World | Philippines
Aquino stresses development on Corazon's first death anniversary
Corazon, who helped lead a 1986 ‘people power' revolt that ousted a dictator and whose death last year became a springboard for her son's triumphant run for the presidency, remains deeply beloved a year after she died aged 76, following a battle with colon cancer.
- AP
- Published: 00:00 August 2, 2010
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Philippines President Benigno Aquino III pays tribute at the grave of his mother, former president Corazon Aquino, at Manila Memorial Park in Paranaque, Metro Manila on the occasion of her first death anniversary on Sunday.
Manila: President Benigno Aquino III on Sunday led Filipinos in paying tribute to his mother and democracy icon Corazon Aquino on her first death anniversary.
Corazon, who helped lead a 1986 ‘people power' revolt that ousted a dictator and whose death last year became a springboard for her son's triumphant run for the presidency, remains deeply beloved a year after she died aged 76, following a battle with colon cancer.
Aquino led one of several tributes to his mother, calling on Filipinos to continue her struggle for democracy by helping him confront his Southeast Asian nation's illnesses, including poverty and pervasive corruption.
"The clamour of our people for change is so deep," Aquino said during a memorial Mass for his mother at a suburban Manila gymnasium used as a venue for many pro-democracy protests. "None of us can afford to be bystanders."
Aquino said his mother was "one extraordinary woman". Her death spurred a massive outpouring of national grief that prompted her only son, a quiet lawmaker and bachelor, to run for the presidency, winning by a landslide margin on May 10.
Throngs of people offered prayers and flowers and lit candles on Sunday at her white tomb guarded by soldiers. Masses were held across the predominantly Roman Catholic nation in her honour.
Mass appeal
A giant photo mosaic of her smiling image was unfurled by her son at Manila's seaside Rizal park on Saturday.
Fondly called ‘Tita [Auntie] Cory', Corazon is remembered by many Filipinos as the bespectacled, smiling woman in her trademark yellow dress who helped lead a 1986 nonviolent revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos and swept her to power.
She inherited the mantle of her husband, Benigno Aquino Jr., an opposition senator gunned down by soldiers at Manila's airport in 1983 upon his return from US exile to challenge Marcos.
After her presidency ended in 1992, Aquino continued to serve as a moral compass by joining street protests to safeguard democracy and advocate against corruption and human rights violations.
She was among those who called for her son's predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, to resign because of corruption and vote-rigging allegations.
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