GEPH REVIEWER
- Historia became known as the account of the past
Introduction to studying History
- Philippine History viewed from the lens of selected
primary sources in different periods, analysis and
interpretations.
- Primary sources written (qualitative and quantitative),
oral, visual, audio-visual, digital-covering various
aspects of Philippine life (political, economic, social,
cultural).
- Students are expected to analyze the selected readings
contextually and in terms of content (stated and
implied). The end goal is to enable students to
understand and appreciate our rich past by deriving
insights from those who were actually present at the
time of the event.
Context analysis considers the following:
1. the historical context of the source [time and
place it was written and the situation at the
time],
2. the author’s background, intent (to the extent
discernable), and authority on the subject;
and
3. the source’s relevance and meaning today.
Content analysis
- on the other hand, applies appropriate techniques
depending on the type of source (written,
oral,visual). In the process students will be asked,
for example, to identify the author’s main
argument or thesis, compare point of view,
identify biases, and evaluate the author’s claim
based on the evidences presented or other
available evidence at the time.
- The course will guide the students through their
reading and analysis of the texts and require them
to write reaction essays of varied length and
present their ideas in other ways (debate format,
power point presentation, letter to the editor of
the source, etc).
Meaning and Relevance of history
- Derived from the Greek word “historia” which
means “knowledge acquired through inquiry or
investigation”
- Existed 2,400 years as old as mathematics and
philosophy.
of a person or of a group of people through
written documents and historical evidences.
- It became an important academic discipline
- Focused on writing about wars, revolutions, and
other important breakthroughs.
- Nobilities, monarchs, the elite and even middle
class would have their information as matters of
government and historical record.
History
- in the absence of written documents
- Historians used other kinds of historical sources.
- Ex. Oral traditions in forms of epics and songs,
artifacts (with the aid of archaeologists),
architecture and memory.
 Archaeologist (artifacts)
 Linguist (tracing historical evolutions, past
connections among different groups, and flow
of cultural influence by studying language,
and;
 Scientists like biologists and biochemists
(analyzing genetic and DNA patterns of human
societies.
Historian
- Gives meaning to the facts
- Organizes the information to timeline, establish
causes and write history
- A person of his own who is influenced by his own
context, environment, ideology, education and
influences.
- His subjectivity will inevitably influence the process
of his historical research.
- Historical research requires rigor.
- The study of history remains scientific.
- Historical methodology comprises certain
techniques and rules that historians follow in order
to properly utilize sources and historical evidences
in writing history.
- Historians study the past by: primary, secondary,
and tertiary sources
Primary sources
- These are contemporary accounts of an event,
written by someone who experienced or witnessed
the event in question. These original documents
(i.e., they are not about another document or
account) are often diaries, letters, memoirs,
journals, speeches, manuscripts, interviews and
other such unpublished works.
 GEPH REVIEWER
- They may also include published pieces such as Historical Facts
newspaper or magazine articles (as long as they
- Ferdinand Magellan first landed in the Philippines
are written soon after the fact and not as historical
in 1521. The name Philippines comes from Philip II
accounts), photographs, audio or video recordings,
who was the king of Spain during the 16th century
research reports in the natural or social sciences,
when the country became a Spanish colony.
or original literary or theatrical works.
- In 1965 Ferdinand Marcos was elected president.
- Object
He declared martial law in 1972, which lasted until
Secondary sources 1981. After 20 years of rule, Marcos was driven
from power in 1986. Corazon Aquino became
- The function of these is to interpret primary
president and instituted a period of democratic
sources, and so can be described as at least one
rule in the country.
step removed from the event or phenomenon
- Many Filipinos have Spanish names because of a
under review. Secondary source materials, then,
19th-century Spanish decree that required them to
interpret, assign value to, conjecture upon, and
use Spanish surnames, or last names. Parents
draw conclusions about the events reported in
often name their children after the saint whose
primary sources.
feast day was on the day of their birth.
