Corazon Aquino of the Philippines, the country's icon of democracy, is suffering from colon cancer, her family said yesterday.

The 75-year-old was diagnosed with the disease just two weeks ago, her daughter Kris said in an emotional address on national television. She will start chemotherapy today.

Aquino, known as Cory to millions of Filipinos, was president from 1986 to 1992. But she is remembered, more than two decades after the fact, as the slim woman in yellow who led the "People Power" revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos.