Aquino to attend
2 isle events
Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino is expected to arrive in Honolulu tomorrow for a brief visit to receive an award from the East-West Center Foundation.
Public appearances
Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino is set to attend two functions while in Honolulu:>> Tuesday, 3 p.m., at the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu. Aquino will celebrate the second anniversary of the FilCom Center. The public is invited to attend.
>> Wednesday, 7 p.m., at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Coral Ballroom. Aquino will be presented the Asia Pacific Community Building Award by the East-West Center Foundation. She will deliver the keynote speech at 8 p.m.
The foundation plans to present Aquino with its Asia Pacific Community Building Award at its annual dinner on Wednesday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village's Coral Ballroom. She was chosen to receive the award for restoring democracy in her country, according to the foundation.
Aquino, 71, was the Philippines' first female president, serving from 1986 to 1992. Her husband, Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated in August 1983 on his arrival in the Philippines after years in exile in the United States.
Benigno Aquino, a young politician, was a rival of former President Ferdinand Marcos. He was one of the first people who was arrested when Marcos declared martial law in 1972.
His assassination sparked an uproar in the Philippines and pushed his widow, a housewife and mother of five, into the public eye.
"She became a symbol of opposition to the Marcos regime," said Dean Alegado, chairman of the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of Hawaii-Manoa.
Aquino became president in February 1986 after Marcos was driven into exile in Hawaii, where he died in 1989.
Aquino was named one of the 20 most influential Asians of the century in the August 1999 issue of Time Magazine.
Throughout the years, she has received many honorary degrees and awards, including the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize, the Pearl S. Buck Woman's Award and the J. William Fulbright Award.
Aquino is the third recipient of the Asia Pacific Community Building Award. The others were Dr. Genshitsu Sen, former grandmaster of the Urasenke Tea Tradition, and Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons Ltd., the lead holding company of Tata Group, India's largest industrial conglomerate.
Charles Morrison, president of the East-West Center, said the award is given to individuals who have helped bring peace and prosperity to their region or community.
"She (Aquino) was associated with bringing back democracy after the Marcos period," said Morrison.
Aquino will also make a public appearance at the Filipino Community Center in Waipahu to celebrate its second anniversary. Alegado, board member of the FilCom Center, said that to many she represents hope and democracy.
Through Aquino, he said, "'people power' entered our vocabulary. ... She was a catalyst for having a democratic system developed."
Alegado stressed, however, that more needs to be done for the Philippines to attain democracy.
"The struggle continues," he said.
Government of the Philippines
www.gov.ph
Filipino Community Center
www.filcom.org East-West Center Foundation
www.eastwestcenter.org/about-se.asp
