She also received the center's Asia Pacific Community Building Award for putting the country on a democratic path. After decades of dictatorship by Ferdinand Marcos, Aquino's achievement made her "the Nelson Mandela of the Asia-Pacific region," said Charles Morrison, East-West Center president.

"She would have gladly deferred to anyone else who could have done the job," he said, "but the people decided that only she could do the job."

Outside the ballroom, bidders set down what would be considered small fortunes in the Philippine villages for gleaming treasures at the silent auction, including a still life painted by Aquino and titled "Eleven Roses."

Albert del Rosario, Philippine ambassador to the United States, joined Gov. Linda Lingle and former Gov. Ben Cayetano among the political glitterati in attendance. Angela Baraquio Grey, the former Miss America, emceed.

Plates were laden with duck lumpia and kalamansi sorbet alongside the beef Wellington; bibingka alongside a white-chocolate shell stuffed with tapioca mousse. Filipino music brightened the mood further.

After dinner, however, the time had come for more sober notes, as all heard Aquino describe her nation's capital as a city where more than half the residents are classified as "poor" or "very poor."

"The national figures are even worse," she added. "Of 84 million Filipinos, 64 percent are poor and very poor."

Shrinking that number has become a primary focus for Aquino, who said she has abandoned 12 years of endorsing candidates and leading political rallies against "coup plotters, ambitious politicians and bad governance."

Aquino said this year she turned her attention instead into pressing people to go out to vote and urging the presidential candidates to fight fair. The results, she said, were less than satisfying: The recent election of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo followed "the slowest election count in the world."

"We saw partisan groups try to replicate previous manifestations of People Power by whipping up their followers to mass up and protest alleged poll irregularities," she said. "The fact that they failed shows that there is no magic wand to summon People Power."

Aquino acknowledged that when the country marked the 20th anniversary last year of the death of her husband, opposition leader Benigno Aquino, the crowds could not compare to the masses that poured to the streets immediately after his death. That assassination sparked the People Power revolt.

But the strength of the movement has shifted, she said, from street demonstrations to quieter work by civic organizations, church groups and corporations building classrooms and homes and training the disadvantaged for jobs. Aquino supports what she now calls the "People Power People Movement."

The Roman Catholic Church has launched several initiatives. The archbishop of Manila, Gaudencio Rosales, asked Catholics to donate 25 centavos — less than half a U.S. cent — toward a fund to develop programs for the poor.

Aquino admitted that the controversy over the recent election results may have distracted attention from more noble efforts.

"Our politicians remain polarized and passions continue to run high," she said. "From where you stand, the Philippines must look like a failing democracy. I assure you that it is not.

"The Philippines is, in effect, still a fledgling democracy. But we are getting there, with the grass-roots approach of civil society in empowering our people from the bottom up."