Three’s a charm for a living memorial.
In 1995, Corazon Aquino to come to campus to deliver the commencement address and receive the first honorary degree conferred by the UO in 50 years. Aquino was the heroine of the People Power Movement that toppled Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. At the time of her visit, a tree was planted in her honor -- but this was to be the first of three trees planted (the first two perished).
Last April, history professor Glenn May wrote a commentary for the Eugene Register Guard describing his role in persuading Aquino to come to campus and the subsequent “saga of the Cory tree,” as he calls it. His story is reprinted here with the permission of the Register Guard.
Aquino’s UO tree a symbol of hope
Like the democracy she fought for, the memorial had a difficult beginning
“In the Philippines, usage of the yellow ribbon first gained prominence in the 1980s during the martial law era as a symbol of opposition by Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. In 1983, after three years of self-exile in the United States, Aquino flew back to the Philippines. Inspired by the song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando and Dawn, his supporters tied yellow ribbons along the streets of Metro-Manila to welcome him back ... . As he stepped off the plane at the Manila Airport, Aquino was shot and killed.”
— Wikipedia.
In 1993, a group of students at the University of Oregon got the very bright idea of inviting Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, Benigno Aquino’s widow and the heroine of the People Power Movement that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, to the campus to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary degree.
The university had not conferred an honorary degree in almost 50 years, and the students reckoned that Cory Aquino was the right person to break the tradition.
Not long after that, someone in the university administration called me to see if I would sound Cory Aquino out about coming. It was, on the face of it, a formidable assignment.
Although I had spent a significant part of my life in the Philippines, I had never met Cory Aquino, who had only recently stepped down from the presidency of the country and was at that time one of the best known political figures in the world.
But, I did have a close friend from graduate school days — Edilberto de Jesus (known as DJ to his friends) — who was close to President Aquino, having served as a member of her Cabinet. I contacted DJ, who in turn contacted Cory, who indicated that she’d be willing to speak to me about the possibility of her traveling to Oregon.
I met with Cory Aquino at her offices in Metro-Manila in November 1993, with DJ in attendance. She was charming, funny and otherwise delightful, and we talked about everything but the commencement address and honorary degree.
At the meeting’s end, she turned to DJ and me and explained that, while she had a full schedule in June 1994, she might be available in June 1995. I decided at that very moment that my future lay in diplomacy.
The truth was that DJ had done all the work.
In June 1995, Cory came to Oregon and conquered, wowing the students, faculty, administrators and beaming parents at the commencement ceremonies with her words and charm. Three of her daughters came along, and they wowed us, too.
In April 1997, she returned to the university for several days as the Carlton Raymond and Wilberta Ripley Savage Visiting Professor in International Relations and Peace, her visit including a public lecture and participation in UO classes. When Cory Aquino passed away in August 2009, a victim of colon cancer, the UO lost a valued friend.
But this column is not about Cory Aquino alone. It’s also about her tree — or, to be precise, her trees.
In December 1995, six months after President Aquino’s triumphant first trip to Oregon, the UO administration held a tree-planting ceremony on the campus to honor her and commemorate her historic visit. The selected tree was a big-leaf Oregon maple , and the selected location was in the vicinity of Collier House, a building that once was the residence of the university’s presidents. A bronze plaque was placed at the tree base, and the following words were chosen to appear on it:
In Honor of Corazon C. Aquino
President
Republic of the Philippines 1986-1992
Champion of Democracy
Ph.D. (Hon.) June 11, 1995
DJ, who had by now become president of a Philippine university, attended the ceremony, along with UO officials and local dignitaries.
Sorry to say, the tree did not flourish. Shortly after the planting, I visited the tree site and discovered that the word “Philippines” was spelled incorrectly on the plaque. After I reported the error to someone in the administration, the original plaque disappeared and a new, corrected one replaced it.
Then the tree died. In an eerie way, the saga of the Cory tree was mirroring historical developments in the Philippines in the post-Marcos era. The restoration of democratic institutions did not lead automatically to a smoothly functioning democratic government. Sometimes, democratic shoots don’t take.
Still, we at the University of Oregon were persistent, and in time our highly regarded arborists planted a new tree, again an Oregon maple, at the site of the old one. The new one grew, albeit not all that rapidly, and I thought that the situation was finally under control.
Alas, sometime after Cory passed away, the second Cory tree died, too. I cannot assign an accurate date of death. All I know for sure is that one day, as I was taking a walk in the vicinity of Collier House, I saw the plaque but no tree.
I did not immediately report the missing tree to anyone in authority.
“What’s the point?” I said to myself. “People die, trees die.” Cynicism had taken hold of me.
Several months later, however, in October 2010, I had an e-mail exchange with Dave Frohnmayer, the former president of the UO, who had hosted Cory’s two visits to our campus and is one of her biggest fans. In a postscript, I wrote the following: “Did you know that the Cory Aquino tree planted in front of Collier House died (again)? Do you know anyone on campus who might be able to plant a replacement tree?”
Those simple questions produced a frenzy of activity. Frohnmayer sent a copy of my postscript to someone in the university hierarchy, and before you could say “People Power,” lots of people were in motion. Tree specialists were again consulted and new theories were developed to explain the deaths of the Cory trees.
DJ weighed in as well: “What is the matter with you guys? I did not realize it was so difficult to grow trees in Oregon!”
I am pleased to report that this activity has produced a happy result — thus far, at least. Dave Hubin, who is senior assistant to the current university president and a very able guy, took charge of the Aquino tree replacement project, and a few weeks ago, he sent me the following report:
“I write to update you on the honoring tree for President Corazon Aquino. We learned from our arborists that the original location was not optimal for that tree’s health. Therefore, we found a new location — one that is more prominent — and now have a healthy vibrant tree in a great spot.”
The new location is at the main west entrance to the campus. Corazon Aquino’s visit to us in 1995 was of profound institutional significance, and we certainly want it to be memorialized visibly.
If you happen to be in the vicinity of the UO campus, be sure to pay a visit to the new Cory Aquino tree.
It honors an individual of extraordinary courage who was, as the plaque reminds us, a champion of democracy. And if you are a religious person, let me encourage you to say a prayer for Cory, her tree and her country. Democratic shoots, fragile as they are, need all the help they can get.
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