Why is corazon aquino the first female pres. of the philipines?

Mrs. Aquino spent much the next two decades at home raising five children. In 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos abolished the constitution and assumed dictatorial control of the country. He jailed his political rivals, including Benigno Aquino.

For the next seven years, Corazon Aquino worked on behalf of her husband, transmitting his messages from prison and raising money for his cause. Benigno was released in 1980 and moved to the U.S. with his family. After three years in exile, he returned to the Philippines, but he was shot and killed before he could get off the plane.

The assassination sparked opposition to Marcos, and Aquino’s supporters rallied behind Cory at her husband’s funeral. “The devout and stoic Roman Catholic widow became the incarnation of a pious nation that had itself suffered silently through more than a decade of autocratic rule,” writes Time. The shy, soft-spoken Corazon became the face of the anti-Marcos People Power movement.

When Marcos called for snap elections to be held in February 1986, Corazon reluctantly entered into the race. Marcos used bribes and voter intimidation to win the election, but he generated a backlash that forced him out of office a month later. Corazon Aquino succeeded him, becoming the Philippines’ first female president.

Time magazine named her its Person of the Year for 1986. “Aquino’s revolution with a human face was no less a triumph for women the world over,” wrote Pico Iyer. “The person known as the ‘Mother of the Nation’ managed to lead a revolt and rule a republic without ever relinquishing her buoyant calm or her gift for making politics and humanity companionable.”

Aquino’s six-year tenure in office would be rife with problems, however. She had not campaigned with a specific political platform, and her loosely affiliated coalition fell apart almost immediately. Marcos loyalists attempted coups against her throughout her term.