Influential Women of Philippine Polotics

?Influential Women of Philippine Politics

“As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it.”
-Corazon Aquino

I. Introduction:
Women are undoubtedly the most talked about being in this world. It had inspired many writers, orators and artists to be used as a topic of their masterpieces. According to George A. Malcom, an unbiased judge or jury would hand down a verdict based on overwhelming evidence that the greatest blessing of the Philippines is the Filipino women. Nor would a judgement to this effect come about because of masculine gallantry. It would rather stem from the Filipino woman’s acknowledge social and political quality with men and her innate ability and sense of responsibility. As her beer aptly remarked, the Filipino woman “is the best man in the country.” Malcom describes Filipino women as comely. In youth they are often young goddesses, erect in carriage, with clean golden-brown skin and dark flashing eyes, and possessed of black tresses long enough to reach the ground.
“Filipino women are known to be a good homemeaker” says Jovita Varias- De Guzman. They are passionate in keeping their family tacked and their home in order. The housewives are also the family’s treasurer. Carmen Guerero- Nakpil writes: In the Philippines as in no other country in the world, the men are tied to the women’s purse strings. Women, foreign commentators never fail to note, have a great deal more skill in trade than the men, and indeed “business” is the only profession Filipino women can practice without violating convention or losing caste.
I.1 Definition of terms. Politics- defined as the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil government Coup d’etat- a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics especially the violent overthrow of an exsisting government by a small group. Martial Law- is the temporary rule by military authorities, imposed on a civilian population especially in time of war or when civil authority has broken down. Pedophilia- term in law enforcement is generally used to describe those accused or convicted of the sexual abuse of a minor. Impeachment- is the constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may accuse of misconduct the high officers of the government.
2. Background of Philippine politics:
Before the coming of the Spaniards, Philippines has its own unit of government, the barangay. Each barangay was independent and was ruled by a chieftain called datu or raja. He was the absolute ruler, the chief executive, chief legislator, the chief judge and the commander of the military. The women occupied a high position in the society. The laws and customs gave the women equality with the men. Women could own and inherit property, engaged in trade, and in the absence of a male heir, inherit or succeed to the headship of the barangay. (Leodivico Cruz Lacsamana,2003). This system of government was changed when the Spaniards started to colonize our country. The Spaniards relegated the Filipinas to a secondary position in society, while glorifying and assigning the Virgin Mary as a model for Filipino women. The arrival of the Spaniards and Catholicism also fixed the native Filipino women’s role to the church, the convent and the home. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Philippines). It is only during Katipunan Government when the women’s role in the society was given an emphasis. When the wives of the Katipuneros became suspicious of the nocturnal absences of their husbands and that the latter were earning much less money, the doors of the Katipunan were opened to the women thereby bringing them into the confidence of their menfolk.

The most prominent members of the Katipunan women section were Marina Dizon, Josefa Rizal, Delfina Herbosa y Rizal, Angelina Lopez y Rizal, Macaria Pangilinan, Marta Saldana, and Gregoria de Jesus. These women guarded the secret papers and documents of the organization at serious risks of their own lives. When the Katipunan held a session in a home, they usually made merry so that the civil guards were misled into believing that a harmless social party was going on there. Moreover, the women proved helpful in recruiting additional members of the Katipunan.
When Spain lost the Spanish- American War in 1898, the Philippines was ceded to the United States of America. America introduced the public education system, a catalyst for the change in women’s roles in Philippine society.the democratic concepts of elections and political parties were also influential factors to the psyche of Filipino women. Through the American-patterned school system, Filipino women became professionals. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Philippines).
The Commonwealth government paved the way for Filipino women to be granted the right of suffrage. By the virtue of a provision in the Constitution stating that “the National Assembly shall extend the right of suffrage to women,” Filipino women can now enjoy their right to vote and to run for public office. (Leodovico Cruz Lacsamana, 2003)
2.2 Filipino women who helped in the foundation of Philippine government.
Like ethnicity, gender played a significant role during the Revolution. As early as 1892, the Katipunan had a women’s chapter, Katipuneras, which was mostly made up of the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of the Katipuneros. While the Katipuneros men held clandestine meetings in the interior or back of a house, the Katipuneras provided the diversionary tactics in the living room for passers-by to see. (http://opmanong.ssc.hawaii.edu/filipino/women.html)
a. Maria Josefa Gabriela Silang
Gabriela Silang popularly known as “The Heroine of Ilocandia” , was born in 1723 in Caniogan,Santa, the smallest town in Ilocos Sur. Her father was a Christian from the lowlands and her mother was a housemaid, an Itneg from Pidigan Abra. Gabriela was separated from her mother at birth and was adopted by Provisor Fray Tomas Millian. She grew up a Christian and was taught by the usual home and fine arts and the rudiments of reading and writing which were considered suitable for girls of her time.
At the age of twenty, she was forced to marry a rich old man. This marriage to the wealthy man lasted only three years. Her old husband died, leaving her all his wealth. In 1757, she married Diego Silang, a man who was then a government courier between Manila and Vigan, who then became the leader of a successful revolt. Although they did not have any children, Gabriela and Diego lived a peaceful and contented existence from some time.

