In EDSA(yep, I was there in 86), our aims were to end:

trapo politics
election cheating
corruption in government

It is my belief that we have gone downhill since Cory stepped down instead of uphill.

I hope Cory’s memory(and Ninoy’s) will be honored and that more and more of us will carry on with the fight that began at the then Manila International Airport in aug 21, 1983.

I agree with you. It really feels we’ve gone downhill in the past twenty years since Cory stepped down.

mano here(vcf comm volunteer hehe).

I wholeheartedly agree with just about verbatim with your entry.

Gloria could not hold a candle to Cory.

Again I reiterate that — apparent progress and development as boasted/proclaimed by the GMA admin and it’s allies are worthless in the absence of transparency, truth, and justice(due to its obstruction).

EDSA was a fight for ideals– the whole range of them and you cannot have one without the other:

Truth, justice, freedom & democracy, transparency and good government, progress and development.

Whatever significant accomplishments claimed by the present occupant of the palace by the pasig pales en toto in comparison to the legacy left by Corazon Aquino imho.

However to be fair,

quote:
“Tita Cory would never have had a NBN-ZTE scandal, accusations of election rigging, “Hello Garci,” an Oakwood mutiny and several impeachment attempts, and, mostly importantly, she and Ninoy would never be accused of squirreling away billions of pesos in overseas accounts.”

She did have, as mentioned: “Six failed coup attempts, sub-par economic performance, a “for-show” agrarian reform program, and lukewarm environmental policy ..”

The Cory administration did have “kamaganak inc.” , the “Mendiola Massacre”, and the non-inclusion of Hacienda Luisita in the carp(I believe..)

She was far from perfect..and this nonsense about sainthood(as seen on facebook) just doesn’t sound right.

I would agree to altering the 500 peso bill from just “Ninoy” to “Ninoy and Cory” as a most befitting honor to the Aquino couple.

All in all, I would accord President Cory the due respect as among our greatest presidents, along with possibly Quezon and Magsaysay.

Thank you, Reg. :)

Towards the end of her term, Cory was hugely unpopular – typical of Filipino politics. Many of her critics have branded her as a failure because of the problems besieging the county at that time. We were experiencing a crippling power shortage, an economy in recession, numerous coup attempts, etc. Unfairly, she was being projected as one of the worst Presidents the country ever had. Yet today, the country is singing a different tune. History, as it seems, is now fair to her for what she has done for all of us.

As to GMA, I often say that she is good executive with lousy politics. Macroeconomic stats will show that we are in a much better shape. International support for her administration, something we sorely need, is solid. On the other hand, her ‘politics’ is much to be desired for and the corruption issues is really something that makes Pinoys fume in anger, myself included. While I am not saying she is a great President, I do hope that much like Cory, history will likewise be fair to her — and we realize that she too did her part for the country.

My 2 cents.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Randell. They are appreciated.

Truly, corruption is this nation’s greatest scourge.

Hahaha! That’s a thought. Cory deserves the honor as much as Diosdado Macapagal (on the PHP200).

She’ll never read this. Tiny fish in giant ocean.

What a sweet reunion that will be!

You are entitled to your opinion, Kuya Kevin. I imagine you are not alone in your assessment of this blog entry; there are many readers out there who are probably disgusted with this entry. There are many eloquent eulogies online that paint a magnificent picture of President Aquino as icon, freedom fighter, woman, mother, and Filipino.

I reflected on Tita Cory’s death and the 20-odd years since she left office, looked at where the country has gone, and this blog entry is what I’ve come up with. I thought long and hard about posting this, thinking, perhaps, a third-person diatribe would suffice. In the end, this blog entry is harsh. Tita Cory herself asked GMA twice to step down; I am the least of GMA’s critics, a minnow in the ocean. My only consolation is that, judging from the Comments fields, I am not alone in feeling this way.