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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-9/cory-1987-sm.webp" alt="Corazon Aquino" />
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(Cory Aquino)
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The paralysis of the Aquino government has become apparent to the world, even to the U.S. press, which had portrayed Aquino as the heroine who rescued the Philippines. In the face of the national crisis, Aquino had canceled trips to ASEAN and the Vatican scheduled for October 1987. In addition, the other ASEAN nations, looking askance at the escalating internal strife in the Philippines, were threatening to cancel the December 1987 ASEAN heads of state summit sited in Manila.

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In an attempt to make a clean slate of it all, Cory on September 9, 1987 accepted the resignations of her entire cabinet. The idea for the mass resignation reportedly originated with Finance Minister Jaime Ongpin, in a likely bid to force out his chief opponent, presidential executive secretary Joker Arroyo. It took a full two weeks for the dust to settle, before Mrs. Aquino announced the changes that had been made:
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Salvador "Doy" Laurel resigned as foreign minister and refused re-appointment, although he remained vice president. The move highlighted the increasing disaffection between Aquino and Laurel, whose uneasy alliance in 1986 was a precondition for the downfall of President Ferdinand Marcos. Laurel, with presidential aspirations of his own, had signaled that he no longer wanted to be hitched to Aquino's wagon. His replacement as foreign minister was retired  General Manuel Yan, who moved up from his post as deputy foreign minister. <br/><br/>
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Finance Minister Ongpin was replaced by Vicente Jayme, a technocrat in the finance ministry who was not expected to buck Ongpin's policies of obeisance to the International Monetary Fund. Although Aquino was then reportedly looking for a replacement for Ongpin's sidekick, Central Bank chief Jobo Fernandez, she had found none, at the time. <br/><br/>
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Defense Minister Rafael Ileto had been retained. However, informed sources from reported that without informing Ileto, Aquino offered Jose Laurel III, of the Laurel family, the post of both defense and foreign minister. The offer was turned down. <br/><br/>
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Joker Arroyo has been removed from his post as presidential secretary. Arroyo's ouster was a concession to the military, which hates Arroyo for his record of defending terrorists as a "human rights" attorney. However, his influence was expected to remain; his replacement was Catalino Macaraig, Arroyo's deputy, whom he appointed seven months ago. 
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In short, although the shifts were designed to give a more "right-leaning" appearance to the Aquino government, the cabinet reshuffle resembles so much shuffling of the deck chairs on the Titantic. The military continued to be bitterly opposed to Aquino, based on the perception that Aquino continued to play an even-handed policy between the military and the New People's Anny insurgency, which would lead to an inevitable victory for the NPA.
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At the same time, Aquino's popularity was fast eroding, as the attempted coup functioned to tear up the Cory myth. In Manila, citizens were sporting tee-shirts that say "Cory-Sorry." 
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Disaffection with the government was heightened when Leandro Alejandro, the young secretary general of the BAYAN or Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, was gunned down on September 19, 1987. 
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The paralysis of the Coy Aquino government; mass resignation of her cabinet in 1987