When the people of Ilocos were suffering from the high taxes and the forced labor enforced by the Spaniards, they have chosen Diego Silang to lead the rebellion. During the battles of freedom, Gabriela fought by Diego’s side. She became one of his closest advisor making her a major figure in his husbands collaboration with the Spaniards in Ilocos. (http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Gabriela_Silang) After the success of the revolt, Spaniards conspired to assassinate Diego Silang. On May 23, 1763, he was shot with a musket by a hired mestizo assassin named Miguel Vicos, who was then aided in his treachery by Pedro Becbec, one of Diego’s trusted friends. Gabriela promised his husband to continue the fight for freedom but that promise was not kept right away since she has to go into hiding. She fled to Pigidian, Abra, where she was reunited with her mother whom she had not seen since childhood. At Pagadian, she prepared to continue the struggle with the Spaniards. About 200 of her husband’s followers were still together and with her as their new leader, they started conducting guerrilla raids on the Spanish garrison along the Ilocos coast. (Jovita Varias De Guzman, 1967)
About the last week of August, 1763, Mrs. Silang was able to muster a fighting force of 2,000 men armed with assorted weapons. While she was preparing the offensive for the recapture of Vigan, the Spanish authorities were massing a huge army of 6,000 strong for the defense of the city. By the first week of September, Mrs. Silang astride a prancing horse led the march towards Vigan. Upon her command, her bolo brigade, supported by Itneg archers, assaulted the city defenders, offered by trained Spanish officers, and supported by artillery, rolled back the attack, inflicting heavy losses on the generala’s army. Mrs. Silang, undaunted by the first repulse, launched a second attack. She personally led this assault to encourage her warriors to fight fiercely. But, outnumbered and outarmed, her men could not crack the enemy line. Demoralized by the futility of crushing the enemy, they panicked and fled the battlefield. The fearless generala and some brave survivors retreated again in the wilds of Abra. A picked brigade of Spanish troopers and loyal Cagayan warriors under Don Manuel de Arza pursued the fleeting patriots, capturing them later in the hinterlands.
Terrible Spanish justice was meted out to Mrs. Silang and 80 of her surviving men. Her brave men were hung one by one along the coastal towns as a stern warning to the Ilocano’s that any resistance to Spain would mean death on the gallows. Mrs. Silang, the leader and last survivor of the lost rebellion, was brought to Vigan, where she was publicly hanged on September 20, 1763. She died with calmed courage, as befitted a true heroine. Thus ended the heroic life of the fighting widow, the “Joan of Arc of Ilocandia,” and the short-lived independence of the Ilocano people.
She deserves the garland of greatness, for she fought and died for her people’s freedom. She was truly the “first woman general” and the “first female martyr” in the Philippine history. (http://www.santa.gov.ph/ilocossur/herogabriela.html)
b. Melchora Aquino
A Filipino revolutionary who became known as “Tandang Sora” in the history of the Philippines. She gained the title Grand Woman of the revolution and the Mother of Balintawak for her heroic contributions to Philippine history.
Melchora Aquino was born on January 6, 1812 in Caloocan. She is the daughter of a peasant couple, Juan and Valentina Aquino, never attended school. However, she was apparently literate at an early age and talented as a singer. She performed at local events as well as at Mass for her Church.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melchora_Aquino)
She married Fulgencio Ramos, who later became a cabeza de barangay. Their marriage was blessed with six children, namely: Juan, Simon, Estefania, Saturnina, Romualdo and Juana. During their married life they were able to raise their economic status because of their extreme industry and frugality. However, their marriage was not to be long, for it was ended with the early death of Fulgencio. (Gertrude D. Catapusan, 1967)
Tandang Sora was tending a small sari-sari store in Balintawak, when Bonifacio and other Katipuneros staged the first Cry of Balintawak that started the revolution. Her store became a refuge for sick and wounded Katipuneros whom the old lady fed, treated and encouraged with her motherly advice and prayers. She was aptly called the "Mother of Katipunan." Soon the Spaniards learned about her activities, so they arrested her and she was sentenced to be exiled to the Marianas islands.
When the Americans took possession of the Philippines in 1898, Tandang Sora, like other exiles returned to the Philippines, poor and aging. For a time, she lived with her daughter Saturnina. On March 2, 1919, she died at the age of 107. (http://filipino.biz.ph/history/sora.html)
c. Gregoria De Jesus
Gregoria De Jesus also known as Aling Oriang was the founder of and the vice-president of the women’s chapter of the Katipunan of the Philippines. She was also the custodian of the documents and the seal of the Katipunan. She is regarded as “The Mother of the Philippine Revolution” by the Filipinos. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregoria_de_Jesus)
She was born on May 9, 1875, in Caloocan to a middle class family. Her father was Nicolas De Jesus, a carpenter who later served as a gobernadorcillo. Her mother was Baltazara Alvarez Francisco of Noveleta, Cavite. After graduating as “Maestrsa Elemental,” she helped her parents in bringing up her younger brothers. She supervised the planting and harvesting of rice in the family’s vast ricefields. (Jovita Varias De Guzman, 1967)
When Gregoria de Jesus was only 18 years old, Andrés Bonifacio fell in love with her and wanted to marry her. He revealed his intentions to her parents, but her father refused and was against their marriage because Andrés was a Freemason. After almost six months, she had fallen in love with him. She revealed that to her father and asked for his approval of their marriage to which her father finally agreed.
In March 1893, she married Andrés Bonifacio at the Catholic Church of Binondo. A week later, they were married again in the presence of the Katipuneros, who did not approve of their marriage in a Catholic Church. On the evening of the same day, the women’s chapter of the Katipunan was formed, and she was appointed its vice-president and the custodian of the Katipunan documents. She was designated the code name "Lakangbini" Tagalog for goddess or Muse and swore to remain loyal to the Katipunan 's holy purposes. A year later, she became pregnant and returned to her family 's house. She gave birth to their only son, who she christened Andrés, after her husband. Two months later, during the Holy Week of 1896, Gregoria and her husband returned to Manila to find their house destroyed by a fire. The couple were forced to live in friends ' and family houses, but had to move quickly from house to house. A few months later, their child, Andrés, died of small pox. (http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Gregoria_de_Jesus)
The first flag of the Katipunan was made by Gregoria De jesus and her ninang, Benita Rodriguez. The flag consisted of a red rectangular piece of cloth with three white K’s arranged horizontally in a row in the center.
When the Katipunan is in danger of being discovered and the members were fearful of unexpected visits or raids by the Spanish soldiers, Gregoria often had to take the records and documents of the secret society and hide them. She would go to friend’s houses and seek temporary shelter. Many of them refused to house her for fear of being implicated in the underground movement. On those occasions when she could not find a place to stay in, she would ride around the city for hours until she felt it was safe to go back to the house.
When the Katipunan was finally exposed, Gregoria had to go into hiding with Bonifacio. They fled from the city and went to Balintawak. Later, they went to the mountains. Most of the time they travelled under cover of darkness and used assumed names. Gregoria used the name Manuela Gonzaga.
When the fighting broke out, Gregoria joined the men in the battlefield. She learned to ride on horseback and use a revolver. She took care of wounded soldiers and shared all their hardships. She slept on the ground, and went hungry like the rest, and even drank water from mudholes. ( Jovita Varias- De Guzman,1967)
On May 8, 1897, Andres Bonifacio was captured and was sentenced to death after having an internal conflict with Emilio Aguinaldo, another leader of the Katipunan. After Bonifacio 's death, Gregoria was able to escape capture. She left for the Pasig mountains and it was there that she met Julio Nakpil, a commander of the Katipunan troops in Northern Philippines. The two fell in love and were married in a Catholic church on 10 December, 1898 in Manila. After the end of the Philippine Revolution and after peace was restored in the Philippines, Gregoria lived with her husband and six children in a house with a well-known Filipino philanthropist, Dr. Ariston Bautista, and his wife, Petrona Nakpil. The doctor took good care of her and her children and helped raise them and educate them.
Gregoria de Jesus died in 1943 during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. (http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Gregoria_de_Jesus)
d. Trinidad Perez Tecson
Trinidad Perez Tecson known as the “Mother of Biak-na-Bato” and “Mother of Mercy,” was one of the few revolutionary women who actually fought side by side with the revolutionary men to acquire freedom from the Spanish colonizers. She was given the title "Mother of Biak-na-Bato" by Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo. She was also cited as the "Mother of the Philippine National Red Cross" for her service to her fellow Katipuneros. (http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Trinidad_Tecson)
Tecson was born in San Miguel de Mayumo, Bulacan, one of the sixteen children of Rafael Tecson and Monica Perez. As a young child, Trinidad showed early signs of becoming a future heroine. She learned and practiced fencing from Juan Zeto who is one of the good fencers. She learned to read and right from her mentor, Quinto, schoolmaster of their town. She stood for and defended her family on two separate occasions. One was when she and her brothers were sleeping; a young man went up to their house. Awakened and sensed the danger, she seized a bolo and hacked the intruder on the head. On another situation, a group of civil guards forced to enter in their house in searched for the smuggled tobacco. Trinidad refused to let them in and told the guards that there was no tobacco hidden inside the house. Alarmed by the determination of the civil guards, she took a bolo and used it to drive the guards away. For this, the people dubbed her for being a babaing lalaki, pertaining to her courage and strength despite her being a woman. (http://www.globalpinoy.com/ch/ch_category.php?category=heroes&name=TrinidadTecson&table=ch=heroes&startpage=1&endpage=15)
Trinidad married at the age of 19. She had two sons: Sinforoso and Desiderio; but both of them died. At first she was a dedicated councilor of Logia de Adopcion, a masonic lodge founded in 1893 for Philippine women. In 1895 at the age of 47 she joined the Katipunan, signing her oath with her own blood, although women members were not required to do so. She helped the group by pilfering firearms from a courthouse in Caloocan City and in San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. She was working under General Mariano Llanera when the Revolution broke out. In a battle in San Miguel, Bulacan, she was almost captured while delivering food to the soldiers but she managed to escape by playing dead. She also took part in a battle led by General Francisco Makabulos of Nueva Ecija, General Mariano Llanera, Gen. Isidro Torres and Gen. Gregorio del Pilar of Bulacan. On the battlefield, she tended to the wounded Katipuneros. In the bloody battle of San Miguel and Zaragosa she was hit on her right thigh. Tecson and the others were forced to retreat to Biak-na-Bato, which became the revolutionary headquarters of Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo.
During the Philippine-american War, she joined the revolutionary forces led by Gen. Gregorio del Pilar and participated in the assault on the province of Bulacan and Calumpit. She also served in the Malolos Republic and was designated as the Commisary of War. During the American drive northward, she was in Cabanatuan and saw Gen. Antonio Luna 's body. Bringing with her the sick and wounded revolutionaries, Tecson crossed the Zambales mountains to Sta. Cruz, then to Iba. After the war, her second husband died and she carried on her usual business activities in Nueva Ecija, concentrating on selling meats in the towns of San Antonio and Talavera. She married her third husband, Doroteo Santiago, after whose death she got married to Francisco Empainado. She had a total of four husbands in her lifetime.
On January 28, 1928, she died in the Philippine General Hospital at the age of 80. Her remains lies in the Plot of the Veterans of the Revolution in Cementerio del Norte. (http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Trinidad_Tecson)
e. Marina Dizon
Heroine of the Philippine Revolution and one of the first women initiated into the Katipunan, Marina Dizon was born on July 18, 1875 to Jose Dizon, one of the thirteen revolutionary martyrs of Cavite. She was also a cousin of Emilio Jacinto. Having lost her mother when she was barely eight months old, her aunt Josefa Dizon, Emilio Jacinto 's mother, took care of her. Under such a family atmosphere, her patriotism and nationalism easily came to the fore.
She obtained her early education in a private school conducted by Maestro Timoteo Reyes. Later, she enrolled in a public school under Doña Aniceta Cabrera, where her future husband Jose Turiano Santiago happened to be one of her schoolmates. She studied music, painting, and modelling and became an accomplished singer and declaimer. She was also a guitarist and violinist of the Trozo Comparsa Band. She wanted to be a teacher but her father frowned on the idea. One night in 1893, she was accompanied by Emilio Jacinto to the house of Don Restituto Javier. There in the presence of Gregoria de Jesus, the young wife of Bonifacio, Josefa and Trinidad Rizal and their nieces, Angelica Lopez and Delfina Herbosa, Marina was initiated into the Katipunan. A very active member of the organization, Marina presided initiation rites for women, kept the records, and acquainted new members with the constitution and teachings of the Katipunan. She always remind the members: "Be cheerful at all times; do not show of impending rebellion. Be prepared to be orphans and widows day. Be brave and carry on"
In 1896 her father was executed in Cavite, and in August of same year, her husband Jose Turiano was arrested and imprisoned.To avoid having the records of the Katipunan fall to the hands of the authorities, she burned them. She sold her valuables to raise money bribe the guards in order to let her visit her husband in jail.
She’s been on temporary peace when, on September 11, 1897, her husband was released. The American occupation in 1899 forced Marina and her husband to transfer residence to Meycauayan, Bulacan. They moved to Tarlac when the hostilities ended. There she left Jose with Dr. Marcelino de los Santos and proceeded to Bamban. Jose slipped unnoticed to Manila where he found work as an accountant. But he was suspected as a revolucionario and an order for his capture was issued by the Americans. He avoided arrest by fleeing to Hongkong. He and Marina, however, were reconciled when he came back later to the Philippines.
Dizon was widowed during the Second World War. In the twilight years of her life, she lived with her unmarried daughter in Caloocan. She passed away on October 25, 1950. (http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Marina_Dizon_Santiago)
3. Influential Women of the Post-War Philippines
When women hold political office, generally, people’s lives significantly gets better. That’s because most women usually “mother” their constituents, treating their area of responsibility like a household. In the last elections of May 2007, 53 out of 239 representatives elected were women, the largest so far. Forty five are from regular congressional districts and eight are from Partly List organizations. But only one woman’s party won – Gabriela. Of the 45 incoming female lawmakers, 23 were re-elected and 20 are wives of outgoing congressmen. In the Senate, there are only four women senators and 20 men. At the local level, there are 18 women governors out of 79 and 266 mayors out of 1,618. their male colleagues to promote education, health and protect vulnerable sectors.( http://www.fes.org.ph/papers womeninpol.htm)
Women have evolved to occupy public seats and made their mark as successful legislators. Some of these women from local were former Quezon City Mayor, Adelina Rodriguez, Makati Councilor Nini Licaros, governor of Guimaras, Emily Lopez and the Governor of Tarlac, Margarita “Tingting” Cojuanco while former senators Eva Estrada Kalaw , Helen Benitez, Leticia Shanani, and Anna Dominique “Nikki” Coseteng made their name through national politics. (Mina Roces,2000). Among the group of women mentioned, there were 4 outstanding Filipina marked the Philippine history. These were:
a. Imelda Romualdez Marcos
Imelda Remedios Visitacion Romualdez-Marcos (born Imelda Remedios Visitacion Trinidad Romualdez on July 2, 1929 in Manila) is the widow of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and is herself an influential political figure in the Philippines. She is known as the "Steel Butterfly" and remains a controversial figure not only in her home country but around the world. In 1996, the Australian Magazine ranked her 58th among "The 100 Most Powerful Women in the World". She gained notoriety for her extensive shoe, gown, and jewelry collection.
Imelda Remedios Visitación Romuáldez-Marcos was born on July 2, 1929 in San Juan de Dios Hospital in Manila. Her parents were Vicente Orestes López Romuáldez (of Spanish-Filipino blood) and Remedios Trinidad, the second wife of the widowed Vicente. She is of Visayan and Tagalog descent. Her paternal ancestors, the wealthy and prominent Lópezes of Leyte (The eldest daughter of Friar Francisco López, the López patriarch, Doña Trinidad López Romuáldez is Imelda 's paternal grandmother), claimed to have founded the town of Tolosa, Leyte. Her own branch of the family was not political. Her father was a scholarly man more interested in music and culture than in public life. Her mother, Remedios Trinidad, a dressmaker who grew up in an orphanage in Manila, said to have been an illegitimate offspring of a friar, was from the town of Baliuag, Bulacan.

Imelda spent her childhood in the shadow of the Malacañang Palace in San Miguel District in Manila, since her family then lived near San Miguel Church. After Imelda 's mother Remedios died, and their home foreclosed, her father, Vicente, moved his family back to Leyte to live with relatives, where Imelda earned a bachelor 's degree in education at St. Paul 's College." She also became a beauty queen. At the age of 18, she was crowned the "Rose of Tacloban," became "Miss Leyte", went to Manila in 1953. Her photogenic face soon graced many of Manila 's magazine covers and she was named the "Muse of Manila" by then Manila Mayor, Arsenio Lacson, a special title given her after she protested her loss in the Miss Manila pageant. In 1954, Imelda met then-Ilocos Norte Congressman Ferdinand E. Marcos. After a whirlwind courtship in Baguio during Holy Week, they were married in May of that year at the Manila Pro-Cathedral Church with President Ramon Magsaysay as principal sponsor. They have four children: Maria Imelda "Imee" Marcos, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., Irene Marcos, and Aimee Marcos, who was adopted. In 1966, Ferdinand Marcos became the 10th President of the Philippines. Together with Imelda, he would rule the Philippines as a dictator from September 21, 1972 up to until he was ousted in February 1986 in the famous People Power Revolution when he fled the Philippines.
It was during the martial law period that President Marcos abolished the Philippines ' 1935 constitution and established a parliamentary system (Batasang Pambansa or National Assembly) composed mainly of his own political appointees.

