Once again looking into the past through the thick lens of perspective, here's a good long New York Times article from 1990 titled "
Cory Aquino's Downhill Slide" by Pulitzer Prize winning historian Stanley Karnow. Some excerpts:
- For all her achievements, however, Aquino has lost the luster she enjoyed after toppling Marcos, when the world exalted her as the devout housewife who had exorcised evil. Her approval ratings in the Philippines, once astronomic, have dropped to below 50 percent.
- "We like Cory personally, but nothing has changed".
- "She is sincere, moral and honest, but the presidency is obviously beyond her, beyond her capabilities, beyond her experience."
- "We hope that she'll muddle through," says a senior [US] State Department official, "but she simply doesn't know how to govern"
The Philippines needs more people to remember what it was really like having a president with no qualifications, no accomplishments, and nothing to offer but a stoic sense of sincerity.
I've recently read GMA's series on Hacienta Luisita. I realized that there are important details left out in our highschool and college history classes.
ReplyDeleteDifferent perspectives (especially those who run counter to popular opinion of the day) must be covered by the media, and be considered by book publishers as well. I think that this would have produced legitimate heroes out of the two EDSAs and would have enlightened an electorate that is unfortunately dazzled by celebrities and their singing/dancing on national TV.