- These are usually in the form of published works
- The Capital of the Philippines is Manila.
such as journal articles or books, but may include
- The Official language of the Philippines is Filipino
radio or television documentaries, or conference
(based on Tagalog)
proceedings

Tertiary sources
Content analysis
- These are sources that index, abstract, organize,
- applies appropriate techniques depending on the
compile, or digest other sources. Some reference
type of source (written, oral,visual). In the process
materials and textbooks are considered tertiary
students will be asked
sources when their chief purpose is to list,
- example:
summarize or simply repackage ideas or other
 to identify the author’s main argument or
information. Tertiary sources are usually not
thesis
credited to a particular author.
 compare point of view
Criticism of the Source  identify biases
 evaluate the author’s claim based on the
1. External criticism
evidences presented or other available
- The practice of verifying authenticity of
evidence at the time.
evidence by examining its physical
- The course will guide the students through their
characteristics; consistency with the
reading and analysis of the texts and require them
historical characteristics of the time when it
to write reaction essays of varied length and
was produced; and the materials used for the
present their ideas in other ways (debate format,
evidence (quality of the paper, type of the
powerpoint presentation, letter to the editor of
ink, language and words used in the material)
the source, etc).
2. Internal criticism
- The examination of truthfulness of the Context analysis considers the following:
evidence.
1. the historical context of the source [time and place
a. Content of the source
it was written and the situation at the time],
b. Context
2. the author’s background, intent (to the extent
c. Agenda behind its creation
discernable), and authority on the subject; and
d. Knowledge which informed it
3. the source’s relevance and meaning today.
e. Intended purpose

First Voyage Around the World by

Content and contextual analysis of
selected primary sources Magellan by Antonio Pigafetta:
Analysis of Pigafetta's Chronicles
 GEPH REVIEWER
From the chronicles of contemporary voyagers and
navigators of the 16th century.
Antonio Pigafetta
- Circumnavigation of the world with Ferdinand
Magellan
- His works were used by prominent literary men
like Shakespeare, Michel de Montaigne and
Giambattista Vico in their interpretation of the
New World
- His travelogue is one of the most important
primary sources in the study of pre-colonial
Philippines and the events leading to Magellan’s
arrival in the Philippines.
Examining the document:
- Reveals several insights not just the character of
the Philippines during the Pre-colonial period but
how the fresh eyes of the Europeans regard deeply
unfamiliar terrain, environment, people and
culture.
Pigafetta’s first hand observation and general impression of
the Far East including their experiences in the Visayas.
Ladrones Islands or the “Islands of the Thieves”
“These people have no arms, but use sticks, which have a
fishbone at the end. They are poor, but ingenious, and
great thieves, and for the sake of that we called these three
islands the Ladrones Islands”.
Presently known as the Marianas Islands
Ten days after reaching Ladrones Island, Pigafetta reported
that they reached what Pigafetta called the isle of Zamal
now Samar but Magellan decided to land in another
uninhabited island for greater security.
March 18, 9 men come to them and showed joy and
eagerness meeting them.
In exchange, the natives gave them fish, palm wine, figs,
rice, cocos and food supplies.
Pigafetta detailed in amazement and fascination.
“This palm produces a fruit names cocho, which is large as
the head, or thereabouts: its first husk is green, and two
fingers in thickness, in it they find certain threads, with
which they make the cords for fastening their boats. Under
this husk there is another very hard, and thicker than that
of a walnut. They burned this second rind, and make with it
a powder which is useful to them. Under this rind there is a
white marrow of a fingers thickness, which they eat fresh
with meat and fish, as we do bread, and it has the taste of
almond, and if anyone dried it he might make bread of it.”
Pigafetta described the people as “very familiar and
friendly”
Willingly showed them different islands and the names of
this islands.
They went to Humunu Island (Homonhon) (Watering Place
of Good Signs) where they found the first signs of gold in
the island.
They named the island with the nearby islands as the
Archipelago of St. Lazarus March 25, they saw two ballangai
(balangay)
A long boat full of people in Mazzava/ Mazaua.
The leader (king) (Raia Siagu) sent his men to the ship of
Magellan.
The king offered to give Magellan a bar of gold and chest of
ginger; Magellan declined. Instead, Magellan asked for
money for the needs of his ships. The king responded by
giving them the needed provisions and food in chinaware.
Magellan exchanged gifts of robes in Turkish fashions, red
cap, knives and mirrors.
The two men expressed their desire to become brothers.
Magellan also boasted of his men in an armor who could
not struck with swords and daggers. The king was
fascinated and remarked that men in such armor could be
worth one hundred of his men.
Magellan showed other weapons, helmets and artilleries.