It was also during this period that Imelda Marcos assumed a more public and powerful role in the government. Imelda was appointed by her husband to various positions in the government, such as: Governor of Metropolitan Manila, Minister of Human Settlement, and Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary. On December 7, 1972, an assailant tried to stab her to death with a knife during an award ceremony broadcast live on television. Although the assassination attempt appears to have been staged, the government claimed that the assailant was shot to death by security police and that the wounds on Imelda Marcos ' hands and arms required 75 stitches. In 1978, she was 'elected ' as member of the 165-member Interim Batasang Pambansa (National Assembly) representing the National Capital Region. As a Special Envoy, Imelda Marcos toured China, the Soviet Union, and the Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe (Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, etc.), the Middle East, Libya, and Cuba. To justify the multi-million expenditure of traveling with a large diplomatic entourage using private jets, she would later claim diplomatic successes that included securing of a cheap supply of oil from China and Libya, and in the signing of the Tripoli Agreement. Imelda Marcos ' extravagant lifestyle reportedly included five-million-dollar shopping tours in New York, Rome and Copenhagen in 1983, and sending a plane to pick up Australian white sand for a new beach resort. She purchased a number of properties in Manhattan in the 1980s, including the $51-million Crown Building and the $60-million Herald Centre; she declined to purchase the Empire State Building for $750m as she considered it "too ostentatious". Her New York real estate was later seized and sold, along with much of her jewels and most of her 175 piece art collection, which included works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Canaletto. She responded to criticisms of her extravagance by claiming that it was her "duty" to be "some kind of light, a star to give [the poor] guidelines.”
Imelda Marcos orchestrated lavish public events using millions of dollars in public funds to extol her husband 's regime and bolster her public image. Imelda secured the Miss Universe 1974 pageant for Manila which necessitated the construction and completion of the 10,000-seat Folk Arts Theater in less than three months. Imelda also organized the Kasaysayan ng Lahi, an extravagant festival parade showcasing the history of the Philippines. She also initiated social programs such as the Green Revolution a program that, although did not address hunger and the core problem of agricultural land reform (most Filipino farmers were tenant farmers and did not own their land), encouraged Filipinos to plant vegetables and fruits in their gardens. Other short-lived social programs included a national family-planning program to reduce the country 's population growth.Imelda was also criticized for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on high-profile infrastructure projects that did little to alleviate poverty and were beyond the reach of ordinary Filipinos. These included the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Philippine Heart Center, Lung Center of the Philippines, Kidney Institute of the Philippines, Nayong Pilipino; Philippine International Convention Center, Folk Arts Theater, Coconut Palace, and the infamous Manila Film Center, a costly and imposing edifice built in 1982 to host Imelda 's short-lived international film festival. By 1985, it was estimated that the Philippine government had acquired more than $28 billion in foreign loans, much of it during President Marcos ' 20-year rule.

After the Marcos family fled Malacañang Palace, Imelda was found to have left behind 15 mink coats, 508 gowns, 888 handbags and 1060 pairs of shoes. In February 2006, Imelda insisted that Ferdinand Marcos acquired his wealth legitimately as a gold trader. By the late 1950s, she claimed, he had amassed a personal fortune of 7,500 tons of gold, and after gold prices climbed in the 1970s, the Marcos family was worth $35 billion, and as of 2008 would give them a net worth of over $215 billion. However, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has no record of the Marcos family declaring or paying taxes on these assets, and the source of their wealth remains open to investigation especially in light of Ferdinand Marcos ' annual average official salary of $13,000 spanning two decades could by no stretch of the imagination have grown to such a vast multi-billion dollar fortune
In 1992, Mrs. Marcos ran and finished fifth in the seven-way presidential race. Her votes were split between her, with 2,338,294 votes, and Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr., a Marcos crony, with 4,116,376 votes. Fidel Ramos, Aquino’s anointed candidate, received 5.3 million and won the election. In 1995, she was elected Congresswoman of Leyte, representing the first district of her home province.
In 1998, she made another bid for the presidency but later backed out of the race to support the candidacy of then Vice President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Imelda Marcos finished 9th among 11 candidates vying for the Philippine government 's top post. During the administration of her friend and ally, President Joseph Estrada, many of the cases filed by the Aquino government were dismissed by Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, owing to technicalities (lapse of the prescriptive period for filing cases).
On June 29, 1998, the Sandiganbayan (Philippine anti-corruption court) convicted the Former First Lady of the charge that she had entered into an agreement disadvantageous to the government. On appeal, the Supreme Court reversed the decision and cited Sandiganbayan Justice Francis Gatchitorena for his alleged bias against Mrs. Marcos. Presently, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Imee R. Marcos are in their last terms as Governor and Congresswoman, respectively, of Ilocos Norte.
On September 21, 2007, the Sandiganbayan 's 5th Division chair Associate Justice Ma. Cristina Cortez-Estrada granted Marcos ' motion for daily trial on her 10 pending graft cases (beginning January 21, 2008, as requested by defense lawyers on September 17 alleging the illnesses, inter alia).
On March 10, 2008, Judge Silvino Pampilo (Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 26) acquitted Imelda Marcos, 79, in a 17 years case regarding 32 counts of dollar salting (involving £430m in Swiss bank accounts) due to reasonable doubt. Marcos stated: "First of all, I am so happy and I thank the Lord that the 32 cases have been dismissed by the regional court here in Manila. This will subtract from the 901 cases that were filed against the Marcoses." Her lawyer Robert Sison said that she has 10 pending criminal cases before the Sandiganbayan. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imelda_Marcos)

b. Miriam Defensor Santiago
Miriam Defensor Santiago became globally famous with her courageous and brilliant crusade against corruption in the Philippines. As a result, at 43, she was named Laureate of the Asian Nobel Prize, known as the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service. She was cited "for bold and moral leadership in cleaning up a graft-ridden government agency." Miriam was widely featured in the international press because of her charisma, flamboyant personality, and her signature witticisms, making her good copy. In 1997, the Australian magazine named her one of "The 100 Most Powerful Women in the World." In later years, Miriam was keynote speaker of the international anticorruption conference in Sydney, Australia. As senator, she sponsored and secured ratification by the Philippine Senate of the UN Convention Against Corruption. Miriam ran for President of the Philippines in 1992, and led in the canvass of nationwide votes for the first five days. But she was ultimately defeated by a margin of less than a million votes out of 36 million votes. The campaign was reportedly marred by widespread election fraud, notably power blackouts after the first five days. The public outrage over the presidential results prompted Newsweek to feature her and her rival on the cover with the question: "Was the Election Fair?" In another cover story, Philippine Free Press magazine asked: "Who 's the Real President?"
Miriam was born in 1945 in Iloilo City, in southern Philippines. Her father Benjamin was a district trial judge, and her mother Dimpna was a college dean. She is the eldest of seven children, most of whom she helped to send through college.
Miriam graduated valedictorian of the La Paz Elementary School, and valedictorian of the Iloilo Provincial National High School, also earning a medal for all-around excellence. In high school, she proved to be a child prodigy. As a freshman, she won as champion of a Spelling Bee which included seniors. Also still a freshman, she topped written examinations and was appointed by a faculty panel as editor-in-chief of the high school paper, a post which she held for four years. She was high school swimming champion for the entire province during competitions sponsored by the Red Cross. She topped the National College Entrance Examinations for the Western Visayas region.
At 16, Miriam enrolled as freshman at the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo City. Repeating her high school achievement as a freshman, she topped the written examinations and was appointed editor-in-chief of the college paper, a post she also held for four years. She emerged champion in oratorical and literary contests. She even held a campus beauty title as UP ROTC corps sponsor. She finished the academic requirements in only three and a half years, instead of four years. Nonetheless, she remained at the university for an extra semester, which she finished with a near perfect average grade of 1.1. (In the Philippines, 1.0 is the perfect grade.) She graduated Bachelor of Arts in political science, magna cum laude. She was also recipient of the Rotary Award for Most Outstanding Graduate.
Miriam then flew to Metro Manila to take up law at UP Diliman. As a freshman in law school, she topped written examinations and was appointed editor-in-chief of the law school paper. Eventually, she was also appointed editor of the Philippine Law Journal. She was only a freshman when she won campus-wide elections as councilor in the University Student Council, where she eventually became vice-chairperson. Miriam is best remembered in the state university for breaking a record of 50 years of male dominance, by topping the written examinations and getting appointed as the first female editor-in-chief of the nationally prominent student newspaper, the Philippine Collegian. She also made history by posting the highest number of consecutive college scholarships in the state university (a college or university scholarship is equivalent to a place in the Dean 's List). Another record was that she became the only female to be appointed twice to the campus beauty title of UP ROTC corps sponsor. Another record was that she twice received the Vinzons Achievement Award for excellence in student leadership. Another record was that she became the first female to win as Best Debater in the annual debate between UP Diliman and UP Manila law schools. A faculty panel chose her as one of the U.P. Ten Outstanding Coeds. A feature story in the Manila Chronicle magazine said it all, when it described Miriam as "super girl at the state university."
Miriam graduated Bachelor of Laws, cum laude, from the state university. She was valedictorian of her class at the UP Diliman campus. (At that time, there was an evening law school for working students at UP Manila).
After marriage, Miriam won the DeWitt Fellowship at the University of Michigan law school. She finished her first semester in graduate school with an A average. On the basis of her high grades, for the first time in the law school 's history, a graduate student was allowed to pursue a special program. Thus, she earned the degree Master of Laws after one year, and the degree Doctor of the Science of Jurisprudence, after only six months. Her grades qualified her for the prestigious Barbour Scholarship. Her doctoral dissertation, with Prof. William W. Bishop, Jr. as supervisor, was later published as Political Offences in International Law.
Not content with her law doctorate, Miriam later pursued postdoctoral studies in law at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford, University of California, at Berkeley, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She attended the Hague Academy of Public International Law at The Hague, Netherlands, and at Sophia University, Tokyo. Already a senator, she finished with high grades the academic requirements for the degree, Master of Arts in Religious Studies, at the Maryhill School of Theology in Metro Manila. She wrote her published master 's dissertation, Christianity Versus Corruption, Political Theology of the Third World as a Fellow at St. Hilda 's College, Oxford. Because her book was in part critical of the Catholic hierarchy in the Philippines, she was asked to rewrite some chapters, but she refused.
At 25, Miriam was invited to join big Makati law firms. But she chose government service, as special assistant to the Secretary of Justice who, under Philippine law, is the official legal adviser of the executive branch. Later, in the same position, she was tapped as one of the speechwriters of President Ferdinand Marcos, a lawyer. Not content with working full-time as a lawyer, Miriam also took on a teaching post in the evening. She was professor of political science in Trinity College, and eventually professor of law in UP Diliman. She held down a third job as an opinion columnist for a Sunday magazine and later in life, in a national daily.
In her starting years as a lawyer, Miriam began to write law books. She also wrote two autobiographies, Inventing Myself and Cutting Edge: The Politics of Reform in the Philippines. She has written some 30 textbooks in law and in the social sciences, particularly political science and philosophy. In her Code Annotated Series, she annotated the major codes of law in her country (Constitution, Rules of Court, Civil Code, Penal Code, etc.) with decisions of the Supreme Court. The Series, widely used in law schools and in the judiciary, will undergo second editions in 2007. Her books are listed in the US Library of Congress.
She is acknowledged by the media and fellow senators as an expert in constitutional and international law.
When the Secretary of Justice was promoted to associate justice of the Supreme Court, he requested that Miriam should be seconded to the Supreme Court as his law clerk.

