Excerpts from Time Magazine
Corazon Aquino's Life in Photos
Stand-Off and then a Catholic Rebellion
Two weeks of a tense political stand-off occurred; U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who had long professed friendship with Marcos, sent in an envoy to suggest Aquino share power with the dictator. She refused, feeling it repugnant to be asked to work with a man she believed had ordered her husband's murder. Then, Marcos' Defense minister and the second-in-command of the armed forces led a mutiny against the regime; the Roman Catholic Cardinal of Manila, Jaime Sin, gave up all pretense of neutrality and ordered the faithful in the streets to support the mutineers in the name of Aquino. They came out in the millions.
Madame President
On Feb. 25, even as Marcos appeared to be adamant about remaining president, Aquino was sworn in by a justice of the Supreme Court as the first woman to lead the Philippines. In Washington, meanwhile, seeing the populace turn against his friend, Reagan called Marcos and convinced him to leave the Philippines for exile in Hawaii. The man who had ruled the Philippines for two decades said farewell to his loyalists as his wife Imelda sang a final song. Then they took off for American territory on U.S. Helicopters.