He also shared his charts and maps and how they found the
islands.
Magellan was introduced to the king’s brother who was
also king of another island.
They went to this island and they saw mines of gold.
The gold was abundant that the parts of the ship and the
house of the second king were made of gold
RAIA CALUMBA
- King of Zuluan and Calagan (Butuan and Caragua)
- Pigafetta described him as the most handsome of
all men that he saw in this place.
- He was adorned with sick and golden accessories
like golden dagger, which he carried with him in a
wooden polished sheath
MARCH 31 (Easter Sunday)
- Magellan ordered the chaplain to preside a Mass
by the shore.
 GEPH REVIEWER
- The king sent two dead pigs and attended the
Mass with the other king.
- “…when the offertory of the mass came, the two
kings, went to kiss the cross like us, but they
offered nothing, and at the elevation of the body
of our Lord they were kneeling like us, and adored
our Lord with joined hands.”
- -After the Mass, Magellan ordered that the cross
be brought with nails and crowned in place.
- Magellan explained that the cross, the nail, and
the crown were the signs of his emperor and that
he was ordered to plant it in the places that he
would reach and the cross would be beneficial for
their people because once the Spaniards saw this
cross, then they would know that they had been in
this land and would not cause them troubles, and
any person who might be held captives by them
would be released
APRIL 7, 1521
- Magellan and his men reached the port of Cebu,
the largest and the richest of the islands with the
helped of Raia Calambu.
- The king of Cebu (Rajah Humabon) demanded that
they pay tribute as it was customary but Magellan
refused.
- Magellan said that he was the captain himself and
thus would not pay tribute to the other king
Magellan’s interpreter explained to the king of
Cebu that Magellan’s king was the emperor of the
great empire and that it would do them better to
make friends with them than to forge enmity.
- The king consulted his council and the next day,
together with the other principal men of Cebu,
they met in an open space and the king offered a
bit of his blood demanded that Magellan do the
same.
- “Then the king said that he was content, and as a
greater sign of affection he sent him a little of his
blood from his right arm, and wish he should do
the like. Our people answered that he would do it.
Besides that, he said that all the captains who
came to his country had been accustomed to make
a present to him, and he to them, and therefore
they should ask their captain if he would observe
the custom. Our people answered that he would:
but as the king wished to keep up the custom, let
him begin and make a present, and then the
captain would do his duty.”
- Magellan spoke about peace and God. People took
pleasure in his speech.
- Magellan asked the people who would succeed the
king after his reign and the people responded that
the eldest child of the king, who happened to be a
daughter, would be the next in line.
- Parents were no longer taken into account and has
to follow the orders of their children as the new
leaders of the land.
- People wished to become Christians through their
free will and not because they were forced or
intimidated.
APRIL 14
- The people gathered with the king and other
principal men of the island.
- Magellan spoke and encouraged the king to be a
good Christian by burning all the idols and worship
the cross instead.
- The king of Cebu was baptized as Christians.
- “To that the king and all his people answered that
thy would obey the commands of the captain and
do all that he told them. The captain took the king
by the hand, and they walk about on the
scaffolding, and when he was baptized he said
- that he would name him Don Charles (Carlos), as
the emperor his sovereign was named: and he
named the Prince Don Fernand (Fernando), after
the brother of the emperor, and the king of
Mazavva Jehan: to the Moor he gave the name of
Christopher, and to the others each a name of his
fancy.”
APRIL 26
Zula, a principal man from the island of Matan (Mactan)
went to see Magellan and ask him a boat full of men so that
he could fight the chief name Silalapulapu (Lapulapu).
According to Zula, Lapulapu refused to obey the king and
was also preventing him from doing so.
Magellan offered three boats and went to Mactan himself
to fight Lapulapu.
“When we reached land we found the islanders fifteen
hundred in number, drawn up in three squadrons; they
came down upon us with terrible shouts, two squadrons
attacking us on the flanks, and the third in front. The
captain then divided his men in two bands. Our musketeers
and crossbow-men fired for half an hour from a distance,
but did nothing, since the bullets and arrows, though they
passed through their shields made of thin wood, and
perhaps wounded their arms, yet did not stop them.
They arrived in Mactan in daylight with 49 in numbers while
the islanders of Mactan were estimated to number 1500.
The captain shouted not to fire, but he was not listened to.
