e stopped by nuns kneeling in their path, saying the rosary. Old women went up to gun-toting marines and disarmed them with motherly hugs. Little girls offered their flowers to hardened combat veterans. In the face of such quiet heroism, thousands of Marcos loyalists simply broke down in tears. Enrile and Ramos staged their revolt in Manila, Cory, 350 miles away in Cebu, at first lay low in a Carmelite monastery. But as the revolution continued, she hurried back to Manila, ready to take charge. Only eight hours after the election, in the face of widespread cheating by Marcos forces, she seized the initiative by declaring herself the winner. She would accept nothing less than Marcos' removal from office. She told the supporters of Marcos, "Do not threaten Cory Aquino, because I am not alone”. The day after her victory, Aquino found herself in charge of one of the world's most desperate countries, burdened with a foreign debt of $27 billion. Soon enough the new leader's innocence and inexperience showed. She instantly dissolved parliament, ruled by decree, and had all the country's governors and mayors, regardless of performance, replaced with sometimes unqualified people of her own. She then switched to the other extreme, often indecisive over critical decisions. As the year wore on, Cory the Chief Executive and the Commander in Chief, gradually began to prove as surprising as Cory the Symbol. She fired Enrile, the man who had helped put her in power. Four days later, she concluded the first cease-fire in the 17 years of the Communist insurgency. At year's end, as the Philippines prepared for a nation-wide plebiscite in February on a new constitution, Aquino remained decidedly stressed. To come to power, Aquino had only to be herself, a symbol of sincerity and honesty. To stay in power, she had to transcend herself. After ten months in office, it was not just her softness that impressed, but the unexpected toughness that underwr...
