MANILA, 2 July 2005 — For discouraging another “people power” uprising to punish a president accused of cheating, the widow who once inspired millions of Filipinos to stop tanks and topple a dictator is now seen as a villain.

Former President Corazon C. Aquino, the woman who helped topple two governments on EDSA, had tried to dissuade actress Susan Roces, widow of actor Fernando Poe Jr., from leading an uprising that could propel herself to power.

Roces had become a rallying point for the divided opposition since she came out and openly accused President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of “stealing the presidency, not once but twice.”

Congress is investigating opposition charges that Arroyo had told an election official to rig the May 2004 election and give her a 1-million margin over Poe, her closest rival who later died late last year of stroke.

Aquino on Thursday said she called Poe’s widow on Wednesday night to caution her to adhere to the rule of law and not be swayed by hotheads. She said she “made it clear” to Roces that she would always stand by the Constitution in effecting “even the most difficult political changes.”

Leftists and other critics joined former President Joseph Estrada in lambasting Mrs. Aquino for her stance even though she herself was installed to the presidency by “people power.”

“It is immoral for Corazon Aquino and others to condone the crimes of Gloria M. Arroyo and help to keep her in power. Aquino is the least qualified to advise Susan Roces on the rule of law,” said Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines who is in self-exile in the Netherlands.

Aquino had never filed an electoral protest to prove legally that she had been cheated by Marcos or lodged impeachment proceedings against him, recalled Sison, who was freed from prison by Mrs. Aquino when she became president in 1986.

The uprising that is now known as EDSA I ended the dictatorship for Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986 as the military withdrew support to his administration. Marcos and his family were flown by the US government to Hawaii, where he died of illness in 1989.

In what is now known as EDSA II, it was then Vice President Gloria Arroyo who became president when the military withdrew its support to President Estrada in January 2001.

Nilo dela Cruz, head of a breakaway group of the communist New People’s Army, said the country may not be in such a “grave political and economic situation right now” had Aquino not failed to institute genuine reforms following Edsa I.

Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said Aquino should stop playing “guardian angel” to Arroyo and “be courageous enough to burn bridges with Malaca?ang.”

Aquino’s son, Tarlac Rep. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, a member of the joint House committee also disappointed his colleagues in the House when he voted on Thursday night against the playing of the audio tape containing Arroyo’s alleged conversations with the poll official on rigging the election last year.

Mariano said that “the people knew very well why Mrs. Aquino is doing these things for the Arroyo administration.

“They (Aquino’s actions) are no less than a political payback,” said Mariano, noting that Arroyo was the “most powerful and influential patron” of the Cojuangco-Aquinos in the Hacienda Luisita dispute.

Arroyo knew what transpired during the Hacienda Luisita massacre, he said. (With input from Inquirer News Service)