To stay alive when the stakes were that high.

Setting aside personal political alignment, whether you affiliate as progressive, liberal or Duterte supporter.

Benigno Aquino Jr. was by all accounts, exceptional. Awarded the Philippine Legion of Honor at 18 for journalism conducted in the Korean War. Mayor of Concepcion by 22, governor of Tarlac by 29. Negotiated a rebel group's surrender.

Cory on the other hand, was a house wife. No political skills, no experience, nothing to show on her resumé but compared to her husband who had no reason to come back to the Philippines in 1983 at the height of the Marcos dictatorship's turmoil, she stayed alive.

As the 1986 election came to a close, COMELEC declared Marcos the winner. But as widespread outrage grew and grew, his key supporters instead of gunning down the protesters as what happened in the previous events where widespread protests occurred, chose to resign government posts. Military officials and leading political figures followed suit and joined the protests.

Why then? At the turning point of history, why didn't the military gun down civilians all the same. Marcos was dying of lupus, he cannot give his cronies goodies from beyond the grave and add to that the political turmoil late in his dictatorship, it was prime ground for an opposition candidate to challenge him and disrupt the balance of power.

Despite having zero political experience Cory Aquino, by her decision, the urging of her council or simply by chance did what her husband failed to do, staying alive and doing nothing when it was needed and acting at the right time.