The islanders seeing that the shots of our guns did them
little or no harm would not retire, but shouted more loudly,
 GEPH REVIEWER
and springing from one side to the other to avoid our shots,
they at the same time drew nearer to us, throwing arrows,
javelins, spears hardened in fire, stones and even mud, so
that we could hardly defend ourselves. Some of them cast
lances pointed with iron at the captain-general.”
Magellan died in the battle.
The natives perceiving that the bodies of the enemies were
protected with armors, aimed for their legs instead.
Magellan was pierced with a poisoned arrow in his right leg.
A few of their men charges at the natives and tried to
intimidate them by burning an entire village but this only
enraged the natives further.
Magellan was specifically targeted because the native knew
he was the captain general.
Magellan was hit with a lance in the face. Magellan
retaliated and pierced the same native with his lance in the
breast and tried to draw his sword but could not lift it
because of his wounded arms. One native with a great
sword delivered a blow in Magellan’s left leg, brought him
face down and the natives ceaselessly attacked Magellan
with lances, swords and even their bare hands
“Whilst the Indians were thus overpowering him, several
times he turned round towards us to see if we were all in
safety, as though his obstinate fight had no other object
than to give an opportunity for the retreat of his men.”
The king of Cebu who was baptized could have sent help
but Magellan instructed him not to join the battle and stay
in the balangay so that he would see how they fought.
The king offered the people of Mactan’s gifts of any value
and amount in exchange of Magellan’s body but the chief
refused. They wanted to keep Magellan’s body as a
moment of their victory.
Duarte Barbosa is elected as the new captain.
Henry, Magellan’s slave and interpreter betrayed them and
told the king of Cebu that they intended to leave as quickly
as possible.
The slave allegedly told the king that if he followed his
advice, the king would acquire the ships and the goods of
Magellan’s fleet.
The two conspired and betrayed what was left of
Magellan’s men.
The king invited these men to a gathering where he said he
would present the jewels that he would send for the King of
Spain.
Twenty-four men attended while Pigafetta was not able to
joined because he was nursing his battle wounds.
The natives had slain all the men except the interpreter and
Juan Serrano who was already wounded.
The fleet departed and abandoned Serrano.
They left Cebu and continued their journey around the
world.
From the original five ships set to sail (San Antonio,
Concepcion, Victoria, Trinidad and Santiago) only Victoria
returned to Spain.
And from the original 237 men only 18 men survived.
Analysis of Pigafetta’s Chronicles
- “The best storyteller is the one who not only
knows the story but saw it.”
- One of the earliest written accounts.
- Pigaffetta was seen as a credible source for a
period, which was prior unchronicled and
undocumented.
- Earliest detailed documentation.
- It was believed that Pigafetta’s writings account for
the “purest” precolonial society.
- Pigafetta’s work is a great importance in study and
writing of Philippine history.
- Pigafetta’s description to people was coming from
sixteenth century European perspective.
- Pigaffetta regarded the indigenous belief systems
and way of life as inferior to Christianity and of the
Europeans.
- He always remarks on the nakedness of the natives
or how he was fascinated by their exotic culture.
- He emphasized the native’s amazement and
illiteracy to the European artillery, merchandise
and other goods.
- We should recognize certain biases accompanying
the author and his identity, loyalties, and the
circumstances that he was in; and how it affected
the text that he produced.
- We need to understand that he was a chronicler
commissioned by the King of Spain to accompany
and document a voyage intended to expand the
Spanish empire. A noble descent who came from a
rich family in Italy.
- These attributes influenced his narrative, his
selection of details to be included in the text, his
characterization of the people and of the species
that he encountered, and his interpretation and
retelling of the events.
- Being a scholar of cartography and geography,
Pigafetta was able to give details on geography
 GEPH REVIEWER
and climate of the places that their voyage has
reached.
14 Rules in Kartilya
1. Ang kabuhayang hindi ginugugol sa isang malaki at
banal na kadahilanan ay kahoy na walang lilim, kun
di damong makamandang.
- The life that is not consecrated to a
lofty and reasonable purpose is a tree
without a shade, if not a poisonous
weed.
2. Ang gawang magaling na nagbubuhat sa pagpipita
sa sarili, at hindi talagang nasang gumawa ng
kagalingan, ay di kabaitan
- To do good for personal gain and not
for its own sake is not virtue.
