25 FEBRUARY

1986 - Corazon "Cory" Cojuangco Aquino is sworn in as the new President of the Philippines under street protest circumstances, helping put an end to nearly 14 years of dictatorship under Ferdinand E. Marcos who is flown by a United States helicopter to Hawaii; the installation of "Cory" into the presidency followed four days of peaceful "People Power" street protests after Defense Chief Juan Ponce Enrile and Vice-Chief-of-Staff Fidel Ramos holed themselves up in mutiny against Marcos; Cory, who ran against Marcos during the February 7 'Snap Polls' but officially lost, with her camp claiming poll fraud,  is the widow of opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy"Aquino whose assassination in 1983 has been widely blamed on the administration of the ailing strongman; Marcos, who would die years later while in Hawaii, and his family would later tell of how the imperialist U.S., long-time supporter of the Marcos' regime , deceived them into thinking that they were being airlifted to their home province of Ilocos Norte instead of outside the country; that the Bald Eagle government decided to surreptitiously ditch Marcos in recent years will later be revealed amidst information that the dreaded U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has, through  the CIA-linked  National Endowment for Democracy, heavily funded the National Movement for Free Elections the "citizen's arm" that  trended in favor of Aquino (in contrast to the official Commission on Elections count that showed Marcos as the leading candidate) before abruptly stopping its quick count; the legacy of EDSA I would also be a subject of controversy--whether it truly restored democracy and improved the plight of the Filipinos or whether  it even set back the Philippines' economic development, lowered the living standard, and undermined or worsened the state of national independence in favor of compradors co-opted by the imperialist America.


Photo credit: http://www.prepys.com/