CORAZON AQUINO EX LEADER OF PHILLIPINES WHO ENDED MARCOS' REPRESSIVE REGIME, IS DEAD

NY TIMES:

In 1986 Aquino ended the repressive 20-year regime of Ferdinand Marcos and inspired nonviolent protests across the globe, including those that ended Communist rule in eastern Europe. But she struggled in office to meet high public expectations. Her land redistribution program fell short of ending economic domination by the landed elite, including her own family. Her leadership, especially in social and economic reform, was often indecisive, leaving many of her closest allies disillusioned by the end of her term.Still, the bespectacled, smiling woman in her trademark yellow dress remained beloved in the Philippines. ''She was headstrong and single-minded in one goal, and that was to remove all vestiges of an entrenched dictatorship,'' Raul C. Pangalangan, former dean of the Law School at the University of the Philippines, said in 2009. ''We all owe her in a big way.'

Marcos, elected president in 1965, declared martial law in 1972 to avoid term limits. He abolished the Congress and jailed Aquino's husband and thousands of opponents, journalists and activists without charges. Aquino became her husband's political stand-in, confidant, message carrier and spokeswoman.A military tribunal sentenced her husband to death for alleged links to communist rebels but, under pressure from U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Marcos allowed him to leave in May 1980 for heart surgery in the U.S.It was the start of a three-year exile. With her husband at Harvard University holding court with fellow exiles, academics, journalists and visitors from Manila, Aquino was the quiet homemaker, raising their five children and serving tea. Away from the hurly-burly of Philippine politics, she described the period as the best of their marriage.The halcyon days ended when her husband decided to return to regroup the opposition. While she and the children remained in Boston, he flew to Manila, where he was shot as he descended the stairs from the plane.The government blamed a suspected communist rebel, but subsequent investigations pointed to a soldier who was escorting him from the plane on Aug. 21, 1983.Aquino heard of the assassination in a phone call from a Japanese journalist. She recalled gathering the children and, as a deeply religious woman, praying for strength.

''During Ninoy's incarceration and before my presidency, I used to ask why it had always to be us to make the sacrifice,'' she said in a 2007 interview with The Philippine Star newspaper. ''And then, when Ninoy died, I would say, 'Why does it have to be me now?'