“The Cory years launched a whole new regime of good programs that by quality and quantity surpass the combined achievements of her three successors. The three post-EDSA presidents after Cory - Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph E. Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo - practically just had to breeze through the presidency all because Cory had done most of the work for them. And yet, by all accounts, they built less and destroyed more of what Cory had set out to do for the nation. And yes, they probably did more bad than all the good and not-so-good things that Cory did.

Apart from a new Constitution, Cory gave the nation groundbreaking policies and reforms, notably the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the Commission on Human Rights, the Local Government Code, the Family Code, the Administrative Code, the Expanded Value-Added Tax, the Generics Act, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, the National Youth Commission, and a bounty of laws for mothers, children, rebel-returnees, and indigenous communities.

As well, Cory freed political prisoners, forged peace with rebels, and nursed to life the communities struck down by the biggest disasters in recent Philippine history (the 1990 earthquake and the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in1991).

In Cory’s time, politics was less about spin, embellished stats, brownie points and executive privilege; politics was more about people and public service.

In Cory’s time, reporters may field the toughest questions to the highest officials and were sure to get honest - if not absolutely complete - answers. To be sure, Cory did not have all the answers to all the questions that we asked then, and still ask today, as a people.

Yet the best cut is this: When Cory was president, decency defined the conduct of reporters toward politicians, and politicians toward reporters. Integrity was the standard against which reporters assessed politicians.

Cory was sometimes a difficult source. But she certainly was always a good source. She was good as she was honest. In our trained reporter’s eye, we saw she did not know how to lie, or was totally uncomfortable holding back information. Cory would rather be caught frowning or scowling on cam than tell reporters tall tales. Indeed, the lesson of Cory Aquino as leader and president should not be lost on Filipino politicians.

Powerlessness - acting and doing like one is without power - is the secret of Cory’s power over the masses.”

— Malou Mangahas