As our country bled . . . its leader's wife came to this podium piously to call for a new human order, this when thousands of Filipinos were political prisoners.

It is true you cannot eat freedom and you cannot power machinery with democracy. But then neither can political prisoners turn on the light in the cells of a dictatorship.

I know there isn't anything I can do that will please everybody. But if I have done according to my beliefs, I sleep very very well.

You, the foreign media, have been the companion of my people in its long and painful journey to freedom.

Keep inviolate an area of light and peace within you.

I guess my religious faith sustained me more than anything else. Family is also very important. If I didn't have children, it would have been too difficult. Even if you are strong, you still need people who would support you all the way.

I know my limitations, and I don't like politics. I was only involved because of my husband.