Maggie Fox, Hero of the Philippine Revolution with a medal to show for it

Maggie Fox, health and science editor, has been recalling her time in the thick of political turmoil in Manila - and how she was awarded a medal as a Hero of the Philippine Revolution.

Before she joined Reuters 19 years ago Fox worked as a journalist for the US Mutual Radio news network in Manila in 1986 when Corazon Aquino challenged Ferdinand Marcos for the presidency, won, and proceeded to lead the peaceful revolution that made him relinquish power. Aquino died on Saturday at the age of 76.

Now based in Washington, Fox remembers looking down in disbelief from the roof of the Manila Hotel with several dozen other foreign journalists at a shouting sea of yellow on a brilliantly sunny morning.

"We were in the middle of a remarkable revolution. Cory Aquino, a soft-spoken, unglamorous, motherly figure, was about to drive out of office the powerful and corrupt Ferdinand Marcos - without any bloodshed.

“We didn't know it, but we, the journalists, were part of the story. Tens of thousands of her ‘people power’ supporters rallied around the hotel. Dressed in yellow, they were not planning to charge Malacanang Palace, where Marcos and his family were holed up, defying the results of the election that Aquino had won just days before.

“They were not planning to seize weapons and fight the military. They just hoped that by turning out, singing, shouting Cory’s name, and literally showing their colors, they'd shame Marcos into conceding.

“It worked. Just weeks later, Marcos and his family fled Manila in the middle of the night, leaving wondering crowds to shuffle through his palace, discovering Imelda's fabulous shoe collection and leaving the Filipino people free to choose their own leaders.”

As they followed the poll monitors, the journalists themselves became election observers. “In crowds so packed no one could move, a path would miraculously open when a group of journalists approached. ‘You are welcome here,’ the smiling demonstrators would say.

“As Aquino rallied on the island of Cebu, I hopped onto an open truck loaded with television camera operators to see better. People in the crowd approached the truck, just to reach up and touch our hands. We were supposed to be neutral observers, but somehow, we were actors too.

“The next night, I joined a crowd besieging Malacanang Palace back in Manila. Rocks were thrown, and I thought, ‘This is it. Now the violence will start.’ Instead, in the middle of the night, the crowd surged and I found myself among those wandering through the abandoned palace.”

It was over.

“A few months later, a package arrived at my home in Hong Kong. It contained a medal. Those of us who had covered the events of February and March 1986 had been declared Heroes of the Philippine Revolution.” ■