Politics & Power Quote by Corazon Aquino

Aquinas line reads like a gentle scolding wrapped in democratic principle: if you are “wilting” under press criticism, the problem is less the headlines than your thin skin. The phrasing is pointed. “Withering criticisms” concedes the media can be harsh, even unfair in tone, but she refuses to grant leaders the luxury of self-pity. Her prescription is strategic humility: don’t take it personally; reframe it as accountability.

The subtext is shaped by her biography. Aquino came to power after the Marcos dictatorship, when “clean and honest” wasn’t a slogan so much as a national repair job. In a post-authoritarian setting, the press isn’t just another interest group; it’s a newly re-oxygenated institution whose job is to make secrecy expensive. Calling the media “allies” is a deliberate inversion of the autocrat’s reflex to treat reporters as enemies of the state. She’s trying to re-train the political immune system: criticism is not infection, it’s antibodies.

There’s also a warning embedded in the civility. Leaders who personalize scrutiny tend to retaliate, and retaliation is how democracies quietly relapse. Aquino argues for a different kind of strength: the ability to absorb public interrogation without turning governance into a vendetta. Even the unfinished tail of the sentence (“its services...”) hints at the practical aim: a press that nags, exposes, and embarrasses can improve not just integrity but delivery. In her telling, discomfort is a feature of democracy, not a bug.