For half a year, she researched and drafted legal opinions. She then flew to Geneva, Switzerland where she served as legal officer of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, assigned to the treaties and conferences section. As a UN officer, she took French classes. Her budding UN career was cut short, when her father contracted terminal cancer, forcing her to resign. Serving as a caregiver at his bedside, she accepted part-time work as legal consultant of the UP Law Center D.C. But in 1993, during the national judicial reorganization, she returned to Metro Manila to take up a new post as Regional After her father 's death, she briefly worked as legal consultant to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, Trial Court judge of Quezon City.
Miriam 's appointment to the trial court in Metro Manila was exceptional, because newcomers are usually appointed in the provinces before they are considered qualified to sit in Metro Manila trial courts. She soon proved her mettle, by decreeing that she would not entertain any motions to postpone trial. Postponements are the bane of the Philippine judiciary, thus delaying justice. As a freshman judge, Miriam disposed of the highest number of cases in Metro Manila. Her reputation for integrity, competence, and efficiency became established, and she was showered with awards for judicial excellence from civic groups, notably as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Professionals of the Philippine Jaycees, and the Ten Outstanding Women in the Nation 's Service of the Philippine Lions.

Her awards for judicial excellence, added to her awards for anticorruption work as immigration commissioner, make Miriam the most awarded Filipino public official today.
Miriam first rose to national prominence, when a case was raffled to her court, involving an arrest warrant called Preventive Detention Action issued during the martial law regime of President Marcos. A group of university students, mostly from UP and Ateneo de Manila University, accompanied by a group of the religious and of film luminaries, staged a public assembly in Quezon City. They protested not only an oil price hike, but also the alleged extravagance of the First Lady. They were all promptly thrown in jail, placing the students in danger of missing their final examinations for that semester. The students sued for release, and the case was raffled to Miriam. At that time, judges were afraid to rule against any martial law edict. The prosecution presented so many witnesses that it would have been impossible to finish trial, before the week of the final exams for the university students. But Miriam suspended her regular calendar of trials, and proceeded to conduct marathon hearings on the case.
Her eventual decision to release the students was hailed as a courageous act that stressed judicial independence, even during a martial law situation. She became a national heroine to all university students, and earned the grudging respect even of the martial law administrators.
After the first People Power revolution, President Marcos was forced into exile and replaced by President Corazon Aquino. The new president plucked Miriam out of the judiciary, and gave her the mission of cleaning up the notoriously corrupt Commission on Immigration and Deportation.
Miriam rose to the challenge, and launched an anticorruption crusade that took the Filipinos ' breath away. Described as "a breath of fresh air," she became an overnight sensation. She ordered lightning raids on criminal syndicates that had made the Philippines notorious as the fake passport capital of Asian. She filled the immigration detention center to bursting with foreign criminals engaged in the pedophile industry, smuggling of illegal aliens, including prostitutes, import and export of illicit firearms and dangerous drugs, and even operatives of the infamous Yakuza.
Almost every week, the media were full of Miriam 's successful exploits against criminal syndicates. At this point, she earned the wrathful resentment of politicians who are patrons and benefactors of certain criminal syndicates. For her extraordinary success in the capture of fugitives from justice, certain governments, such as the US, Australia, and Japan, invited Miriam to their countries to share her expertise in the enforcement of immigration law.
Miriam became the darling of the press, both national and international. She was featured by TIME, The Economist, New York Times, Washington Post, and International Herald Tribune, among others. She graced dozens of magazine covers. They tried to capture her colorful personality with such accolades as: the incorruptible lady, the iron lady of Asia, the dragon lady, the platinum lady, and the undisputed campus heroine. Her intense and passionate orations against corruption captured the public imagination. On the invitation of universities and civic groups, she began a hectic nationwide speaking tour that would continue for at least one decade.
Her famous quips have been captured in the book Miriam Dictionary. She once told media: "I eat death threats for breakfast." When a congressman delivered a privilege speech against her for a lightning group arrest of foreign pedophiles occupying a village in his district, Miriam called him "fungus face." She was famous for describing her anticorruption work as needing "the epidermis of a pachyderm" and "intestinal fortitude." Filipinos were delighted when, on TV, she told a foreigner charged with pedophilia: "Sir, I represent the majesty of the Republic of the Philippines. Now shut up, or I 'll bash your teeth in!"
Finally, the ultimate recognition of her dangerous and backbreaking work came. The Magsaysay Awards Foundation named her in 1988, Laureate of the Asian Nobel Prize, known as the Magsaysay Award for Government Service. Thus, she joined the elite of Asian heroes who have dedicated their lives to public service.
One amusing postscript to Miriam 's reign as "queen of popularity polls" was the constant media mention of her acclaimed beautiful legs. After she left the Cabinet, she gave a poolside interview to a reporter of the Daily Inquirer, which featured Miriam seated by the pool hugging her legs. This photo became the talk of the town, and without her permission, was used by an enterprising group of young Makati businessmen as a calendar photo.
Miriam 's popularity was so widespread among the youth, the yuppies, and the poor that politicians begun to feel threatened. As a result, she became the subject of character assassination and black propaganda, manufactured out of sheer lies and fabrications by highly paid public relations firms. Because her millions of fans call her a genius, her political enemies tried to peddle the desperate charge that she is eccentric. Because her fans adore her charisma, her political enemies called her intellectually arrogant. Because her fans call her a fighter, her enemies dubbed her as a non-team player. Her fans were so outraged at the political malice being thrown in their idol 's direction that they begin to agitate that Miriam should run for president. At first, Miriam treated the subject as a joke. But she began to top presidential surveys by all national survey firms, as well as campus presidential surveys conducted by student organizations all over the country. When she became a real political threat to the traditional politicians, she was suddenly victimized in a car crash that remains unsolved up to the present. On the highway during a speaking tour, Miriam suffered life-threatening injuries, after a car rammed her vehicle on the side where she was seated. Bloodied and unconscious, she was airlifted by helicopter from Tarlac to Metro Manila and taken to the Metropolitan Hospital, where a stream of her fans visited daily, although they were refused admittance. They left flowers, anyway. Her staff decided not to reveal the true extent of Miriam 's injuries, so as not to prejudice her presidential chances. But she was completely immobile and could not walk nor even move her arms. Her facial injuries made it impossible for her to talk, and she had to communicate by writing. She underwent surgery, during which she had a near-death experience.
While Miriam was physically incapacitated, her enemies in the administration filed charges against her with the anti-graft court. The charges were ironic, because they consisted of the very same anticorruption programs, for which she had earned the Magsaysay Award. Thus, she was prevented from leaving the country to avail of a Mason Fellowship granted her by the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard. Thereafter, for the next seven years, she was placed under a hold-departure order, only to be finally acquitted for absence of any evidence on the part of the prosecution. Her humility and courage in bearing political persecution endeared her even more to her fans, and her presidential candidacy became inevitable. After she was discharged from hospital, Miriam was forced to remain confined at home. Thus, a few months later, when she resumed her speaking tour of the nation, she had become a martyr to the murderous malice of corrupt politicians.
In her public speeches, Miriam had always twitted the political parties for being beholden to campaign contributors. She despised traditional politicians for placing political protégés in revenue-producing offices, where the political appointees could earn illicit incomes that they shared with their political patrons. Hence, she disdained to join any established political party. Instead, she organized a completely new one, the People 's Reform Party, which she headed as president. She then fielded a national senatorial ticket and candidates at the local level. Miriam 's PRP carried out an unorthodox campaign. Because she had no party funding, she called on university students to campaign house to house for her, and to literally construct her rally platforms from second hand lumber. Unlike other parties that rented their crowds, Miriam 's PRP attracted mammoth crowds and sometimes hysterical mobs, on the sheer strength of her personality. Twice or thrice, while Miriam was speaking on the platform, it became so crowded with her supporters that the entire platform collapsed. Young people also served as Miriam 's watchers in the precincts, since she did not have money to pay for professional poll watchers. Work in the Philippines came to a halt during the first televised TV presidential debates, as even peasants left their farms to watch TV in town. Media concluded that Miriam won as Best Debater, with her wit, eloquence, and mastery of national policy.
In the 1992 elections, nearly a hundred PRP candidates won, led by the mayor and vice-mayor of Manila. In her home region of Western Visayas, Miriam won an unprecedented 98 percent of the votes. She placed first among presidential candidates in Metro Manila, and in regions with the highest voter populations. Unfortunately, it appears that in 1992, massive vote cheating was carried out at the presidential level. Her closest rival was a former military general endorsed by the administration, and thus had access to the massive resources of the administration. The Philippine Congress conducts the canvass of votes in presidential elections, on a random basis. This means that canvass certificates by province are counted as they are brought to Metro Manila, without any particular order as to voting population or geography. Hence, the political analysts even of the global media concluded that since Miriam had led in the canvass of votes for the first five days, in effect the canvass was tantamount to a survey of the voting universe, and she was a sure winner. In reporting election results, global TV called her "President-elect." But her political rivals were determined to ensure that Miriam "won in the voting but lost in the counting." Media exposés later revealed that she was cheated by the Sulo Hotel Operations Group of the administration candidate. This Group, operating in a hotel near the Congress, was able to get advance copies of provincial canvass certificates, and to switch the high votes of Miriam with the low votes of her closest rival. This process of vote-switching between a winner and a runner-up was dubbed in later elections as "Operation Dagdag-Bawas." This term means Operation Add-Subtract, a reference to the subtraction of votes from the real winner, and the simultaneous addition of her subtracted votes to the column of votes for her rival.
Miriam refused to concede victory to her opponent, and instead filed an election protest with the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, which is also the Philippine Supreme Court. She mortgaged her law office to pay for the judicial fees. Her rival, already the newly-proclaimed president, moved to avert the brewing political crisis caused by the electoral fraud accusations. He postponed the opening of classes in Metro Manila, to prevent the youth from taking to the streets in protest. An official from Malacañang Palace (the president 's office), called up university administrators in Metro Manila to instruct them to prohibit student organizations from inviting Miriam as guest speaker. Even the press downplayed her electoral protest, as the administration 's PR firms set to work against her. Except for the young people, businessmen stayed away from her, for fear of harassment from the administration. And the administration 's paid hacks in the notoriously corrupt media worked overtime to continue their attempts to discredit Miriam. In addition to the trumped-up charges filed against her in court, Miriam was threatened by the military. A group of men and women in military uniforms stormed Miriam 's house, at a time when she was supposed to be home with dengue fever. However, unknown to her assailants, Miriam had decided at the last minute to deliver a speech at a Manila university. The armed group tied up all the househelp and overturned Miriam 's clothes closet and dresser, in an attempt to make it appear as a robbery. But the real intent was to intimidate her to keep quiet on her electoral protest.
Despite the unremitting campaign of a powerful administration to harass her with trumped-up charges and armed invasions, Miriam refused her rival 's oft-repeated public offers of "reconciliation." She refused to recognize him as a duly-elected president. Instead, she coined the term "snowpake president," because in many canvass certificates, her votes had been erased with white snowpake correctional ink. Despite alleged offers from the Office of the President for a financial reward to every mayor who could keep Miriam out of the winning circle in his municipality, Miriam won her first term as senator in 1995. She earned her laurels in the Senate, by unremitting exposés which were vindicated by investigative reporting by the press in subsequent years. For example, after he left the presidency, the press uncovered alleged massive corruption in her rival 's expensive pet projects, such as the grant of exorbitant contracts to independent power producers, the huge financial losses incurred in a widely-touted Centennial City which never got finished, and the alleged illegal disposition of expensive reclaimed land along the Manila Bay shoreline, in favor of presidential cronies. Media reported Miriam to be an outstanding senator. She was always among the yearly topnotchers in number of bills filed. But she is most impressive during Senate debates, with her meticulous preparation and searching interpellations. She is warmly regarded by both administration and opposition senators, although some fear her independence of mind. Miriam was the first senator in Philippine political history to decline a pork barrel allocation, on the ground that it was unconstitutional because it lacked an appropriation law, thus creating headlines. She was also the first legislator to expose building contractors who solicited public works projects from Congress members, with a promise to give an advance ten percent kickback.
As senator, Miriam became an ally of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, a former movie actor. He was impeached by the House of Representatives, and tried by the Senate as an impeachment court. Miriam was the only one of 24 senators who had served in the judiciary. As a former trial judge, she insisted that Estrada should be granted due process of law. Instead, the impeachment trial was never concluded and Estrada, like Marcos, was overthrown by another People Power revolution which installed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, an economist. Under a new administration, Miriam ran on the Estrada opposition ticket, and again led during the early days of the canvass of votes. But eventually, her votes were whittled down, and it appeared that she was again cheated in the elections. By this time, Estrada was already in detention as the accused in a plunder case. In the next elections, Estrada handpicked another movie actor to run for president. Miriam objected, and instead ran for senator under President Arroyo 's ticket. In 2004, Miriam won her second term as senator. She chairs two powerful committees: the energy committee, and the foreig relations committee. She is also one of President Arroyo 's most trusted legal advisers. In late 2006, a group of young lawyers nominated her for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But she reportedly gave way to the senior associate justice, saying that she was too young for the post.
Miriam 's husband Narciso Y. Santiago Jr. from Tarlac, nicknamed "Jun," serves as presidential adviser on revenue enhancement. Under President Estrada, Jun served as undersecretary of local government. The couple has two birth children, Narciso III and Alexander Robert.
Miriam lost her younger son in November 2003. He was only 22 years old and was on the Dean 's List at the Ateneo University. In the years that followed her personal tragedy, Miriam 's irreparable grief manifested itself as a health failure, including a minor stroke, hypertension, pinched nerves, high cholesterol, and most recently, unexplained anorexia which caused her to lose weight.
Her diehard supporters still hope that Miriam will run again in the 2010 presidential elections. But she has implied that reforming a corrupt system has lost its challenge, maybe because she has not yet healed from the loss of her beloved son. Miriam has turned into a cult figure, and fans consider her a living legend in Philippine politics. She creates a stir when she appears in shopping malls or trade exhibits, provoking fans to whip out cellphones and go on a photo and autograph frenzy. No other politician in the country, despite wealth or popularity, has received the universal admiration she evokes as a brilliant, principled politician with a wicked sense of humor. (http://www.senate.gov.ph/senators/sen_bio/santiago_bio.asp)

