Corazon Aquino gave her first political speech at 45 and became president at 53
For most of her husband's career, Corazon Aquino stood at the back of his rallies rather than on stage, and she quietly sold part of her inheritance to fund his campaigns. She made her first political speech in 1978. Eight years later, with no experience of public office, she was sworn in as the first woman president of the Philippines.
Born on 25 January 1933 in Paniqui, Tarlac, she was the sixth of eight children in the wealthy Cojuangco family, with politicians on both sides; her grandfather had sat in the historic Malolos Congress. She was valedictorian at her Manila elementary school, then finished high school in New York, where as a teenager she volunteered for Thomas Dewey's 1948 campaign against Harry Truman. She graduated in 1953 with a major in French and a minor in mathematics, and eventually spoke French, Japanese, Spanish and English besides Tagalog and Kapampangan.
She dropped out of law school to marry Benigno Aquino Jr in 1954. Ninoy became the country's youngest governor and then its youngest elected senator, and a leading critic of President Ferdinand Marcos. When Marcos declared martial law in 1972, Ninoy was among the first arrested. During his imprisonment Corazon gave up salons and new clothes until a priest urged the family to live more normally. She campaigned when he ran from his cell in 1978, and after a heart attack in 1980 the family was allowed to go into exile in the United States.
Ninoy flew home alone in August 1983 and was assassinated at Manila's airport. More than two million people joined the funeral procession she led. When Marcos unexpectedly called a snap election on American television, a petition carrying 1.2 million signatures urged her to run. The February 1986 vote was marred by fraud, and the largely peaceful People Power Revolution, backed by the Catholic Church and military defectors, ended Marcos's two decades in power.
As president until 1992 she oversaw the 1987 Constitution, which curbed presidential power and restored a two-chamber Congress, and survived several coup attempts. Her record was also marked by the 1987 Mendiola Massacre, when security forces killed at least 12 protesters. She died on 1 August 2009.
Source: Corazon Aquino
