Maria Corazon Aquino

          Maria Corazon Aquino was a very important figure in Filipino politics.  She was born in Tarlac, Philippines, on January 25, 1933.  She went to school in Manila until she was thirteen, and then she went to the States to study in Philadelphia and New York City.  She then got at bachelor's degree in French and math at the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York.  After that, she went back to the Philippines to go to another school and met the man who would later become her husband:  Benigno Aquino Jr.  They married in 1954 and had five children.  Benigno quickly became an important political figure.  During a twenty-year period of time, he became mayor, governor, and senator.  He began to challenge the Filipino president, Ferdinand Marcos. 

          Marcos had become president in 1965, and ended up taking away the democratic rights of his people.  His presidency was corrupt, and he arrested those opposing him, including Benigno.  Benigno spent seven years in prison before he was exiled to the United States for three years with his family.  When he arrived back in the Philippines in 1983, he was promptly killed by two soldiers.  Marcos was believed to be behind Benigno's assassination, and a wave of angry opposition struck the president.  He quickly called for presidential elections, and the candidate running against him was none other than Maria Corazon Aquino.  When she lost against him, she and her supporters questioned the results of election.  The army and the defense minister decided to support Aquino, and Marcos was exiled to Hawaii.  Aquino became the first female president of the Philippines in 1986.  During her six years of presidency, Aquino struggled with the economical problems with her country and defeated rebellions made by Marcos' supporters.  She retired from office in 1992, and died of colon cancer in 2009.
          I chose Maria Corazon Aquino for this blogpost, because I thought that she was someone who accomplished a lot in her life, but I'd never heard of her so I wanted to learn more about her.  She ended the reign of a corrupt ruler over her country and became the first female Filipino president.  I admire the fact that, even after Marcos assassinated her husband, she still had the courage to oppose him in presidential elections.  I also like her determination to win against Marcos, even though it had been announced that she'd lost against him. 

Resource:
http://www.biography.com/people/corazon-aquino-9187250?page=1