Ex-US envoy Kenney 'disowns' leaked comments on Cory Aquino

Former US Ambassador to Manila Kristie Ann Kenney on Wednesday disowned a WikiLeaks article where she was quoted as calling the late former President Corazon Aquino “only a partial icon of morality." In a post on her Twitter account, Kenney asked the public not to believe everything they read. “Good morning! Don’t believe all you read," she said. Kenney is now posted in Bangkok. A WikiLeaks entry had quoted a July 2009 cable from Kenney calling Mrs. Aquino an icon of democracy but only a partial icon of morality. “[Mrs.] Aquino’s credibility as a moral crusader was tarnished when she was seen with disgraced former President [Joseph] Estrada in protest movements against then-President [Gloria] Arroyo — even after she supported then-Vice President Arroyo’s 2001 successful ‘second People Power’ revolt, which ousted President Estrada," she was quoted as saying in the cable. Mrs. Aquino, who died on Aug. 1, 2009, had been tagged an “icon of democracy" after she ran against strongman Ferdinand Marcos in the 1986 snap elections. In 2001, she helped oust ex-President Estrada over corruption charges. But she turned against eventual President Arroyo in 2005, after a scandal involving tapped conversations that suggested cheating in the 2004 elections broke out. — JE, GMA News