President Rodrigo Duterte downplayed the legacy of former President Corazon Aquino who’s known for leading the People Power Revolution in 1986 to topple the Marcos Administration.
In a speech before the agrarian reform beneficiaries in Davao City, Duterte said that Cory Aquino only became popular after his husband, former Senator Ninoy Aquino passed away.
“Cory Aquino may be popular. She is popular today. Why? For losing the husband in the hands of [late President Ferdinand] Marcos,” Duterte said.
He also criticized the agrarian reform program of Aquino, saying that she decided to distribute millions of hectares of land around the country, except Hacienda Luisita.
Hacienda Luisita is the biggest plantation in Tarlac province thaw was owned by the Cojuangco and Aquino family.
In 2011, the Supreme Court decision said that 4,915 hectares of Hacienda Luisita should be distributed to 6,296 beneficiaries of the land reform program by Aquino.
“Aquino declared land reform for the entire Philippines but exempted Doña Luisita, her own land,” Duterte said.
“She said, ‘I would like to declare land reform in all of the Philippines.’ … She exempted her [land]… So you call her what? The one who freed, emancipated… It’s incongruity, they call it,” he added.
Cory only entered politics after her husband passed away and led the Filipinos to a bloodless revolution in EDSA.
She’s also the first woman President of the Philippines who served from 1986 to 1992.
Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, son of Cory Aquino also became the President of the country, one year after the latter passed away.