Cory Aquino 1933-2009

The icon of Philippine democracy is gone.


Corazon Aquino, the country’s first woman president, died yesterday at 3:18 a.m. at the Makati Medical Center after an 18-month battle with colon cancer. She was 76.

She had fulfilled her mission to lead her people from the oppression of a dictatorship toward democracy. And, once there, she never let her guard down. The world honored – and continues to honor – her for this.

“Our mother peacefully passed away at 3:18 a.m., Aug. 1, 2009, of cardio-respiratory arrest,” Mrs. Aquino’s only son Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III announced from the
lobby of the Makati Medical Center around 6 a.m. yesterday. Even as Senator Aquino spoke, thousands of yellow ribbons fluttered on the streets around the hospital, the avenues winding through the metropolis, the thoroughfares crisscrossing country. Yellow was the color of protest against the Marcos dictatorship and Mrs. Aquino ascended to the presidency clad in fighting yellow, even in death, a symbol of the continuing struggle to safeguard democracy.