c. Corazon Cojuanco Aquino
María Corazón Cojuangco-Aquino (born María Corazón Sumulong Cojuangco ), widely known as Cory Aquino, was the 11th President of the Philippines, serving from 1986 to 1992. She was the first female President of the Philippines and was Asia 's first female President. She is a world-renowned advocate of democracy, peace, women 's empowerment, and religious piety.
Corazon Cojuangco was born in Tarlac, a member of one of the richest Chinese-mestizo families in the Philippines. She was born to Jose Cojuangco of Tarlac province and Demetria Sumulong of Antipolo, Rizal.
She is the fourth among six (6) siblings: Pedro, Josephine Reyes, Teresita Lopa, Jose Jr., and Maria Paz Teopaco. She was sent to St. Scholastica 's College Manila and finished grade school as class valedictorian in 1943. In 1946, she studied high school for one year in Assumption Convent Manila. Later she was sent overseas to study in Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia (where Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco once studied), the Notre Dame Convent School in New York, and the College of Mount Saint Vincent, also in New York. Aquino worked as a volunteer in the 1948 United States presidential campaign of Republican Thomas Dewey against President Harry Truman.She studied liberal arts and graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor of Arts degree major in French Language and minor in Mathematics. She intended to become a math teacher and language interpreter.
Aquino returned to the Philippines to study law at the Far Eastern University, owned by the family of the late Nicanor Reyes, Sr., who had been the father-in-law of her older sister Josephine. She gave up her law studies when in 1954, she married Benigno Servillano "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr., the son of a former Speaker of the National Assembly. They had five children together: a son, Benigno Simeon Aquino III, who was elected to the Philippine Senate in 2007, and four daughters, Maria Elena A. Cruz, Aurora Corazon A. Abellada, Victoria Eliza A. Dee, and actress-television host Kristina Bernadette A. Yap. Aquino had initial difficulty adjusting to provincial life when she and her husband moved to Concepcion, Tarlac in 1955, after her husband had been elected the town 's mayor at the age of 22. The American-educated Aquino found herself bored in Concepcion, welcoming opportunities when she and her husband would have dinner inside the American military facility at nearby Clark Field.
A member of the Liberal Party, Aquino 's husband rose to be governor of Tarlac, and was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1967.During her husband 's political career, Aquino remained a housewife who helped raise the children and played hostess to her spouse 's political allies who would frequent their Quezon City home. She would decline to join her husband on stage during campaign rallies, preferring instead to stand at the back of the audience in order to listen to him. Nonetheless, she was consulted upon on political matters by her husband, who valued her judgments enormously.
Benigno Aquino soon emerged as a leading critic of the government of President
Ferdinand Marcos of the Nacionalista Party, and there was wide speculation that he would run in the 1973 presidential elections, Marcos then being term limited. However, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972, and later abolished the 1935 Constitution, allowing him to remain in office. Aquino 's husband was among those arrested at the onset of martial law, later being sentenced to death. During his incarceration, Aquino drew strength from prayer, attending daily mass and saying three rosaries a day. As a measure of sacrifice, she enjoined her children from attending parties, and herself stopped from going to the beauty salon or buying new clothes, until a priest advised her and her children to instead live as normal lives as possible.
In 1978, despite her initial opposition, Aquino 's imprisoned husband decided to run the 1978 Batasang Pambansa elections. Aquino campaigned in behalf of her imprisoned husband and for the first time in her life, delivered a political speech, though she willingly relinquished having to speak in public when it emerged that her six-year old daughter Kris was more than willing to speak on stage.
In 1980, upon the intervention of United States President Jimmy Carter, Marcos allowed Senator Aquino and his family leave for exile in the United States. The family settled in Boston, and Aquino would later call the next three years as the happiest days of her married life. He returned without his family to the Philippines on August 21, 1983, only to be assassinated at the tarmac of the Manila International Airport, which was later renamed in his honor. Aquino returned to the Philippines a few days later and led her husband 's funeral rites, where more than two million people were estimated to have Aquino participated in many of the mass actions that were staged in the two years following the assassination of her husband. On the last week of November 1985, Marcos unexpectedly announced a snap presidential election to be held in February 1986. Initially, Senator Salvador Laurel of Batangas, the son of a former president, was seen as the favorite presidential candidate of the opposition, under the United Nationalists Democratic Organizations. However, business tycoon Don Joaquin "Chino" Roces was not convinced that Laurel could defeat Marcos in the polls. Roces initiated the Cory Aquino for President Movement to gather one million signatures in one week for Cory to run as president.
Aquino was reluctant at first to run for presidency, despite pleas that she was the one candidate who could unite the opposition against Marcos. She eventually was convinced following a ten-hour meditation session at a Catholic convent. Laurel did not immediately accede to calls for him to give way to Aquino, and offered her the vice-presidential slot under his UNIDO party. Aquino instead offered to give up her affiliation with her husband 's political party, the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN), which had just merged with Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, and run under the UNIDO banner with Laurel sliding down to the vice-presidential slot. Laurel gave way to Aquino to run as President and ran as her running-mate under UNIDO as the main political umbrella of the opposition.
In the succeeding political campaign, Marcos charged that Aquino was being supported by communists and agreed to share power with them, to which she responded that she would not appoint one to her cabinet. Marcos also accused Aquino of playing "political football" with the United States with respect to the continued United States military presence in the Philippines at Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base. Marcos also derided Aquino as "just a woman" whose place was in the bedroom.
The elections held on February 7, 1986 were marred by the intimidation and mass disenfranchisement of voters. Election day itself and the days immediately after were marred by violence, including the murder of one of Aquino 's top allies, Antique governor Evelio Javier. While the official tally of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) consistently showed Marcos in the lead, the unofficial tally of the National Movement for Free Elections indicated that Aquino was leading. Despite the job walkout of 30 COMELEC computer technicians alleging election-rigging in favor of Marcos, the Batasang Pambansa, controlled by Marcos allies, ratified the official count and proclaimed Marcos the winner on February 15, 1986. The country 's Catholic bishops and the United States Senate condemned the election, and Aquino called for a general strike and a boycott of business enterprises controlled by Marcos allies. She also rejected a power-sharing agreement proposed by the American diplomat Philip Habib, who had been sent as an emissary by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to help defuse the tensionparticipated, the biggest ever in Philippine history.
On 22 February 1986, the People Power Revolution was triggered after two key Marcos allies, Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces Vice-Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos called on Marcos to resign and holed up in two military camps in Quezon City. Aquino, who was in Cebu City when the revolt broke out, returned to Manila and insisted on joining the swelling crowd that had gathered outside the camps as a human barricade to protect the defectors. On the morning of 25 February 1986, at the Club Filipino in San Juan, Aquino took the presidential oath of office administered by Supreme Court Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee. Marcos himself was sworn into office at Malacañang Palace on that same day, but fled into exile later that night.
The relatively peaceful manner by which Aquino assumed the presidency

through the EDSA Revolution won her widespread international acclaim as an icon of democracy. She was selected as Time Magazine 's Woman of the Year in 1986. She was also nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize but lost to Elie Wiesel also in 1986. In September 1986, Aquino delivered a speech before a joint session of the United States Congress which was interrupted by applause several times, and which then U.S. House Speaker Tip O 'Neill hailed as "the finest speech I 've ever heard in my 34 years in Congress."
The six-year administration of President Aquino saw the enactment of a new Philippine Constitution and several significant legal reforms, including a new agrarian reform law. While her allies maintained a majority in both houses of Congress, she faced considerable opposition from communist insurgency and right-wing soldiers who instituted several coup attempts against her government. Her government also dealt with several major natural disasters that struck the Philippines, as well as a severe power crisis that hampered the Philippine economy. It was also during her administration that the presence of United States military bases in the Philippines came to an end.
One month after assuming the presidency, Aquino issued Proclamation No. 3, which proclaimed her government as a revolutionary government. She suspended the 1973 Constitution installed during martial law, and promulgated a provisional “Freedom Constitution” pending the enactment of a new Constitution. She likewise closed the Batasang Pambansa and reorganized the membership of the Supreme Court. In May

