Word: aquinos
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Since she came to power, however, Aquino has systematically gone about stilling many of those doubts. Before visiting her in Manila in May, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz privately expressed doubts about her ability to govern. Afterward, and ever since, the normally poker-faced Secretary has fairly glowed at the very mention of Aquino's name. When Cory spoke before a joint session of Congress, she received the most thunderous reception given any foreign leader in more than a generation. Indeed, the entire U.S. tour, observed a State Department official who accompanied her, was "staggeringly successful. She had hard...
...first ten months as President, Aquino has already begun to freshen up the office with an honesty and humility rarely seen in political circles. Before her U.S. visit, for example, she exasperated Philippine couturiers, accustomed to the imperial Imelda, by refusing to spend more than $40 on any dress. She still prefers not to be called "Madam," an honorific she feels was stained by the former First Lady. In many ways, in fact, she seems as open as before. Upon learning that a local journalist had won a grant to study in the U.S., the President stunned the woman...
That unassuming style reflects a person with a very precise sense of herself and her limits. Aquino recognizes the vanity of vanity. "I've reached a point in life," she says, "where it's no longer necessary to try to impress. If they like me the way I am, that's good. If they don't, that's too bad." It is that same kind of detached self-possession that enables her, in the midst of pandemonium, to remain as composed as a sermon. "A single word of anger from her or any suggestion of violence ((at Ninoy's funeral...
...presidency yet smudged her sense of priorities. The eldest of Cory's four daughters, Maria Elena ("Ballsy") Cruz, 31, is still her private secretary, and her only son, Benigno III ("Noynoy"), 26, was one of her emissaries to the Communists. Aquino attends no more than three formal dinners a week, and the day on which the historic cease-fire with the Communists was signed found her marking what would have been her husband's 54th birthday with Cardinal Sin and her one-year-old grandson Justin Benigno. Being a grandmother, she says, makes her happier than being President...
With her moral -- even moralistic -- strictness, Aquino can at times treat even her Cabinet colleagues with the kind of affectionate sternness she lavishes on her children. She allows no smoking in her office, and she expects all the President's men to be prompt and tireless. Once she told Chief Speechwriter Teodoro Locsin to dress less like a gangster. The faint air of maternalism is heightened by her habit of referring to "my people," "my Cabinet," and even, most disconcertingly, "my generals...