3. Ang tunay na kabanalan ay ang pagkakawang gawa,
ang pagibig sa kapwa at ang isukat ang bawat kilos,
gawa’t pangungusap sa talagang katuiran.
- It is rational to be charitable and love
one’s fellow creature, and to adjust
one’s conduct, acts and words to
what is in itself reasonable
4. Maitim man at maputi ang kulay ng balat, lahat ng
tao’y magkakapantay: mangyayaring ang isa’y
higtan sa dunong, sa yaman, sa ganda…, ngunit di
mahihigtan sa pagkatao.
- Whether our skin be black or white,
we are all born equal: superiority in
knowledge, wealth and beauty are to
be understood, but not superiority by
nature.
5. Ang may mataas na kalooban inuuna ang puri sa
pagpipita sa sarili; ang may hamak na kalooban,
inuuna ang pagpipita sa sarili sa puri.
- The honorable man prefers honor to
personal gain; the scoundrel, gain to
honor.
6. Sa taong may hiya, salita’y panunumpa.
- To the honorable man, his word is
sacred.
7. Huwag mong sayangin ang panahun: ang yamang
nawala’y mangyayaring magbalik; ngunit panahung
nagdaan na’y di na muli pang magdadaan.
- Do not waste thy time: wealth can be
recovered but not time lost.
8. Ipagtanggol mo ang inaapi; kabakahin ang umaapi.
- Defend the oppressed and fight the
oppressor before the law or in the
field.
9. Ang taong matalino’y ang may pagiingat sa bawat
sasabihin, at matutong ipaglihim ang dapat
ipaglihim.
- The prudent man is sparing in words
and faithful in keeping secrets.
10. Sa daang matinik ng kabuhayan, lalaki ay siyang
patugot ng asawa’t mga anak: kung ang umaakay ay
tungo sa sama, ang pagtutunguhan ng inaakay ay
kasamaan din.
- On the thorny path of life, man is the
guide of woman and the children,
and if the guide leads to the
precipice, those whom he guides will
also go there.
11. Ang babai ay huwag mong tignang isang bagay na
libangan lamang, kun di isang katuang at karamay
sa mga kahirapan nitong kabuhayan; gamitan mo
nag boong pagpipitagan ang kaniyang kahinaan, at
alalahanin ang inang pinagbuhatan at nagiwi sa
iyong kasanggulan.
- Thou must not look upon woman as a
mere plaything, but as a faithful
companion who will share with thee
the penalties of life; her (physical)
weakness will increase thy interest in
her and she will remind thee of the
mother who bore thee and reared
thee.
12. Ang di mo ibig na gawin sa asawa mo, anak at
kapatid, ay huag mong gagawin sa asawa, anak at
kapatid ng iba.
- What thou dost not desire done unto
thy wife, children, brothers and
sisters, that do not unto the wife,
children, brothers and sisters of thy
neighbor.
13. Ang kamahalan ng tao’y wala sa pagkahari, wala sa
tangus ng ilong at puti ng mukha, wala sa
pagkaparing kahalili ng Dios, wala sa mataas na
kalagayan sa balat ng lupa: wagas at tunay na mahal
na tao, kahit laking gubat at walang nababatid kun
di ang sariling wika, yaon may magandang asal, may
isang pangungusap, may dangal at puri; yaon di
nagpapaapi’t di nakikiapi; yaong marunong
magdamdam at marunong lumingap sa bayang
tinubuan.
- Man is not worth more because he is
a king, because his nose is aquiline,
and his color white, not because he is
a *priest, a servant of God, nor
because of the high prerogative that
 GEPH REVIEWER
he enjoys upon earth, but he is worth
most who is a man of proven and real
value, who does good, keeps his
words, is worthy and honest; he who
does not oppress nor consent to
being oppressed, he who loves and
cherishes his fatherland, though he
be born in the wilderness and know
no tongue but his own.
14. Paglagalap ng mga aral na itoat maningning na
sumikat ang araw ng mahal na Kalayaan dito sa
kaabaabang Sangkapuluan, at sabugan ng matamis
niyang liwanag ang nangagkaisang magkakalahi’t
magkakapatid na ligayang walang katapusan, ang
mga ginugol na buhay, pagud, at mga tiniis na
kahirapa’y labis nang natumbasan.
