The nation observes today the 89th birth anniversary of Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, the first President to serve in the Fifth Republic of the Philippines. This observance is significant because in barely two weeks, the official campaign period will begin for the national elections on May 9, 2022 in which Filipinos would choose the seventh President to serve in the Fifth Republic.

The establishment of the Fifth Republic is a key milestone not just in Philippine history. It was a watershed event for the triumph of democracy as a viable form of government in the modern era. For leading a peaceful transition after hotly contested snap elections, the results of which were superseded by the bloodless People Power uprising, TIME magazine named her Person of the Year.

The peaceful EDSA People Power uprising that brought her to power after toppling a dictatorship inspired similar peaceful transitions in power in South Korea, Burma, China, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, Poland, Chile, Thailand, and, Indonesia — as well as the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Except in 2004, there have been four peaceful transitions in the Fifth Republic from one democratically elected leader to another: from Corazon Aquino to Fidel Ramos in 1992; from Ramos to Joseph Eiercito Estrada in 1998; from Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to Benigno S. Aquino III in 2010; from Aquino III to Rodrigo R. Duterte in 2016.

The only exception was triggered by the EDSA II ‘coup’ that installed then Vice President Arroyo who served out Estrada’s term. Arroyo then won in the 2004 elections and “succeeded herself” as President.

According to the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation, its decision in electing Cory Aquino to receive the 1998 Award for International Understanding “recognizes her giving radiant moral force to the nonviolent movement for democracy in the Philippines and in the world” as concretized thus — “She united the democratic opposition to dictatorship in the Philippines and led it to victory. She restored her country’s democratic institutions and its good name in the community of nations. She governed with integrity and the devout intention to do always what was best for the country and its people. And, when her term was over, she stepped down in favor of an elected successor. No Asian leader of our time can claim as much.”

Her death in August 2009 created a groundswell of public support for her son Benigno Aquino III’s successful candidacy and election as President in 2010. While there may be skeptics who would throw a shade on her legacy as a leader, her distinct contributions as the Mother of Philippine Democracy in the Fifth Republic shine through.

To be a unifier among contending political factions; to uphold and strengthen the country’s democratic institutions; to protect its good name among the family of nations; to govern with honesty and integrity — these were among the sterling qualities underlying the salient achievements of former President Cory Aquino that Filipinos aspire to rediscover in choosing their next President.