That was enough to bring down dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She was a homemaker when her husband, Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, was assassinated in 1983, upon his return to Manila from exile in Massachusetts. When Marcos called a snap election in 1986, "Cory" emerged as his rival. Her challenge to a fraudulent vote count raised an urgent moral question: Shouldn't the trappings of democracy actually mean something?