very good friends of mine, not least Susan Fernandez, whose passing an …

by Ellen Tordesillas
When I passed by the statue of Evelio Javier in front of the provincial capitol in San Jose, Antique last Monday, I noticed he was holding a yellow ribbon.
Antique Governor Sally Perez said the yellow ribbon on Evelio’s statue was part of their tribute to former President Aquino. Rightly so because the heroic lives of Evelio and that of Sen. Benigno Aquino, Jr. and President Cory Aquino are inextricably twined.
Although I was born and grew up in Antique, I personally met Evelio Javier when I was covering the …

Philippines: A Country Study
by Ronald E. Dolan
Source: U.S. Library of Congress

Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was, like his life-long rival Ferdinand Marcos, a consummate politician, Philippine-style. Born in 1932, he interrupted his college studies to pursue a journalistic career, first in wartime Korea and then in Vietnam, Malaya, and other parts of Southeast Asia. Like Marcos, a skilled manager of his own public image, he bolstered his popularity by claiming credit for negotiating the May 1954 surrender of Huk leader Luis Taruc. The Aquino family was to Tarlac Province in Central Luzon …

by Perry Diaz

One of the questions that came to the forefront of debate after the death of former president Cory Aquino was: Who will pick up the mantle of leadership of the unfinished “yellow revolution” that Cory championed? With Cory gone, a power vacuum was created that could easily be filled by those who advocate for “status quo” and “business as usual” way of governance.
The 2010 elections could thus become the battle that would pit the forces of “status quo” against the proponents of genuine change which has gained popular …

by Fidel V. Ramos
First of two parts

“If a coup d’état starts in the minds of men, then it is the collective will of a unified people that can prevent and overcome it. The people must choose democracy.” — Davide Commission Report, 03 October 1990

The on-going testimonials, op-eds, videos, necrologicals, and media stories on democracy icon Corazon Cojuangco Aquino speak glowingly about her steadfastness during crisis situations, and rightly so. These reports, however, invariably speak of only 7 coup attempts or mutinies against the Government during her Presidency. There were, in …