Corazon Aquino

Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (1933–2009) became the first woman president of the Philippines and is widely credited with restoring democratic institutions after two decades of authoritarian rule under Ferdinand E. Marcos.

A political outsider, she entered public life after the 1983 assassination of her husband, opposition senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., on the tarmac of Manila International Airport. She ran against Marcos in the snap presidential election of February 7, 1986. Following widespread allegations of electoral fraud and the defection of senior military officers including Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel V. Ramos, the People Power (EDSA) Revolution of February 22–25, 1986 brought hundreds of thousands of Filipinos to Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. Marcos fled to Hawaii, and Aquino was sworn in as president.

Her administration's signature achievements included:

• The promulgation of the 1987 Constitution, ratified by plebiscite on February 2, 1987, which restored a bicameral Congress, term limits, and an independent judiciary.
• The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), enacted in 1988.
• The closure of U.S. military bases at Clark and Subic Bay after the Philippine Senate rejected the bases treaty renewal in September 1991.

Her presidency also faced severe challenges: at least seven coup attempts by disaffected military factions (the most serious in December 1989), a persistent communist insurgency, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991, and chronic power shortages. Critics faulted her handling of land reform on her own family's Hacienda Luisita estate.

Aquino declined to seek re-election and peacefully transferred power to Fidel Ramos in 1992 — itself a milestone for Philippine democratic consolidation. Time named her Woman of the Year for 1986. She remained an active civic voice until her death from colon cancer on August 1, 2009. Her son, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, later served as president from 2010 to 2016.