Leader Cory

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Next big leaps

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Noynoy!

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2009

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Tuloy ang Laban!

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Mourning for Cory, Morning for Country

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Leaders are not just managers who can mobilize human and material resources. Leaders provide a vision of a future and show a people what they can become. In scandal-plagued times like this, when public cynicism is widespread and distrust of the political class is at an all-time high, there is, on flip side, a deep hunger for a leadership that rings true. And that serves to elevate, awaken, and inspire us to seek, as Abraham Lincoln would evoke in the wake of the devastation and misery of the American Civil War, the ‘better angels of our nature.’

Cory Aquino, who Fr. Joaquin Bernas has affectionately called the ‘gentlewoman in yellow,’ reminds us yet again of this truth, and reveals to us how needy we are of the inspiration and hope that true leaders are able to provide in times of despair and crises. In her time of affliction, Cory rallies a nation yet again, to rediscover what it is in us as a people that can move us to rise above adversity and seek common solutions for a better future. In the last few years marked by a growing malaise in national governance or in the face of a people’s sagging faith in their leaders, Cory continues to speak simply and yet profoundly of a process of truth-seeking and truth-telling that the country desperately needs to heal itself.  She banks on the painstaking efforts of ordinary people who work to better their lives and communities through honest, noble initiatives like microfinance.

I write this piece as a modest tribute to a leader of my generation, an unlikely heroine who rose from the repressive detritus and mayhem of martial law, a ‘simple housewife’ who rose through sheer moral courage to become an icon of democratic struggle for a suffering people. Cory defined for many of us youth in the early 1980’s, a trajectory of hope and renewal. The universities were then bastions of revolutionary thought and activism, and in various spheres and spaces of society, violent strife and conflict. We were caught in that ferment as students, growing into our own as martial law babies, finding answers to questions about life, career and a country’s future.

It was, at the least, a confusing time. But for many of us, from the time of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination in 1983, to the glory that was People Power in 1986, it was the clarion call for united action that came from voices like Cory Aquino that we responded to with an increasing sense of commitment and passion.  Cory’s voice of clarity rose above the din – uncomplicated, earnest, and like a respected schoolmarm, beseeching.  Think of country before self. Bayan muna, bago sarili [Country first before self].

Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, 11th President of the Republic, did not seek power; formal power, via people power, came to her.  And while her six-year presidency was marred by violent coup attempts, or charges of incompetence and corruption of people around her, or of unfinished social reform agenda like land reform and poverty reduction, her greatest accomplishment, many scholars would aver, was to hand power peacefully to a successor in 1992.  She had achieved nothing less than embodying a nation’s painful and turbulent transition or return to formal democracy.  When she left Quirino Grandstand – and the reins of the State to Fidel Ramos – on 30 June 1992, she was, as Citizen Cory, a leader of integrity, befitting all the accolades and paeans accorded her as Time Magazine’s Woman of the Year, Time’s Asian Hero, Magsaysay Laureate, among others.  

The ancient Romans believed that an ideal person and leader must possess gravitas or substance, pietas or virtue arising from duty, and dignitas or moral stature.  The life and work of Corazon Aquino are testament to these, and stand in stark contrast to the kind of despairing leadership and institutional damage that now bedevil the country.  That is why, I believe, a genuine outpouring of respect, prayer and goodwill has flowed out from all corners of the country for President Aquino, as she battles an affliction like cancer. 

In truth, it is our own afflictions and failings as a people that we confront and fight, drawing strength yet again from the moral courage a ‘gentlewoman in yellow’ showed us in the years leading up to 1986 – and continues to tirelessly show us today.  The country prays with and for Cory – for her full recovery and the nation’s as well – a leader who has more than anything led us to seek our own selves and ‘the better angels of our nature.’

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