Revisiting the Aquino Magic Mae Urtal Caralde, MA Media Studies (Film) INTRODUCTION RESULTS Ninoy’s body left untouched by CONCLUSION Aquino Magic is the distinct embalmers, with his blood-stained Pseudo-democracy The Aquino formation of a Filipino imaginary, suit and gunshot wounds visible to the Magic only provided using the images of the Cory cronyism viewing public, crystallized the notion Filipinos with false hope of martyred Sen. Benigno replaced Marcos’ of martyrdom, the idea of redemption freedom and democracy while freeing ‘Ninoy” Aquino and former crony capitalism; and immortality. the government from accountability. It president Corazon ‘Cory’ 1987 Mendiola exhausted the utility of death and the Aquino as prime materials that massacre claimed notion of martyrdom in the creation of incite ‘people power’ to oust a the lives of 13 an icon. It is most effective in extending dictator or demand change in peasants in a neo-liberalism down to the population’s government. demonstration technologies of the self and in the This study examines Aquino calling for fashionable and popular operation of Magic as to: genuine land reform; and renewed communicative capitalism. To break • how it was exhausted to intensify alliances with the US with the the spell of the Aquino Magic, Filipinos US imposed neoliberal policies agreement to maintain US bases and must regain and retrieve a more implement IMF imposed structural meaningful version of people power. • how necropolitics, as a particular adjustment programs. type of biopolitics, is at play in Aquino Magic and its contemporary Philippine politics The Neo-liberal individual: I am REFERENCES: Ninoy-I am Cory Communicativity Dean, Joni (2010), Communicative Capitalism: • how communicative capitalism Private companies like ABS-CBN of Circulation and the Foreclosure of Politics, http:// The potential for commonconf.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/proofs-of- ensures an unobtrusive public the Lopezes supported the 1986 EDSA tech-fetish.pdf opinion by accentuating collective action or people power Uprising and became instrumental in Gatmaytan, Dante B. (2006) It’s All the Rage: necropolitics in the name of the reproduction of Aquino Magic. Popular Uprisings and Philippine democracy while effacing the is discouraged Democracy (Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal; Feb, symbolic efficacy of people’s power. and replaced with Media hype over the coverage of 2006) retrieved from Proquest January 27, 2014. individual self- Cory Aquino’s burial, exudes an Roces, Mina (2000).Women, power and kinship poli- improvement and illusion of democracy, participation and tics : female power in post-war Philippines. Pasig METHODOLOGY self-fulfillment. The I interconnectedness while effacing the City, Anvil Publishing. symbolic efficacy of people’s power. Rodrigo, Raul and Roces, Marian P., (2009) Cory Qualitative approach is employed am Ninoy-I am Cory Magic: Her People’s Stories (Quezon City: ABS- by closely examining texts, images, campaign was reduced to a fashion CBN Publishing Inc.) web and print publications, films and merchandise. Films: videos that highlight the Aquino Magic Bio-politics and Necropolitics of Salamat, President Cory: 1933-2009 A Tribute to the phenomenon. Mother of Philippine Democracy. the Aquino Magic Produced by Eugenio Lopez III and Charo Santos- Textual analysis is guided by the The Aquino Magic interpellates the Concio, ABS-CBN, 2009 theories on neoliberalism, Foucault’s individual to render self-sacrifice, by The Last Journey of Ninoy: as told through the last theory of biopolitics and Dean’s internalizing the values set by Ninoy interview of Cory. Directed by Jun communicative capitalism. Reyes, Produced by Benigno Aquino Jr. Foundation and Cory while sparing the government and Unitel Productions, 2009 from its obligations to the people.

UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES MAPUA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY College of Mass Communication School Of Multimedia and Visual Arts contact details: [email protected] Graduate Studies Department Intramuros, Manila, Philippines