In the Corridors

of Power

By DEEDEE M. SIYTANGCO

 FIRST met Cory Aquino in not very auspicious circumstances.

It was just a few days from the assassination of her husband, Senator Ninoy Aquino, at the steps of a China Airlines plane before he reached the airport tarmac. He was going home from a three-year exile in the United States to try to talk to the Dictator to step down for the sake of the country.

In return, Ninoy, who had undergone a successful heart by-pass operation in Dallas, Texas, after surviving a stroke in his jail cell in Fort Bonifacio, would promise he would not run for any public office but help unite the country he loved so much. Ninoy gave up a life of relative comfort in Boston, and a fellowship at Harvard University with his family, after seven years of incarceration in the Philippines.

Together with Ninoy’s brother, Butz, dozens of foreign media, a sprinkling of photographers and reporters from the three existing local dailies at the time (Bulletin Today, Daily Express, Times Journal), and the ‘mosquito press’ that mushroomed during the slow ‘awakening years’ of the dictatorship, we had rushed to the airport to meet Cory and her children.

She was with Ninoy’s ally, Ernesto Maceda, and she went straight home to Times Street, with a terse request to Butz and Ninoy’s sister, Maur, to have everyone out of the house so she could have a private moment with Ninoy. By the time they arrived, the house was crawling with people paying their respects to the murdered Ninoy, and the queues reached Quezon Avenue already. But everyone left the house as requested, even the household staff, and Cory and the children had Ninoy for an hour.

Then she went to the garden at the back of the bungalow to face the press gathered there. The widow in black, her face drawn, no trace of makeup, was, even then, a picture of grace under pressure. No hysteria, just a calm but commanding soft voice, telling us local journalists that she hoped “courage, like cowardice, was contagious.”

I had been covering the assassination from day one, getting my stories on our front page, passing the office military censor since I wrote on the ‘human interest angle’ of the slay. Now, I was being taken to task for the timidity of my paper! But I was already hooked on the Ninoy saga to feel insulted. Besides, his widow was an intriguing fare.

Later, I managed to cover her rallies and got to talk to her in smaller protest circles.

I remember her telling me during one of those opposition gatherings, “We should have met in better times.”

The more I got to know her, the more I liked what I saw. She was without airs, sincere, and transparent. After EDSA and her assumption of the presidency, I went back to my newspaper as education editor of the ‘liberated’ Manila Bulletin. In late 1998, I was assigned to cover President Cory in the Palace. A few months later, afterwards, I was invited to join her media team.

My family and I prayed for enlightenment over the invitation. After a month, I went into government service for the first time in my life with the blessings of my husband, Sonny, and my children, Sandee, Junie, David, and AJ.

My marching orders were simple—to bring President Cory and her administration’s programs to the nation through media. Being a non-politician, President Cory thought it was enough that she did her best, led by example, and expected the media to share the good news of the administration.

“Hindi pala ganoon ka-dali (It’s not easy),” she told me. “Bahala ka na…”

To be continued next issue