She says ”my gosh” and ”wow” and sometimes seems lost on the most important issues. Still, Maria Corazon Aquino has accomplished what none of the smooth-talking, deep-thinking politicians could in the past 20 years.
She has united a bitterly divided opposition, captured the imagination of millions of Filipinos and challenged the rule of President Ferdinand Marcos.
On Friday, the widow of Marcos` longtime political rival could be the first woman elected president of this nation. But if that happens, the very qualities that vaulted her to power could bring her trouble.
Her golly-gee, my-gosh ways are endearing to millions who turn out for her campaign rallies and frustrating to everyone who worries how she will run the country if she wins.
”We don`t really have a carefully thought-out platform of government,”
admits Francisco Tatad, an outspoken member of the opposition and one of those who worry out loud about Aquino`s inexperience. ”This is serious business. It isn`t a game. My God, we`re talking about running a country, and we`ve got to have people who know how to use that kind of power.”
Tatad speaks with authority. For 10 years a member of Marcos` inner circle as minister of information, he announced the 1972 presidential decree to the nation when Marcos declared a state of martial law that continued for nine years.
Now split with Marcos, Tatad is president of the small pro-Aquino Christian Social Democratic Party.
”It`s time for Marcos to go, but I have to say I find the opposition`s lack of a complete party platform lamentable and frustrating,” he says.
Aquino, 53, brushes aside such criticism. If elected, she says, she will gather a group of 50 advisers to work out a government program. But she refuses to disclose the names of those advisers for fear they could face reprisals from Marcos, who now refers to Aquino`s ”50 nincompoops.”
Meanwhile, Aquino campaigns on a vague and sometimes shifting platform. She has given fuzzy and occasionally contradictory answers on such crucial issues as extending the leases for the two huge U.S. military bases in the Philippines and including communists in her government.
Her latest position is that, as president, she would consider renegotiating leases for the bases when they expire in 1991 (rather than demand that the Americans pull out altogether) and won`t appoint communists to her Cabinet.
Both topics are highly volatile here. For some Filipinos, the U.S. presence at Clark Air Field and Subic Bay Naval Base smacks of colonial days when the Philippines was an American possession; yet the country, always a staunch ally of Washington, remains intensely American in many ways.
Likewise, the specter of a communist takeover is woven deeply into the fabric of the national psyche. Marcos regularly raises the possibility in defending his regime and attacking the opposition as being radical leftists.
The one constant in Aquino`s campaign is her rally cry–that while she may not be the ideal candidate, she is better than Marcos.
”Whatever you may think of my program of government, your choices are two,” she said in a speech to the nation`s top business leaders last month,
”a regime with a record of rapacity and ruin . . . or a free, open and accountable government that will be credible in its leadership and honest in its administration.”
Honesty, credibility and sincerity are the uncomplicated qualifications Aquino offers the Filipino people. And millions are responding in a groundswell of emotion that has swept the country since she announced her candidacy two months ago.
”Wow, the people`s reaction is really great,” Aquino said after 250,000 screaming supporters turned out to greet her on the island of Cebu. ”This is energizing. I forget about being tired. If these people are willing to do this for me, my gosh, the least I can do is appreciate their efforts.”
The crowds on Cebu were among the largest of the campaign, but everywhere Aquino goes, she is mobbed. Enthusiastic supporters line the streets shouting her nickname–”Cory! Cory! Cory!”–until they are hoarse. They dress in yellow, her official campaign color. And they raise their thumbs and index fingers to form ”L” for ”Laban”–the Filipino word for ”fight” and the name of the opposition.
The scenes have become so overwhelming that even diehard Marcos allies speak in awe of Aquino`s ”people power.” But they question whether that emotion will translate into an Aquino victory at the polls on Friday.
”You cannot judge the result of an election by the crowds you have,”
says Marcos` running mate, former Foreign Minister Arturo Tolentino. ”We have seen those crowds in the past–big crowds but no votes. Cory`s crowds are still too far from a bandwagon.”
Some Marcos backers laughingly compare Aquino to Geraldine Ferraro, who ran as vice president on the U.S. Democratic Party ticket that was soundly defeated by President Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.
”The (American) people went crazy for Ferraro in her campaign, but they didn`t vote for her on Election Day,” said Erlinda Montse, 40, a public-school teacher in Pangasinan province, northwest of Manila.
