Corazon Aquino
Corazon Aquino became president of the Philippines through a popular uprising and restored its democracy. Born in 1933 into one of the wealthiest landowning families in Tarlac province, she was educated in Manila and then in the United States, taking a degree at Mount Saint Vincent in New York, and studied law briefly before marrying Benigno Aquino in 1954. Her husband became the leading opponent of Ferdinand Marcos. She was a housewife and political spouse for two decades, and when Marcos declared martial law in 1972 Benigno was imprisoned for seven years and sentenced to death; she visited him constantly and relayed his statements. They went into exile in the United States in 1980. He was shot dead on the airport tarmac in Manila in August 1983 on his return. Around two million people attended the funeral. She was drafted as the opposition candidate for the snap election of February 1986, campaigning in yellow with the laban hand sign. The official count declared Marcos the winner; the tabulators walked out in protest. Two military leaders defected, and Cardinal Sin called people into the streets. Hundreds of thousands surrounded the camps on EDSA for four days, blocking tanks with bodies, rosaries and food. Marcos fled on 25 February. She restored the legislature, freed political prisoners, and enacted a new constitution in 1987 limiting presidents to a single six-year term. She survived seven coup attempts, and her land reform programme exempted her own family's estate through a stock-transfer scheme. She stood down in 1992 rather than seek re-election, and died in 2009.
- Lived: 1933 CE – 2009 CE
- Nationality: Filipino
- Roles: head_of_state, revolutionary, statesman