- When these rules of conduct shall be
known to all, the longed-for sun of
Liberty shall rise brilliant over this
most unhappy portion of the globe
and its rays shall diffuse everlasting
joy among the confederated brethren
of the same rays, the lives of those
who have gone before, the fatigues
and the well-paid sufferings will
remain. If he who desires to enter
(the Katipunan) has informed himself
of all this and believes he will be able
to perform what will be his duties, he
may fill out the application for
admission.
Kartilya ng Katipunan and Analysis
KKK - Kataastaasan, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan ng mga
Anak ng Bayan.
Envisioned because of:
(1) a united Filipino nation that would revolt against the
Spaniards
(2) total independence of the country from the Spain.
Katipunan created a complex structure and a defined value
system that would guide the organization as a collective
aspiring for a single goal.
The original title of the document: “Manga Aral Nang
Katipunan ng mga A.N.B”
Written by Emilio Jacinto in 1896
Reading the Proclamation of the
Philippine Independence
“Taking into account the fact that the people of this country
are already tired of bearing the ominous joke of Spanish
domination,”
“Because of arbitrary arrests and abuses of the Civil Guards
who cause deaths in connivance with and even under the
express orders of their superior officers who at times would
order the shooting of those placed under arrest under the
pretext that they attempted to escape in violation of known
Rules and Regulations, which abuses were left unpunished,
and because of unjust deportations of illustrious Filipinos,
especially those decreed by General Blanco at the
instigation of the Archbishop and friars interested in
keeping them in ignorance for egoistic and
selfish ends, which deportations were carried out through
processes more execrable than those of the Inquisition
which every civilized nation repudiates as a trial without
hearing.”
We recognize, approve, and ratify, with all the orders
emanating from the same, the Dictatorship established by
Don Emilio Aguinaldo whom we reverse as the Supreme
Head of this Nation, which today begins to have a life of its
own, in the conviction that he has been the instrument
chosen by God, in spite of his humble origin, to effectuate
the redemption of this unfortunate country as foretold by
Dr. Don Jose Rizal in his magnificent verses which he
composed in his prison cell prior to his execution, liberating
it from the Yoke of Spanish domination in punishment of
the impunity with which their government allowed the
commission of abuses by its subordinates.”
And lastly, it was results unanimously that this Nation,
already free and independent as of this
day, must use the same flag which up to now is being used,
whose designed and colored are
found described in the attached drawing, the white triangle
signifying the distinctive emblem of
the famous Society of the "Katipunan" which by means of
its blood compact inspired the
masses to rise in revolution; the tree stars, signifying the
three principal Islands of these
Archipelago - Luzon, Mindanao, and Panay where the
revolutionary movement started; the sun representing the
gigantic step made by the son of the country along the path
of Progress and Civilization; the eight rays, signifying the
eight provinces - Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, Nueva
Ecija, Bataan, Laguna, and Batangas - which declares
themselves in a state of war as soon as the first revolt was
initiated; and the colors of Blue, Red, and White,
commemorating the flag of the United States of America, as
 GEPH REVIEWER
a manifestation of our profound gratitude towards this
Great Nation for its disinterested protection which it lent us
and continues lending us.”
Speech before the joint session of
the United States Congress - Sept.
18, 1986
Mr. Speaker, Senator Thurmond, Distinguished members of
Congress.
Three years ago I left America in grief, to bury my husband,
Ninoy Aquino. I thought I had left it also, to lay to rest his
restless dream of Philippine freedom. Today, I have
returned as the President of a free people.
In burying Ninoy, a whole nation honored him by that brave
and selfless act of giving honor to a nation in shame
recovered its own. A country that had lost faith in its future,
founded in a faithless and brazen act of murder. So, in
giving we receive, in losing we find, and out of defeat we
snatched our victory. For the nation, Ninoy became the
pleasing sacrifice that answered their prayers for freedom.
For myself and our children, Ninoy was a loving husband
and father. His loss, three times in our lives was always a
deep and painful one. Fourteen years ago this month, was
the first time we lost him. A president-turned-dictator and
traitor to his oath, suspended the constitution and
shutdown the Congress that was much like this one before
which I'm honored to speak. He detained my husband along
with thousands of others - Senators, publishers, and anyone
who had spoken up for the democracy as its end drew near.