A column in the pro-Marcos newspaper Bulletin Today last week said many Aquino supporters lining the streets would refuse to vote for her ”because she is a woman, and women are known for fickleness.”
”The Philippines is a country of male chauvinists,” Aquino said last year when she was refusing to run for president. ”The men in this country are not ready for a woman president. I doubt very much if they are prepared to take orders from a woman.”
Now, a year later, Aquino`s people have been staggered by the overwhelming public support for a woman candidate. But they admit it may mean very little in the end–because of vote fraud.
”The people will vote for Cory, but those votes will never show,” says Jose Feliciano, a former congressman and secretary of agriculture under Marcos. ”There will be wholesale cheating for Marcos.”
That feeling is widespread among the opposition and even within the National Citizens` Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), an independent group accredited by the government to monitor the elections.
”Frankly, I dont think it`s possible for Cory to win by enough votes to take office,” said a senior NAMFREL official who requested anonymity. ”If she won by a margin of 5 to 10 percent, it still wouldn`t be enough to take care of the cheating.”
Concern over election fraud prompted Reagan to name a delegation of American observers. The 19-member team, which is scheduled to leave for Manila on Tuesday, is headed by Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Rep. John Murtha (D., Pa.); and Reagan`s counsel, Fred Fielding.
Former Sen. Jovita Salonga, president of Aquino`s wing of the opposition coalition, said he was ”cautiously optimistic” going into the final days of the campaign.
”I think in a fair and honest election it should be Cory Aquino by a big majority,” Salonga said Sunday. ”But we should not fool ourselves. These elections will neither be free nor honest. Just how big the election fraud and rigging will be–that will determine the winner.”
Salonga, once considered a potential presidential candidate himself, returned from the U.S. last year to try to the bring the many divided elements of the opposition together to challenge Marcos. He failed until Aquino and former Sen. Salvador ”Doy” Laurel formed a shaky alliance only one hour before the candidate-registration deadline Dec. 11.
Laurel, a veteran campaigner with an effective political machine, agreed to abandon his presidential aspirations temporarily and run for vice president on Aquino`s ticket. In return, Aquino agreed to run under the banner of Laurel`s party, the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO).
The deal ensured Aquino the help of the opposition`s most effective politician and ensured Laurel that his party will be the officially recognized opposition party even if the ticket loses Friday.
Significantly, the compromise was worked out after a series of meetings between the candidates and Jaime Cardinal Sin, archbishop of Manila, whose pronouncements in favor of an honest election have made him a significant force in the campaign. Cardinal Sin reportedly told Aquino and Laurel to put aside their personal differences for the good of the country.
Aquino, like most Filipinos, is a devout Roman Catholic.
She said she went on a religious retreat and prayed before deciding to run for president and says she prays regularly before making any important campaign decisions.
Born Jan. 25, 1933, Maria Corazon Cojuangco studied at an exclusive Catholic grade school for girls in Manila before going to the U.S., where she attended Raven Hill Academy in Philadelphia and Notre Dame High School in New York City. Later she earned a degree in French and mathematics at the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York.
But at age 21 she dropped out of law school in Manila to marry Benigno Aquino Jr., an ambitious journalist-turned-politician who went on to become a mayor, provincial governor and senator.
Benigno Aquino seemed destined for the presidency until 1972, when Marcos declared martial law. Aquino was jailed and was moved from prison to prison until 1980, when Marcos allowed him to go to the U.S. for heart surgery.
For three years, the Aquinos lived in Boston. Friends who knew them there said Cory Aquino studiously avoided the politics that consumed her husband.
”Cory had no interest in politics whatsoever,” said a family friend now living in Asia. ”She would walk out of the room whenever the men started talking politics.”
That changed on Aug. 21, 1983, when Benigno Aquino was shot to death as he stepped off the plane bringing him back to Manila from the U.S. The opposition charged that Marcos was behind the death of his old foe (and Cory Aquino has made the accusation repeatedly during her campaign), but the allegation has yet to be proven.
Still, from the moment of her husband`s assassination, Cory Aquino became a heroic symbol of saintly hope for every Filipino who ever suffered under the Marcos regime.
”The people love her because they know she has suffered a lot,” said Salonga, who used to have Cory Aquino over to his house when Benigno was imprisoned.
”I think her greatest assets are her honesty, her sincerity and her lack of political experience. Our people are sick and tired of traditional politicians with their maneuvering and manipulation.”
Asked if Aquino`s lack of political experience could be a drawback in the presidency, he answered, no.
