In a rare interview with Cory Aquino months before she became the president, I spent a memorable two hours at the Makati Medical Centre in downtown Manila where she was nursing her ailing mother. Twenty four years later, Cory died of cancer at the same hospital.

Back then in 1985, it was the typhoon season, wet and rainy. We sat out on the covered balcony sharing a two-seater wrought iron sofa, the only one about. Cory had a grayish embroidered dress. Her ivory face framed with short dark curls gave her a youthful look. She wore spectacles. The 53-year-old widow and mother of five preferred talking about her kids and playing ‘Mahjong’ with her sisters instead of politics that was going to be my scoop for the interview. Her friends, notably the octogenarian ‘Chino’ Roces, the powerful publisher of Manila Times, were persuading her to challenge Marcos. 'I told them to get me a million signatures and then I’ll decide,' she said with her soft smile. 'I was not prepared to fight Mr Marcos especially after my husband was assassinated on the tarmac when he returned from the US in 1983. I was to follow after packing up home at Boston where Benigno was a Harvard scholar. Those three years were our happiest,' she said, lifting her glasses to wipe a tear.
Cory was shy with people. 'I hate writing my speeches, nor am I a good speaker,'she admitted. With a twinkle in her eye, she confided, 'I tried to be smart by recycling my speeches, until one day a dear friend of mine who had heard me deliver the same speech at another event came up to me and said ‘But you made this speech only yesterday!’'

While the widow received unstinted support, love and respect from ordinary Filipinos, she was insecure and very sensitive to criticism. 'I’d often cry when people said mean things about me. Out would come the Mahjong table and my sisters would always make me win! I love playing Mahjong.' Me too, I told her. So instead of hardcore politics, here were we talking about ‘Pung and Kong,’ ‘Heavenly twins and Unique Wonders.’ My interview with Cory was arranged by her best friend, Leticia (I forget her last name) who was the editor of the influential journal Mr & Ms. 'When Letty called with the interview request, I couldn’t refuse her even though I had to be by my mother’s side,' Cory told me. Another subject that brought a big smile on her solemn face was when she talked of her kids, especially Kris, the youngest. 'She wants to become a TV star,' said the proud mother, 'She’s very good before the camera. She tutors me what to wear for TV interviews.'

As we shook hands and I wished her the best, she chipped in, 'If I’m elected president, you must come and visit.'

On return to Karachi, where I lived then, I did a profile of Cory Aquino along with the photo I had taken of her.

Philippines and Pakistan were under Marcos and Zia dictatorships. 'A swallow does not a summer make,' wrote the military counselor at the embassy of Philippines in Islamabad when my column appeared. His officious letter, addressed to my editor at Star, Zohra Yusuf, stated that Cory Aquino was just a housewife taking a cheap shot at popularity. Star had no business printing such slanderous stuff against 'our beloved President Marcos.'

Six months later, the counselor had to swallow his words. Cory swept into power and remained at the helm for five years. She was human, humble and well aware of her failings. Driving into the sunset-streaked Manila skyline that afternoon, the last thing I could ever imagine was Cory returning to Makati Medical Centre 24 years later to die.

What I did know, however, was that this wonderful person very soon would make history as the first woman president in Asia and the first in the Philippines!

www.anjumniaz.com