1986, the reorganized Supreme Court declared the Aquino government as “not merely a de facto government but in fact and law a de jure government”, whose legitimacy had been affirmed by the community of nations.
Aquino appointed 48 members of a Constitutional Commission tasked with drafting a new Constitution. The commission, which was chaired by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Cecilia Muñoz- Palma completed its final draft in October 1986. The 1987 Constitution was approved in a national plebiscite in February 1987. Both the “Freedom Constitution” and the 1987 Constitution authorized President Aquino to exercise legislative power until such time a new Congress was organized. She continued to exercise such powers until the new Congress organized under the 1987 Constitution convened in July 1987. Within that period, Aquino promulgated two legal codes that set forth significant legal reforms -- the Family Code of 1987, which reformed the civil law on family relations, and the Administrative Code of 1987, which reorganized the structure of the executive branch of government.
In 1991, Aquino signed into law the Local Government Code, which further devolved national government powers to local government units. The new Code enhanced the power of local government units to enact local taxation measures, and assured them of a share of the national internal revenue
On 22 July 1987, Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229, which outlined the President’s land reform program, and expanded land reform to sugar lands. Her agrarian reform policy was enacted into law by the 8th Congress of the Philippines, which in 1988 passed Republic Act No. 6657, also known as “The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law”. The law authorized the redistribution of agricultural lands to tenant-farmers from landowners, who were paid in exchange by the government just compensation and allowed to retain not more than five hectares of land. Corporate landowners were also allowed under the law to “voluntarily divest a proportion of their capital stock, equity or participation in favor of their workers or other qualified beneficiaries”, in lieu of turning over their land to the government for redistribution. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law in 1989, characterizing the agrarian reform policy as “a revolutionary kind of expropriation.”
Controversies eventually centered on the landholdings of Aquino, who inherited from her parents the 6,453 hectare large Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac which was owned through the Tarlac Development Company. Opting for the stock distribution option under the agrarian reform law, Tarlac Development Company established Hacienda Luisita, Incorporated (HLI) in order to effect the distribution of stocks to the farmer-tenants of the hacienda. Ownership of the agricultural portions of the hacienda were transferred to the new corporation, which in turn distributed its shares of stocks to the farmers. The arrangement withstood until 2006, when the Department of Agrarian Reform revoked the stock distribution scheme implemented in Hacienda Luisita, and ordered instead the redistribution of a large portion of the property to the tenant-farmers. The Department had stepped into the controversy when in 2004, violence erupted over the retrenchment of workers in the Hacienda, eventually leaving seven people dead.
From 1986 to 1989, Aquino was confronted with a series of attempts at military interventions by some members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, aimed at the overthrow of the Aquino government. Most of these attempts were instigated by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), a group of middle-ranking officers closely linked with Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile. Soldiers loyal to former President Marcos were likewise involved in some of these attempts. The first five of the attempts were either crushed before they were put in operation, or repelled with minimal or no violence. The sixth attempt, staged on August 28, 1987, left 53 people dead and over 200 wounded, including Aquino 's son, Noynoy. The seventh and final attempt, which occurred throughout the first week of January, 1989, ended with 99 dead (including 50 civilians) and 570 wounded.
The coup attempts would collectively impair the Aquino government, even though it survived, as it indicated political instability, an unruly military, and diminished the confidence of foreign investors in the Philippine economy. The 1989 coup alone resulted in combined financial losses of between 800 million to 1 billion pesos. The November 1986 and August 1987 coup plots would also lead to significant reorganizations within the Aquino government. Given the apparent involvement of Defense Secretary Enrile in the November 1986 plot, a fact which was reaffirmed by the Davide Commission Report, Aquino fired him on November 22, 1986, and likewise announced an overall Cabinet revamp, "to give the government a chance to start all over again." The revamp would lead to the dismissal of Labor Secretary Augusto Sanchez, a perceived leftist, which was believed to be a compromise measure in light of a key rebel demand to cleanse the Cabinet of left-leaning members. Following the August 1987 coup attempt, the Aquino government was seen to have veered to the right, dismissing perceived left-leaning officials such as Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo and tacitly authorizing the establishment of armed quasi-military groups to combat the communist insurgency. It was also believed that General Fidel Ramos, who remained loyal to Aquino, emerged as the second most powerful person in government following his successful quelling of the coup. Across-the-board wage increases for soldiers were also granted.
Aquino herself would sue Philippine Star columnist Louie Beltran for libel after he wrote that the President had hid under her bed during the August 1987 coup as the siege of Malacañang began
The Aquino administration faced a series of natural disasters during its last two years in office. The 1990 Luzon earthquake left around 1,600 dead, with around a thousand of the fatalities in Baguio City. The 1991 eruption of the long-dormant Mount Pinatubo was the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century, killing around 300 people and causing widespread long-term devastation of agricultural lands in Central Luzon. The worst loss of life occurred when Tropical Storm Thelma (also known as Typhoon Uring) caused massive flooding in Ormoc City in November 1991, leaving around 6,000 dead in what was the deadliest typhoon in Philippine history
In the 1992 Philippine elections, though eligible to run for a second term, Aquino backed her then Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos (after initially naming Ramon Mitra, Jr., her former Agriculture Secretary and then Speaker of the House of Representatives, as her candidate), Marcos ' armed forces vice-chief of staff whose defection to the Aquino party proved crucial to the popular revolution. This decision was unpopular among many of her core supporters, including the Roman Catholic Church (Ramos is a Protestant). Ramos narrowly won with just 23.58 percent of the vote, and succeeded Aquino as president on June 30, 1992
Following the end of her term, Aquino retired to private life. When she rode away from the inauguration of her successor, she chose to go in a simple white Toyota Crown she had purchased (rather than the government-issue Mercedes), to make the point that she was once again an ordinary citizen.
Aquino leads the PinoyME Foundation, a non-profit organization that assists microfinance institutions through the provision of loans. She also oversees social welfare and scholarship assistance projects through the Benigno S. Aquino Foundation, and good governance advocacy through the EDSA People Power Commission, and the People Power People Movement.
President Aquino is likewise a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.
Aquino has continued to speak out on political issues. In the 1998 presidential elections, she supported the candidacy of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, who placed fifth. In January 2001, Aquino played an active role in the second EDSA Revolution which ousted President Joseph Estrada and installed Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the presidency. In 2005, Aquino condemned President Macapagal-Arroyo for allegedly rigging the 2004 presidential elections. She has since been a visible participant in mass demonstrations against the Arroyo government and has called for the President 's resignation.
In December 2008, Aquino publicly expressed some regrets for her participation in the 2001 EDSA Revolution and apologized to former President Joseph Estrada, who had been ousted following that revolt, in his presence. An Aquino spokesperson however later clarified that Aquino 's remarks were taken out of context, they having been made in jest at a light-hearted affair.
In the 2007 senatorial elections, Aquino actively campaigned for her only son, Benigno III, in his successful bid for a Senate seat.
In her post-presidency, Aquino has received several awards and citations. In 1994, Aquino was cited as one of 100 Women Who Shaped World History in a reference book written by Gail Meyer Rolka and published by Bluewood Books in San Francisco, California. In 1996, she received the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding from the Fulbright Association, joining past recipients such as Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela. In August 1999, Aquino was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 20 Most Influential Asians of the 20th century. The same magazine cited her in November 2006 as one of 65 great Asian Heroes, along with Mahatma Gandhi, Deng Xiaoping, Aung San Suu Kyi, Lee Kuan Yew, and King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
In 2002, Aquino became the first woman named to the Board of Governors of the Board of the Asian Institute of Management, a leading graduate business school and think tank in the Asia Pacific region. She served on the Board until 2006.

