By Raissa Robles – President Corazon Aquino was an “ordinary housewife” who was constantly attacked – literally – by military rebels. She stood up to them and saw them off.

Would her critics have been as tough?

What would the country be like if President Cory had given up because of any of the coups that took place from 1986 to 1989?

To begin with there’s a strong likelihood Juan Ponce Enrile would have replaced her as leader of a military-civilian junta. The country would have hurtled toward a dark, uncertain future of intermittent coups and counter-coups.

Enrile himself indicated as much in the memoirs he published in 2012. But more on that later.