NEW YORK CITY—President Benigno Aquino III took a dig on Monday at the administrations of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in talking about how Filipinos had fought for democracy through “dark periods” in the country.
Speaking at the Fordham University just after he was conferred an honorary degree for how he had served his country, President Aquino, who is here for a three-day official visit, first marveled at the school’s tradition of “literary carving in stone, the names of leaders upon whom you have conferred honorary doctorates,” in reference to their names that have been engraved in the steps of the “Terrace of Presidents” there.
He noted that the names included seven of his predecessors, including his mother, the late former President Corazon Aquino. Also included there was the name of Arroyo, who was given the award in 2003.
“Memorialized in this manner for all time, these names serve as proof positive or proof negative of this university’s considered judgment in bestowing this honor. Hopefully, I will be in the first category,” Mr. Aquino said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.
“It serves as a permanent reminder that the verdict of history on those who have been accorded this distinction will neither be deferred nor ignored,” he said.
Now that he was accepting the Doctor of Laws honoris causa from the university, President Aquino spoke about “what brought me to this place” as the leader of the nation and said he was representing a “people who were not given, but rather, who gave themselves a fresh start.”
Recalling the Martial Law years under the Marcos dictatorship which he described as a “regime where the law is nothing but the whim of one man,” the Chief Executive said the death in 1983 of his father, martyred Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., eventually led to a people power uprising and the departure of Marcos and his family “to flee like the thieves they were into the night.”
“It is that determination not to surrender to apathy, and not to allow ourselves to become atomized prisoners of despair and intimidation that led me to where I am now,” President Aquino said.
Pointing to a quote made by Lord Acton regarding how “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” the President noted how his predecessor, who was then facing questions on her legitimacy, had “focused on keeping herself in power, to the exclusion of all other considerations.”
“In both cases, those who had grown fat on the corrupt status quo, funded and supported efforts to subvert democracy, and in both cases, despite it all, the Filipino renewed their social contract with each other and stood firm in their democratic ideals,” Mr. Aquino said.
But he said that after “a decade of political turbulence,” the country has now entered into “an era of renewed stability and confidence” and that the people have “discovered that the power is theirs.”
Saying he was “the instrument of the people’s will,” he said his “own ambition” was by the end of his term in 2016, people would “have grown accustomed to genuine public service and so intolerant of corruption, that whether a saint or sinner succeeds me, no one will be able to roll back the tide of progress and good governance.”
The conferment of the honorary degree on President Aquino kicked off the whirlwind of activities that he was scheduled to attend in his brief visit in the US.