On March 24, 2008, the Aquino family announced that the former President had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Aquino underwent chemotherapy, and in public remarks made on May 13, 2008, she announced that blood tests indicate she is responding positively to the medical treatment. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corazon_Aquino)
d. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Gloria Macapaga-Arroyo is the daughter of former Philippine president Diosdado Macapagal and his second wife, Evangelina (Macaraeg) Macapagal, the daughter of prominent parents who worked as a doctor until the outbreak of war in 1941. Diosdado was born a peasant and became an actor and then a lawyer and professor of economics. He worked for the Foreign Service and served in the Philippine Congress before being elected vice-president of the country in 1957. He served as the nation 's president from 1961-1965. "He was a highly dedicated public servant," Macapagal-Arroyo recalled, as quoted in The Power and the Glory: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Her Presidency by Isabelo T. Crisostomo. "God is first in his priority list, followed by the country and lastly his own family. And because the country comes first before family, he made a special arrangement with my mother. In public service, he was supreme and she would not meddle. But at home my mother was supreme and he was not allowed to meddle." (http://www.answers.com/topic/gloria-macapagal-arroyo)
She was born as Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal. She is the sister of Dr. Diosdado "Boboy" Macapagal, Jr. & Cielo Macapagal-Salgado. She spent the first years of her life in Lubao, Pampanga with her two older siblings from her father 's first marriage. At the age of four, she chose to live with her maternal grandmother in Iligan City. She stayed there for three years, then split her time between Mindanao and Manila until the age of 11.
In 1961, when Arroyo was just 14 years old, her father was elected as president. She moved with her family into Malacañang Palace in Manila. She attended Assumption Convent for her elementary and high school education, graduating valedictorian in 1964. Arroyo then studied for two years at Georgetown University 's Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. where she was a classmate of future United States President Bill Clinton and achieved consistent Dean 's list status. She then earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Assumption College, graduating magna cum laude in 1968.
In 1968, Arroyo married lawyer and businessman Jose Miguel Arroyo of Binalbagan, Negros Occidental, whom she had met while still a teenager. They had three children, Juan Miguel, Evangelina Lourdes, and Diosdado Ignacio Jose Maria. She pursued a Master 's Degree in Economics at the Ateneo de Manila University (1978) and a Doctorate Degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines (1985). From 1977 to 1987, she held teaching positions in different schools, notably the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University. She became chairperson of the Economics Department at Assumption College.
In 1987 she was invited by President Corazon Aquino to join the government as Assistant Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry. She was promoted to Undersecretary two years later. In her concurrent position as Executive Director of the Garments and Textile Export Board, Arroyo oversaw the rapid growth of the garment industry in the late 1980s.
Arroyo entered politics in the 1992 election, running for senator. At the first general election under the 1987 Constitution, the top twelve vote-getting senatorial candidates would win a six-year term, and the next twelve candidates would win a three-year term. Arroyo ranked 13th in the elections, earning a three-year term. She was re-elected in 1995, topping the senatorial elections with nearly 16 million votes.
As a legislator, Arroyo filed over 400 bills and authored or sponsored 55 laws during her tenure as senator, including the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law, the Indigenous People 's Rights Law, and the Export Development Act. The 1995 Mining Act, which allows 100% foreign ownership of Philippine mines, has come under fire from left-wing political groups.
Arroyo considered a run for the presidency in the 1998 election, but was persuaded by President Fidel V. Ramos and leaders of the administration party Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats to instead seek the vice-presidency as the running mate of its presidential candidate, House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. Though the latter lost to popular former actor Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Arroyo won the vice presidency by a large margin, garnering more than twice the votes of her closest opponent, Estrada 's running mate Senator Edgardo Angara.
Arroyo began her term as Vice President on June 30, 1998. Historically, she was the first and only to date female Vice President of the Philippines. She was appointed by Estrada to a concurrent position in the cabinet as Secretary of Social Welfare and Development.
Arroyo resigned from the cabinet in October 2000, distancing herself from President Estrada, who was accused of corruption by a former political supporter, Chavit Singson, Governor from Ilocos Sur. She had initially resisted pressure from allies to speak out against Estrada, but eventually joined calls for Estrada 's resignation
Arroyo 's ascent to the Philippine presidency in 2001 is mired in controversy as much as the ouster of her predecessor with which it is intertwined. On January 20, 2001, after days of political turmoil and popular revolt, the Supreme Court declared the presidency vacant. The military and the national police had earlier withdrawn their support for Estrada. At noon, Arroyo was sworn in as President of the Philippines by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. Coincidentally, Arroyo assumed office the same day as US President George W. Bush.
While the local media and its proponents hailed EDSA II as another peaceful "People Power," international views expressed through the international media described it as a conspiracy to oust Estrada and install Arroyo as president. The New York Times writes that Southeast Asia-based political economist William Overholt called it as "either being called mob rule or mob rule as a cover for a well- planned coup." The International Herald Tribune reports how the "opportunist coalition of church, business elite and left... orchestrated the 'People Power II movement." ' On Arroyo 's proclamation as President, Former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew opined that there is "an assumption of power here which isn 't in the constitution."
Weeks later, Estrada filed a lawsuit challenging the legal basis of the Arroyo presidency and insisting he remained the lawful president, though adding he would not try to reclaim his post. The Supreme Court issued its decision on March 2, 2001, asserting that Estrada had resigned the presidency and relinquished his post. The court unanimously voted to dismiss Estrada 's petition, reaffirming the legitimacy of Arroyo 's presidency.
On May 1, 2001, a week after Estrada was arrested on charges of plunder, an estimated 40,000 protesters sympathetic to Estrada degenerated into violence and attempted to storm the presidential palace to force Arroyo from office. Four people died, including two policemen, and more than 100 were wounded in clashes between security forces and rioters. After being dispersed the crowd had looted stores and burned cars. Arroyo declared a 'state of rebellion ' in Manila and ordered the arrests of opposition leaders who lead the uprising and conspired to topple the government. The state of rebellion was lifted one week later, with Arroyo declaring "the disorder has subsided."
Support for the opposition and Estrada subsequently dwindled after the victory of administration allied candidates in the midterm elections that was held later that month. Arroyo outlined her vision for the country as "building a strong republic" throughout her tenure. Her agenda consists of building up a strong bureaucracy, lowering crime rates, increasing tax collection, improving economic growth, and intensifying counter-terrorism efforts.
The Oakwood mutiny occurred in the Philippines on July 27, 2003. A group of 321 armed soldiers who called themselves "Bagong Katipuneros" led by Army Capt. Gerardo Gambala and Lt. Antonio Trillanes IV of the Philippine Navy took over the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center (now Ascott Makati) serviced apartment tower in Makati City to show the Filipino people the alleged corruption of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration. They also stated that they saw signs suggesting that the President was going to declare martial law. In December 2002, Arroyo made the surprise announcement that she would not seek a new term in the Philippine general election, 2004. Ten months later, however, she reversed her position and declared her intention to seek a direct mandate from the people, saying "there is a higher cause to change society... in a way that nourishes our future".
Arroyo faced a tough election campaign in early 2004 against Estrada friend and popular actor Fernando Poe, Jr., senator and former police general Panfilo Lacson, former senator Raul Roco, and Christian evangelist Eddie Villanueva. Her campaign platform centered on a shift to a parliamentary and federal form of government, job creation, universal health insurance, anti-illegal drugs, and anti-terrorism.
Arroyo lagged behind Poe in the polls prior to the campaign season, but her popularity steadily climbed to surpass Poe 's. As predicted by pre-election surveys and exit polls, she won the election by a margin of over a million votes against her closest rival, Fernando Poe, Jr. She took her oath of office on June 30, 2004. In a break with tradition, she chose to first deliver her inaugural address at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila before departing to Cebu City for her oath taking, the first time a Philippine president took the oath of office outside of Luzon.
In the middle of 2005, Samuel Ong who is a former deputy director of the country 's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) claimed to have audio tapes of wiretapped conversations between President Arroyo and an official of the Commission on Elections. According to Ong, the contents of the tape prove that the 2004 national election was rigged by Arroyo in order to win by around one million votes. On June 27, Arroyo admitted to inappropriately speaking to a Comelec official, claiming it was a "lapse in judgement", but denied influencing the outcome of the election. Attempts to impeach Arroyo failed later that year. Two witnesses, Antonio Rasalan and Clinton Colcol, stepped forward in August 2006, claiming involvement in an alleged plot to alter the results for the May 2004 elections. Rasalan claimed that he was fully convinced that the election returns presented at the House of Representatives were manufactured and had replaced the original documents. Colcol, a tabulator for the Commission on Elections (Comelec), said that Arroyo only received 1,445 votes, while Poe received 2,141 in South Upi, Maguindanao during the May 2004 elections.
On January 25, 2008, Pulse Asia survey (commissioned by Genuine Opposition (GO) per former Senator Sergio Osmeña III) stated that 58% percent of Filipinos in Mindanao believed that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo cheated in the Philippine general election, 2004. 70% also "believed that because of recurring allegations of election fraud, the credibility of the balloting process in Mindanao was at a record low.”
On Friday, February 24, 2006, an alleged coup d 'état plot was uncovered in the Philippines, headed by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim. The declaration of Proclamation No. 1017 gave Gloria Macapagal Arroyo the power to issue warrantless (and until then unconstitutional) arrests and to take over private institutions that run public utilities. The President, through the Department of Education, suspended classes in elementary and high school levels. In response, colleges and universities suspended classes. By virtue of PP 1017, she declared a State of Emergency for the whole country in an attempt to quell rebellion as her grip on power began to slip, to stop lawless violence and promote peace and stability. The government 's first move after the declaration was to disperse demonstrators, particularly the groups picketing along EDSA. Former Philippine president Corazon Aquino was among those that protested, along with leftist and extreme right activists. A number of public figures were reported to have been arrested.
After the foiling of the plot and the dispersal of the rallies, PP 1017 continued for a week on threats of military plots (such as the military stand-off of February 26 at Fort Bonifacio headed by Col. Ariel Querubin), violence, illegal rallies and public disturbance.
Six leftist representatives - Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño, and Joel Virador of Bayan Muna, Liza Maza of GABRIELA, and Crispin Beltran and Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis - were charged with rebellion. Crispin Beltran of Anakpawis was arrested on February 25 on charges of inciting to sedition and rebellion. To avoid further arrest, the other five found shelter at the Batasan Complex.
On Saturday, February 25, the office of the Daily Tribune, a newspaper known as a hard-hitting critic of the Arroyo administration, was raided. After the raid, an issuance of Journalism Guideline followed, authored by the government in order to cope with the "present abnormal situation", according to then Chief of Staff Michael Defensor. The move to suppress freedom of the press against the Daily Tribune was criticized by Reporters Without Borders.
The decree was lifted on March 3, 2006. However the opposition, lawyers, and concerned citizens filed a complaint in the Supreme Court contesting the constitutionality of PP 1017. The court, on May 4, declared the proclamation constitutional, but said it was illegal to issue warrantless arrests and seize private institutions.
The Peninsula Manila Rebellion was a rebellion in the Philippines on November 29, 2007. Detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, General Lim and other Magdalo officials walked out of their trial and marched through the streets of Makati City, called for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and seized the second floor of The Peninsula Manila Hotel along Ayala Avenue. Former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona also joined the march to the hotel. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brigadier Gen. Danilo Lim surrendered to authorities after an armored personnel carrier rammed into the lobby of the hotel. Director Geary Barias declared that the standoff at the Manila Peninsula Hotel is over as Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim along with other junior officers agreed to leave the hotel and surrender to Barias after the 6 hour siege. There was difficulty getting out for a while due to the tear gas that was covering the area where they were hiding.Days after the mutiny, the Makati City Regional Trial Court dismissed the rebellion charges against all the 14 civilians involved in the siege, and ordered their release.
The Philippine National Broadband Network controversy is a political affair that centers upon allegations of corruption primarily involving Former Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Chairman Benjamin Abalos, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo regarding the proposed government-managed National Broadband Network (NBN) for the Philippines and the awarding of its construction to the Chinese firm Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Company Limited (ZTE), a telecommunications and networking equipment provider.
The issue has captivated Filipino politics since it erupted in Philippine media around August 2007, largely through the articles of newspaper columnist Jarius Bondoc of the Philippine Star. It has also taken an interesting turn of events, including the resignation of Abalos as COMELEC chairman, the alleged bribery of congressmen and provincial governors (dubbed as "Bribery in the Palace"), the unseating of Jose de Venecia, Jr. as House Speaker, and the alleged "kidnapping" of designated National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) consultant-turned-NBN/ZTE witness Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada, Jr.
In 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, impeachment complaints were filed against President Arroyo although none of the cases reached the required endorsement of 1/3 of the members for transmittal to and trial by the Senate. On October 13, 2008, the 4th 97-page impeachment complaint against President Arroyo was filed at the House of Representatives of the Philippines with the required endorsements by Party list Representatives Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño and Liza Maza. The complaint accuses Arroyo of corruption, extra-judicial killings, torture and illegal arrests. The impeachment further raised the issues on "national broadband network agreement with China, human rights violations, the Northrail project, the Mt. Diwalwal project, fertilizer fund scam, alleged bribery of members of the House, the swine scam under the Rural Credit Guarantee Corporation, and 2004 electoral fraud." The opposition complainants were Edita Burgos, Iloilo Vice Governor Rolex Suplico, Jose de Venecia III, Harry Roque, Armando Albarillo, a human rights victim, Roneo Clamor, Karapatan deputy secretary general, Josefina Lichauco, and representatives from civil society - Renato Constantino, Jr., Henri Kahn, Francisco Alcuaz, Rez Cortez, Virgilio Eustaquio, Jose Luis Alcuaz, Leah Navarro, Danilo Ramos, Concepcion Empeño, Elmer Labog, Armando Albarillo, Roneo Clamor, and Bebu Bulchand. The justice committee has 60 days to rule upon the complaint 's sufficiency in form and substance. However, the opposition has only 28 House seats.
Arroyo, a practicing economist, has made the economy the focus of her presidency. Based on official (National Economic and Development Authority) figures, economic growth in terms of gross domestic product has averaged 5.0% during the Arroyo presidency from 2001 up to the first quarter of 2008. This is higher than in the administration of the previous recent presidents: 3.8% average of Aquino, 3.7% average of Ramos, and 2.8% average of the short-lived Joseph Estrada administration. The Philippine economy grew at its fastest pace in three decades in 2007, with real GDP growth exceeding 7%. Arroyo 's handling of the economy has earned praise from former "friend" and classmate in Georgetown, ex-US President Bill Clinton, who cited her "tough decisions" that put the Philippine economy back in shape.
Whether the official economic figures are accurate, or how they translate to improving lives of the citizens, however, is debatable. Studies made by the United Nations(UN) and local survey research firms show worsening, instead of improving, poverty levels. A comparative 2008 UN report shows that the Philippines lags behind its Asian neighbors, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and China, in terms of poverty amelioration. The study reveals that from 2003 up to 2006, the number of poor Filipinos increased by 3.8 million, with poverty incidence being approximately three times higher in agricultural communities. With regards the problem of hunger, quarterly studies by the social polling research firm Social Weather Stations show that the number of Filipino households suffering from hunger has significantly increased during Arroyo 's presidency. Her administration first set the record for hunger levels in March 2001, and beginning June 2004, broke the record again seven times. December 2008 figures saw the new record high of 23.7%, or approximately 4.3 million households, of Filipino families experiencing involuntary hunger.
A controversial expanded value added tax (e-VAT) law, considered the centerpiece of the Arroyo administration 's economic reform agenda, was implemented in November 2005, aiming to complement revenue-raising efforts that could plug the country 's large budget deficit. The country aims to balance the national budget by 2010. The tax measure boosted confidence in the government 's fiscal capacity and helped to strengthen the Philippine peso, making it East Asia 's best performing currency in 2005-06. The peso strengthened by nearly 20% in 2007, making it by far Asia 's best performing currency for the year, a fact attributed to a combination of increased remittances from overseas Filipino workers and a strong domestic economy.
Annual inflation reached the 17-year high of 12.5 percent in August 2008, up from a record low of 2.8 percent registered in 2007. It eased to 8.8 percent in December 2008 as fuel and energy prices went down. The managing director of the World Bank, Juan Jose Daboub, criticized the administration for not doing enough to curb corruption.
Early in her presidency, Arroyo implemented a controversial policy of holiday economics, adjusting holidays to form longer weekends with the purpose of boosting domestic tourism and allowing Filipinos more time with their families.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with George W. Bush during the latter 's state visit to the Philippines in 2003, forged a strong relationship with the United States. Arroyo was one of the first world leaders who expressed support for the US-led coalition against global terrorism in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and remains one of its closest allies in the war on terror. Following the US-led invasion of Iraq, in July 2003 the Philippines sent a small humanitarian contingent which included medics and engineers. These troops were recalled in July 2004 in response to the kidnapping of Filipino truck driver Angelo de la Cruz. With the hostage takers demands met, the hostage was released. The force was previously due to leave Iraq the following month. The early pullout drew international condemnation, with the United States protesting against the action, saying giving in to terrorist demands should not be an option.
Arroyo 's foreign policy is anchored on building strong ties with the United States, East Asian and Southeast Asian nations, and countries where overseas Filipino workers work and live. In 2007, the Philippines was host to the 12th ASEAN Summit in Cebu City.
On August 21, 2007, Arroyo 's administration asked the Senate of the Philippines to ratify a $4bn (£2bn) trade deal with Japan (signed on 2006 with the former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi), which would create more than 300,000 jobs (by specifically increasing local exports such as shrimp to Japan). Japan also promised to hire at least 1,000 Philippine nurses. The opposition-dominated senate objected on the ground that toxic wastes would be sent to the Philippines; the government denied this due to the diplomatic notes which stated that it would not be accepting Japanese waste in exchange for economic concessions.
In keeping with this international mission, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.
In 2005, Arroyo initiated a movement for an overhaul of the constitution to transform the present presidential-bicameral republic into a federal parliamentary-unicameral form of government. At her 2005 State of the Nation Address, she claimed "The system clearly needs fundamental change, and the sooner the better. It 's time to start the great debate on Charter Change". In late 2006, the House of Representatives shelved a plan to revise the constitution through constituent assembly. Executive Order No. 464 and calibrated preemptive response
In late September 2005, Arroyo issued an executive order stating that demonstrations without permits would be pre-emptively stopped. Then members of the military testified in Congressional hearings that they were defying a direct order not to testify about their knowledge of the election scandal. There is the issuance of Executive Order No. 464 forbidding government officials under the executive department from appearing in congressional inquiries without President Arroyo 's prior consent. These measures were challenged before the Supreme Court, which apparently declared some sections as unconstitutional.
A May 2006 Amnesty International report expressed concern over the sharp rise in vigilante killings of militant activists and community workers in the Philippines. Task Force Usig, a special police unit tasked to probe reported extra-judicial killings, by state run death squads counts 115 murders and says most of these are the result of an internal purge by communist rebels. Human rights groups put the number as high as 830. These violations were alleged to have been committed against left-leaning organizations and party-list groups including BAYAN, Bayan Muna and Anakpawis. These organizations accuse the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines for the deaths of these political opponents. Arroyo has condemned political killings "in the harshest possible terms" and urged witnesses to come forward. "The report, which Melo submitted to Arroyo last month, reportedly linked state security forces to the murder of militants and recommended that military officials, notably retired major general Jovito Palparan, be held liable under the principle of command responsibility for killings in their areas of assignment."
General Palparan who retired September 11, 2006 has been appointed by President Arroyo to be part of the Security Council. This has alarmed left-leaning political parties about the potential for human rights violations. An independent commission was assembled in August 2006 to investigate the killings. Headed by former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo, the group known as the Melo Commission concluded that most of the killings were instigated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, but found no proof linking the murder of activists to a "national policy" as claimed by the left-wing groups. On the other hand the report "linked state security forces to the murder of militants and recommended that military officials, notably retired major general Jovito Palparan, be held liable under the principle of command responsibility for killings in their areas of assignment." Stricter anti-terror laws have also caused some concern in recent years.
Under Arroyo 's government, the Philippines has become second only to Iraq as the world 's riskiest place to report the news, with 23 journalists killed since 2003. In her July 23, 2007 State of the Nation Address, Arroyo has set out her agenda for her last three years in office, and called for legislation to deal with a spate of political killings that have brought international criticism to her presidency. She promised to bring peace to the troubled south, and also defended a controversial new anti-terrorism legislation. Arroyo told the joint session of Congress that "I would rather be right than popular." Lawmakers and lawyers, however, were dismayed by the SONA 's failure to highlight and address this major hindrance to human rights. Specifically, the Alternative Law Groups (ALG) echoed the lawmakers’ position that Mrs Arroyo failed to take responsibility for the problem. In 2007, incidences of extrajudicial killings dropped 87%, with the decline attributed to the creation of a special task force to handle the killings.
On September 5, 2007, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Amnesty Proclamation 1377 for members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People 's Army; other communist rebel groups; and their umbrella organization, the National Democratic Front. The amnesty will cover the crime of rebellion and all other crimes "in pursuit of political beliefs," but not including crimes against chastity, rape, torture, kidnapping for ransom, use and trafficking of illegal drugs and other crimes for personal ends and violations of international law or convention and protocols "even if alleged to have been committed in pursuit of political beliefs." The National Committee on Social Integration (NCSI) will issue a Certificate of Amnesty to qualified applicants. Implementing rules and regulations are being drafted and the decree will be submitted to the Senate of the Philippines and the House of Representatives for their concurrence. The proclamation becomes effective only after Congress has concurred.
On October 25, 2007, Arroyo granted pardon to Joseph Estrada, supposedly based on the recommendation by the Department of Justice. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye quoted the signed Order: "In view hereof in pursuant of the authority conferred upon me by the Constitution, I hereby grant Executive clemency to Joseph Ejercito Estrada, convicted by the Sandiganbayan of plunder and imposed a penalty of reclusion perpetua. He is hereby restored to his civil and political rights."
Bunye noted that Estrada committed in his application not to seek public office, and he would be free from his Tanay resthouse on October 26, noon. Accordingly, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales categorically stated in 2008 that an Estrada plan to run for president in the scheduled 2010 elections is unconstitutional. Estrada, however, disagrees, saying that he is eligible to run for president again, based on the legal advice he gets from former Supreme Court Justice Andres Narvasa.
In October 2007, the Pulse Asia survey research firm, for its part, undertook a Special Report on Corruption-Related Issues. Part of the study included Additional Findings on Corruption-Related Issues that found Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is perceived by Filipinos as the "Most Corrupt President in Philippine History." The nationwide survey findings are significant because they show Arroyo is rated worst than Ferdinand Marcos, who declared Martial Law in 1972, and her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, whom she helped deposed in 2001 on charges of corruption. The results on Arroyo are consistent in all three survey tables, showing that as of the study period, Filipinos are definite in their opinion that she is the "Most Corrupt President" and that her administration has met the gravest corruption issues. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Macapagal-Arroyo)

