Corazon Aquino- Klaudine Capistrano

The Corazon Aquino Interview

*Some words my dad said were translated because spoken to me in tagalog in some parts*
For my first interview I had was my dad, Al Capistrano. I’ve known my dad all my life and it was really cool, being able to talk to him about his experiences during The Cold War and his opinions on the effects Corazon Aquino had made in the Philippines. The aspect of the Cold War I’m asking my dad about is how the allies with the US and the Philippines tied in with how Corazon Aquino and how she was affected with The Cold War during her elections He had been a student at the time and he thinks that nothing really affected his studies during that time, He was about 24 years old at the time and he is happy to say it was a wonderful thing to live through so much history..

Do you remember the day Philippines had Corazon Aquino’s as president?
Yes I do. It’s great to know you have such interest in our country. Cory Aquino was such a monumental hero to everyone in the Philippines, remember when she just died last year? It was the saddest thing. I remember when all my friends and I traveled all the way to Quezon City just to hear her inauguration speech, and we lived in Baguio which is pretty far from each other.

And so how was that like being able to see her being elected as president?
It was great, me and my friends had about P100($10) in our pockets, it really wasn’t much but it was worth being able to be there. Before she was elected, the Philippines was in control of Ferdinand Marcos. He was a big shot dictator of the Philippines and well everyone really didn’t like him, so that was why they wanted to elect Cory. He had laws that the people in the Philippines really disagreed with, and there was this big thing about how, instead of making Philippines a better country, he made it worse and made us much more poor by paying for all these programs, that wasn’t even needed, but instead put everyone in National debt.

Wow. Not only was he a dictator, but he was president for quite sometime back then. So how did this tie in with Cory Aquino, how did she get involved?
Well I’m pretty sure you know that, It all started with her husband right Ninoy (Benigno) Aquino. Well, when he was running for president, she was always the one like giving him opinions. She used to I study law at her old school I guess. That’s how she gave him some of her opinions. After he died, she then wanted to carry on her husbands unfinished legacy. People didn’t really think she had the right background to be able to serve a country, but since people didn’t like Marcos, people were going to give it a shot.

What was so bad about Marcos that everyone seems to not like so much?
Well, I really don’t remember why but it had something to do with how he had this weird law that said that if the government couldn’t handle any political or physical aspect the Philippines ,The New People’s Army was going to supposedly fix it. I’m not so sure. But I do remember this huge riot that happened in Batangas City and how kids about 12 years old or so, were talking about burning down the City hall in Quezon City. Also they were like communist rebels and they had this type of gun, you could’ve injured someone with but you couldn’t really kill anybody with it, and they were going to shoot the soldiers in The New People’s Army with it.

How did that turn out? Was that successful in any way?
No, I would say not even close. But it really did grab everyone’s attention. I don’t even think Marcos cared that much about it. But there was a huge political riot that happened there, they started burning down the US flag and ran around screaming “Laban ang Bayan!” (meaning: Fight for your City). It was pretty crazy. Oh yeah.. there was also this rule which was pretty silly that Marcos had, that got us out of school for like a month. It was something about attending his appearances whenever he comes to the city and when he does we pay the bank like about P30 (5 Cents). It was weird..

Wow, I never read about that tell me more, did he ever go to you city?
Yes he did and whenever he did we had to pay the bank, he said it was some sort of tax. It was call “Matakot sa Pera” (fear of the money). I know, pretty weird name, well that wasn’t really what the rule was called. It more like what we say to everyone in our city when it’s time to pay up. Funny story about that when the Japanese were there.

That is a pretty weird way of calling a rule, funny. I think they had a movie in that same title out before. So what was the story behind the Japanese?
Well during WWII, The Japanese was some town in the Philippines and the Japanese would always sell gold there to the rich Filipinos. But what happened was they hid the gold under a tunnel. So one day, a man named Rogelio Roxas found the gold. It was the craziest thing. Later on, Marcos apparently stole it from him and that was how Marcos is so rich and powerful.

What an interesting story, and Marcos seems like he’d do anything for fame and greed. So you said the Japanese was in the Philippines, weren’t they against each other during the Cold War?
The WWII Is very different from The Cold War. In WWII, the Japanese and the Filipinos were against each other. Now, during the Cold War the Filipinos were allied with the US with this one treaty org. That was called SEATO, After the start of the war of terror, the Philippines was part of this coalition that gave support to the US of Iraq. Also SEATO was part of a Truman doctrine anti-communist defense treaty. These treaties and agreements were intended to create alliances that would contain communist power. Philippines were also part of Korean and Vietnam Wars ally with the US.

That’s really fascinating. Was SEATO a successful organization?
Yes it was, it was successful Org. it was I think allied with Southeast Asian countries. I heard that Corazon Aquino was part of this Organization i’m not so sure.

Cool! Thanks dad so much, for your help and it was nice talking to you :)
It’s been a pleasure, and I hope your project goes well.