Reformist fever dims 20 years after Aquino assassination
Publish Date: [Monday, August 18, 2003]

Twenty years after his assassination, Benigno Aquino Jr. remains an honored name in the Philippines but the reformist fervor that the opposition leader’s death ignited has faded considerably.

The killing of Aquino on Aug. 21, 1983, started a movement leading to the overthrow of a dictator and the restoration of democracy. But unending terrorist attacks and a military mutiny last month show the country’s troubles are far from over.

Insurgent groups remain active in the rural areas as thousands leave the country every day to seek better jobs abroad while the government wages an uphill battle against corruption and poverty.

Aquino, a former senator popularly known as "Ninoy," returned from exile in the United States, seeking to persuade then-president Ferdinand Marcos to end the authoritarian rule which had left the Philippines a basket case. But just as he got out of the plane, he was shot dead by soldiers of the Marcos government.

Marcos insisted Aquino had been slain by a communist hitman but the public, which had endured his martial law rule since 1972, finally found their voice.

Growing protests pressured Marcos to call for snap elections in February 1986 to secure a new mandate. The opposition was considered too fragmented to present a common candidate but to Marcos" surprise, they settled on the wife of the murdered leader, Corazon "Cory" Aquino.

Massive election cheating proved to be the last straw. Millions of Filipinos massed in the streets for peaceful demonstrations that became known worldwide as people power. The protests caused the military and officials to withdraw their support for Marcos, sending him fleeing into US exile and installing the Aquino widow as president.

She oversaw the return of democracy, the writing of a new constitution and the start of economic reforms. But her six years in office were marred by bloody coup attempts by rightist military men, including some who had helped install her. In a recent speech, she said that at the end of her term, she believed the country was finally on the path to prosperity and stability.

But as she ruefully recalls, in 2001, Filipinos were again back in the streets, staging a massive uprising to topple the graft-tainted administration of then-president Joseph Estrada. "Twenty years after his ultimate sacrifice, what would Ninoy have to say about where we, the recognized leaders of business and politics, have brought our country and our people?" Corazon Aquino asked businessmen.

She acknowledged the "jeering cynicism" that had worn away the enthusiasm that her husband’s sacrifice had sparked but she still thinks his example can be meaningful.

"At this time, when our faith in our institutions seems to be faltering, and our children are looking for greener pastures abroad, we need an ideology that can inspire us to action and reclaim the future that we seem to have lost sight of," Aquino said.

But she does not plan any grandiose campaign. Now 70, she has left partisan politics and will focus on a project called "People-Power People," which will document the successes of non-government organizations so that other groups can learn from them.

Even non-politicians agree the Philippines has progressed from the corruption and strong-man rule of Marcos.

The press has been unshackled, the legislature and judiciary are now independent from the executive. Poverty, which stood at about 60 percent of the population in end of the Marcos era, is down to about 34 percent.

Mahar Mangahas, a researcher who has charted the sentiments of Filipinos for almost two decades, has no doubts on the achievements since then.

"The freedom to speak is a big, big difference. That is already worth it."