Philippines' Aquino has cancer

Corazon Aquino of the Philippines, whose conquest of one of the 20th century's most corrupt dictators made her an icon of democracy across the world, is suffering from colon cancer, her family said today.

The 75-year-old was diagnosed with the disease just two weeks ago, her daughter Kris said in an emotional address on national television. She will start chemotherapy tomorrow.

Ms Aquino, known as Cory to millions of Filipinos, was president from 1986 to 1992. But she is remembered, more than two decades after the fact, as the slim woman in yellow who led the "People Power" revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The tumultuous events of those weeks in 1986, which culminated when up to 1 million people waving rosaries and flowers stopped tanks advancing towards Aquino-backed army rebels, became a fairy-tale revolution that gripped the world.

When a bewildered Marcos and his wife Imelda fled the nation, it set a stirring precedent for dissidents everywhere, from South Africa to South America to Pakistan.

Ms Aquino was hailed as a modern-day Joan of Arc. But she was a reluctant leader at the start, shedding the housewife's apron only after her husband Benigno was assassinated at Manila's international airport on his return from exile in the United States.

Inevitably, her presidency was less successful than the revolution, with a series of coup attempts by the military keeping the administration hamstrung. Ms Aquino was much lauded for her courage, but rarely seemed to be able to get on top of ruling the country.

"I have not always won but ... I never shirked a fight," she said in 1992 before handing power over to her successor, Fidel Ramos. But she did oversee the writing of a new constitution, which among other things limited a president's time in office to one six-year term.

She brought half a million people onto the street in the 1990s when her successor Ramos flirted with the idea of trying to extend his term in office. She was involved in the protests that brought an end to the presidency of Joseph Estrada in 2001, and has supported the campaign to remove current President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The presidential palace said it was saddened by the news of Ms Aquino's illness. "I'm sure that the President will be one with us in praying for her speedy recovery," President Arroyo's spokesman said.