IT'S A STUDY in contrast, the way Cory and Gloria have comported themselves.

Cory came to power by being the Asian Joan of Arc, the housewife who rose from obscurity and stormed the ramparts of tyranny at the head of her countrymen. When those ramparts fell, others tried to seize the crown. Chief of them Juan Ponce Enrile, who figured that his change of heart at the 11th hour, holing up in Camp Crame with a slew of rebels, and who was promptly rescued from a fate worse than (his) life by Jaime Cardinal Sin, had given him a claim to it. The public did not buy it and gave the mantle to Cory though she had been nowhere near the camps on those fateful days. She might not have been there in body, but she was there in spirit, like a gaseous emanation suffusing every pore of the event.

Gloria came to power by being the Asian whatever, hiding behind the skirts of Cory and Sin while the battle raged, and emerging from them when the smoke had cleared to claim the throne. It was the nation's misfortune that Cory and Sin did not read the signs early on, though they were writ large on the wall, and helped her get it.

Cory gave up her office when her time was up, like she said she would. She could have gotten around the constitutional ban on a second term on some pretext or other, but she did not. Though she could easily have posed as the country's savior, she did not. She believed in giving a good example, she believed that the democracy she helped restore rested on institutions and not on individuals, on the people and not on messiahs.

Her example was lost on her protégé. Gloria said she would not run again because if she did she would bring upon this country "never-ending divisiveness." She lied about the first, she told the truth about the second.

During the inauguration of her successor, Fidel V. Ramos, Cory insisted on riding in an ordinary car without escorts, despite pleas from her aides that she go there with a little more pomp and circumstance befitting her giant stature. But her logic was impeccable: She was no longer President Cory, she was Citizen Cory. Give unto presidents what are the presidents' and to citizens what are the citizens'.

Though having been put in Malacañang for the second time by Garci and not by God, Gloria goes everywhere with pomp and circumstance unbefitting her (legally and morally) tiny stature. The traffic in Baguio was rerouted to accommodate her. Her justice secretary justifies the iniquitous use of police escorts and sirens for government officials by saying their time is more precious than that of ordinary citizens. Doing what? Lying, cheating and stealing?

Cory is held in the highest esteem abroad, having achieved world-class status by birthing the political phenomenon of people power, which countries like Burma are desperately trying to imitate. When she adds her voice to the universal call for Aung San Suu Kyi to be released from house arrest and for the Burmese junta to hold free elections, the world applauds and Suu Kyi herself is eternally grateful.

Gloria has achieved world-class status by turning the Philippines into the most corrupt country in Asia and the second most dangerous country in the world for journalists. When she adds her voice--and rather shrilly too in meetings of world leaders--to the universal call for Suu Kyi to be released from house arrest and for the Burmese junta to hold free elections, the world jeers and the Burmese junta itself is eternally grateful.

Cory is loved by her people, and though she is no longer the political force she once was (the loss of Sin has diminished her), she continues to command respect where politics meets morality. Ramos has been trying hard to look like an elder statesman since he became ex-president and succeeded only in looking old and overstated. Cory it is who has stepped into that role without trying, quite apart from her other role as spiritual leader of the nation.

Gloria is loved by, well, her family and pets, though even her family and pets might dispute that. As to the rest of the country, Pulse Asia's latest survey sufficiently shows how Filipinos feel about her: three out of five of them distrust her, the other two probably being deaf and mute. Elsewhere in the world you get ratings like those, whether you are the legitimate leader or not, you slink away in shame and never show your face in public again. Here, you get ratings like those, even though you are not the legitimate president--or probably precisely because of it--you strut around like a presidential Pacquiao.

Cory will not hide her plight from the nation, telling it she has colon cancer, an affliction that is not of her making. Of course, she has also asked the nation to respect her privacy and not inquire too closely about her condition or the medical regimen she means to go through. She is a profile in courage.

Gloria will not tell the nation of its plight, which is that it is being ravaged by a cancer of her making. Of course, she keeps asking the nation to give her more time to find the cure, when an instant one can be had by her disappearing from view. She is a profile in outrage.

When Cory announced she had cancer, even tough guys like Alfredo Lim broke into tears. "She is a good lady, she was a good president," was all Lim could say, and it was more than enough, it said it all. The nation wept and prayed that somehow God in His infinite mercy and wisdom would find a way to keep Cory much much longer than 2010, well unto the richness of her years.

When Gloria announces she has boils, there will be massive defections from the ranks of atheists into the ranks of theists. More Filipinos will believe there is a God.

Cory is a class act.

Gloria is a crass act.