4. Conclusion: The modern day Filipina is entirely different from what the Spaniards inflicted during their colonization. They continue to evolve as political dynamic creating a competition between men politicians. Filipino women are re-discovering their lost political power during the Spanish conquest. The plain housewives before evolved to be prominent women today. Filipino women are making their way into the field by initiating more female-oriented programs. They are effective in implementing government policies and excellent in giving political advice. Although Filipino women are robust enough to occupy a seat in politics, there are some factors which hinder their success in being a public servant. These factors include the expense in politics and the significance of the family name. True enough that one of the controlling factor in the increase of female politicians is the presence of Corazon Aquino and Gloria Arroyo as the head of the country. The Filipina’s medium of socialization is by means of being a follower to what other people like than being a leader. This then makes an important ingredient why female politicians overpower their male rivals. The tangible link between beauty and power, which Imelda Marcos used to encourage the blossoming of woman as feminists should be acquired in order to succeed the political kinship that is evident in our government. It is undeniably true that she had wisely used her illegitimate power and intelligence in order to manipulate the things around her and to be able to gain wealth from the government funds. Thus, being like Madam Imelda Marcos would mean great power over the government and the people.

5, Appendix

Figure 1 . Gabriela Silang

Figure 2. Melchora Aquino

Figure 3. Gregoria De Jesus

Figure 4. Marina Dizon

Figure 5. Imelda Marcos

Figure 6. Corazon Aquino

Figure 7. Miriam Defensor-Santiago

Figure 8. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

6. Bibliography
Lacsamana, L. (2003) Philippine History and Government. Philippines: Phoenix Publishing House Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Philippines http://opmanong.ssc.hawaii.edu/filipino/women.html http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/Gabriela_Silang De Guzman, J. (1967) Women of Distinction: Biographical Essays on Outstanding Filipino Women Of The Past And The Present. Philippines: Bukang Liwayway http://www.santa.gov.ph/ilocossur/herogabriela.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melchora_Aquino http://filipino.biz.ph/history/sora.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregoria_de_Jesus http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Gregoria_de_Jesus http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Trinidad_Tecson http://www.globalpinoy.com/ch/ch_category.php?category=heroes&name=TrinidadTecson&table=ch=heroes&startpage=1&endpage=15 http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Marina_Dizon_Santiago http://www.fes.org.ph/papers womeninpol.htm
Roces, M. (2000) Women, Power and Kinship Politics: Female Power in Post-War Philippines. Philippines: Capitol Publishing House Inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imelda_Marcos http://www.senate.gov.ph/senators/sen_bio/santiago_bio.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corazon_Aquino http://www.answers.com/topic/gloria-macapagal-arroyo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Macapagal-Arroyo

Bibliography: Lacsamana, L. (2003) Philippine History and Government. Philippines: Phoenix Publishing House Inc.