President Cory could have made herself a president for life. There were no constitutional barriers had she chose to go where almost all the other so-called leaders have been doing for the longest time. Nobody, not anyone from civil society, business, even from the military, could have prevented her from assuming the mantle of power so coveted by every power-hungry and delusional politician.

She chose to hand over the seat of power to her successor. She chose to leave to her successor a government she had to defend with her life and those of her family from too many coup attempts by disgruntled armed forces almost universally averse to seeing civilians as their superiors.

While her administration may not have been universally acclaimed and admired by the general population – her government made some missteps and some really stupid mistakes (frequent brownouts, anyone?) – Filipinos will forever be grateful for her making the supreme sacrifice that any politician of any shade can make, and most likely won’t. Letting go of power voluntarily is, after all, a rare virtue around here, especially among politicians.

Definitely, Tita Cory is never your typical politician.

Her strength – her power and her ability to inspire and influence people – rests not in her being a president or her family being wealthy. It instead flows, and most people can see and feel this, from her unwavering commitment to justice and fairness, and her willingness to offer and give up everything, even those that she holds dear and close to her heart, for what she believes in.

Would that our present leaders and politicians even begin to learn from her examples.

Online Attacks

Internet security companies, such as Boston-based SophosLab US , have sounded the alarm: Unsafe, malicious Web sites are on the rise.