(In celebration of International Women's Day and Women’s Month, Manila Bulletin is publishing stories featuring women who have made outstanding contributions to the country or to their communities.)
What was it like working under a strong woman leader? For women's month and our attention is on great women leaders, we focus on the esteemed icon of democracy, internationally recognized and loved, our very own Corazon Cojuangco Aquino.
But with a twist, from the point of view of three lucky gentlemen who were given the chance to work closely with her.
Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Adolf Azcuna, proudly proclaims: “President Crazon C. Aquino was my boss!”
As Presidential Legal Counsel he also had the privilege of being her official in-house lawyer. Declares Adolf: “She was an ideal boss and a superb client. I dealt with her not so much as with a woman but as a person, one with a charismatic leadership and singular determination to realize a unique mission thrust upon her by destiny.
FORMER PRESIDENT Corazon C. Aquino with her Presidential Legal Counsel Adolf Azcuna.
"I look back to those years as among the happiest and most fulfilling in my life. She always lived up to the tenet that the first and last duty of a leader is to keep hope alive.”
But Adolf adds: She more than provided hope, she dedicated herself and her life to putting up the democratic framework that would make possible a better life for our people.
And against all odds she succeeded in doing this. In retrospect, Adolf realizes that she achieved all these because she was a naturally compassionate person, that is, a woman.
She had one mood swing — I remember — that is remarkable, recalls Adolf. For some time while figuring out the action to take on agrarian reform she was quite tense. But after she found the right solution — to adopt two issuances — one a proclamation ordaining and declaring comprehensive agrarian reform throughout the land as mandated by the Constitution and two, an implementing Executive Order providing the initial features of the program. Congress could revise the latter as the evolving situation calls for but it cannot undo the proclamation and mandating of comprehensive agrarian reform throughout the land. Observers noted that after she signed the two issuances, she became relaxed, Adolf recalls with a smile.
Did she play favorites? Adolf thinks she did have and those were the people who had less in life. She would take considerable effort to reach out to them in her radio and TV programs. She made sure she got to know the drift of all the letters that were addressed to her and had a whole staff assigned to handle just that.
“I even got engaged to translate some letters that were in German, including many that contained proposals to marry her!” chuckles Adolf. And he concluded with a naughty wink, “In truth, all the men who worked with her were secretly in love with their boss!”
'Gender was not the factor'
Former Cabinet Secretary Aniceto, “Chito” Sobrepena remembers his boss President Cory with utmost respect. “And when she entered Malacanang’s Heroes Hall, everyone in the cavernous room fell into a respectful hush.” She walked in without fanfare, yet all acknowledged her presence immediately with almost reverential accord, All of us in her official family held her with a sense of awe to one degree or another. Gender was not the factor. It was the person, honorable and principled.
FORMER PRESIDENT Aquino and former Presidential Management Staff Head Aniceto Sobrepena.
“Even if she was the first woman president of the Philippines, she did not unduly favor the women’s sector at the expense of the men. She was impartial. Her livelihood and other social services initiatives were open to both genders, but precisely because of the socio-economic structure of our population, the “nanays” and young women and girls were the natural engines of growth and the ultimate beneficiaries of these projects.
President Cory subscribed to people empowerment and active citizen engagement. She believed that people should be the center of governance and the end goal of progress and development.
“Working closely with her as Cabinet Secretary and head of the Presidential Management Staff, I saw first-hand how diligent and hardworking our chief executive was. The presidency is a 24/7 job and she was always on the ball, especially when natural and man-made calamities struck the country during her term. The conscientiousness was likely borne of her humanity, her care and compassion for the disadvantaged.
Even when she was no longer president, I saw her genuine regard for those in the margins. She was the chairman of my board of advisers in the Metrobank Foundation and was instrumental in the foundation’s interventions to furnish far flung schools with desks, build much-needed classrooms and provide education for bright but financially challenged students nationwide.”
Calmest, most dignified
From former Agrarian Secretary Philip “Popoy” Juico, now president of the PATAFA sports association, comes this tribute.
“I have always considered President Cory one of the calmest and most dignified or courtly persons I have met and worked under. I think the main reason for her calm spirit, despite the most adverse of circumstances, is her faith and trust in God. I got the impression that she had surrendered her fate to God especially during the most difficult times. She was not fatalistic but rather, being such a prayerful person, she knew in her daily conversations with the Almighty what precisely was her role in life and in the life of the Philippines.”
PRESIDENT CORY AQUINO and her Department of Agrarian Reform Secretary Philip 'Popoy' Juico.
A few minutes after Popoy took his oath before her as secretary of Agrarian Reform on July 23, 1987, she invited him to her private office on the second floor of the Guest House. It was to be a private meeting- both Ballsy Aquino-Cruz, her eldest daughter, and Popoy's wife, Margie, her appointments secretary, were not in the room Popoy was 39 years old when she appointed him head of the cabinet level agency which was to lead the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), her centerpiece social justice program. It was also politically sensitive: Her family owned and operated one of the largest agribusiness projects in the country.
Popoy asked her why she appointed him to that sensitive post since quite a number of people were rumored to be her pick. Her answer, remembers Popoy, was “Madasalin ka” (You are prayerful). It sounded to Popoy like, “You need a lot of prayers to succeed in this job.”
Margie and Popoy were members of the Ligaya ng Panginoon, a Catholic community devoted to self sanctification and evangelization where regular daily prayer was part of the members’ way of life.
In a preview of her desire for a professional and “non ideological” implementation of the CARP, Cory added that Popoy was associated with neither the left nor the right, but was regarded as a professional manager It was another proof of her practical and pragmatic approach to life and governance even as she espoused the promotion and defense of human rights.
“When I proposed the appointment at the DAR of a fairly high level official, who was a detainee during the Marcos regime and who was my high school batch mate at De La Salle, she approved it but warned me that quite a number of people in the business community found him too progressive to be part of my team. I explained to the President I needed him and he had the interest of the country and the peasants at heart. She signed the appointment.”
But she also cautioned, “You need him for you to do a good job and for him to be a channel of communication with the more progressive elements of the farming community, so you can have him. But, of course, he is your “cargo.” Ikaw ang bahala sa kaniya and you explain to the critics what role he will play.”
She was very appreciative in a positive way, not in the manner of politicians distributing the spoils of war, of those who were with her and her family with no expectation of any material or political reward. “We were simply there, putting our lives and future at risk, because we believed in freedom and democracy, and Ninoy and Cory.And I am so happy I was able to visit her on her sick bed just before she passed, and whisper to her my thanks for letting me serve her.”
(The author was the Undersecretary of Media Affairs during President Corazon A. Aquino’s administration, and later was the spokesperson of Private Citizen Cory.)