But for Ninoy, a long and cruel ordeal was reserved. The
dictator already knew that Ninoy was not a body merely to
be imprisoned but a spirit he must break. For even as the
dictatorship demolished one-by-one; the institutions of
democracy, the press, the congress, the independence of a
judiciary, the protection of the Bill of Rights, Ninoy kept
their spirit alive in himself.
The government sought to break him by indignities and
terror. They locked him up in a tiny, nearly airless cell in a
military camp in the north. They stripped him naked and
held a threat of a sudden midnight execution over his head.
Ninoy held up manfully under all of it. I barely did as well.
For forty-three days, the authorities would not tell me what
had happened to him. This was the first time my children
and I felt we had lost him.
When that didn't work, they put him on trial for subversion,
murder and a host of other crimes before a military
commission. Ninoy challenged its authority and went on a
fast. If he survived it, then he felt God intended him for
another fate. We had lost him again. For nothing would
hold him back from his determination to see his fast
through to the end. He stopped only when it dawned on
him that the government would keep his body alive after
the fast had destroyed his brain. And so, with barely any life
in his body, he called off the fast on the 40th day. God
meant him for other things, he felt. He did not know that an
early death would still be his fate, that only the timing was
wrong. At any time during his long ordeal, Ninoy could have
made a separate peace with a dictatorship as so many of
his countrymen had done. But the spirit of democracy that
inheres in our race and animates this chamber could not be
allowed to die. He held out in the loneliness of his cell and
the frustration of exile, the democratic alternative to the
insatiable greed and mindless cruelty of the right and the
purging holocaust of the left.
And then, we lost him irrevocably and more painfully than
in the past. The news came to us in Boston. It had to be
after the three happiest years of our lives together. But his
death was my country's resurrection and the courage and
faith by which alone they could be free again. The dictator
had called him a nobody. Yet, two million people threw
aside their passivity and fear and escorted him to his grave.
And so began the revolution that has brought me to
democracy's most famous home, The Congress of the
United States.
The task had fallen on my shoulders, to continue offering
the democratic alternative to our people. Archibald
Macleish had said that democracy must be defended by
arms when it is attacked by arms, and with truth when it is
attacked by lies. He failed to say how it shall be won. I held
fast to Ninoy's conviction that it must be by the ways of
democracy. I held out for participation in the 1984 election
the dictatorship called, even if I knew it would be rigged. I
was warned by the lawyers of the opposition, that I ran the
grave risk of legitimizing the foregone results of elections
that were clearly going to be fraudulent. But I was not
fighting for lawyers but for the people in whose
intelligence, I had implicit faith. By the exercise of
democracy even in a dictatorship, they would be prepared
for democracy when it came. And then also, it was the only
way I knew by which we could measure our power even in
the terms dictated by the dictatorship. The people
vindicated me in an election shamefully marked by
government thuggery and fraud. The opposition swept the
elections, garnering a clear majority of the votes even if
they ended up (thanks to a corrupt Commission on
Elections) with barely a third of the seats in Parliament.
Now, I knew our power.
 GEPH REVIEWER
Last year, in an excess of arrogance, the dictatorship called
for its doom in a snap election. The people obliged. With
over a million signatures they drafted me to challenge the
dictatorship. And I, obliged.
The rest is the history that dramatically unfolded on your
television screens and across the front pages of your
newspapers. You saw a nation armed with courage and
integrity, stand fast by democracy against threats and
corruption. You saw women poll watchers break out in
tears as armed goons crashed the polling places to steal the
ballots. But just the same, they tied themselves to the
ballot boxes. You saw a people so committed to the ways of
democracy that they were prepared to give their lives for
its pale imitation. At the end of the day before another
wave of fraud could distort the results, I announced the
people's victory.
Many of you here today played a part in changing the policy
of your country towards ours. We, the Filipinos thank each
of you for what you did. For balancing America's strategic
interest against human concerns illuminates the American
vision of the world. The co-chairman of the United States
observer team, in his report to the President said, "I was
witness to an extraordinary manifestation of democracy on
the part of the Filipino people. The ultimate result was the
election of Mrs. Corazon Aquino as President and Mr.
Salvador Laurel as Vice-President of the Philippines."
When a subservient parliament announced my opponent's
victory, the people then turned out in the streets and
proclaimed me the President of all the people. And true to
their word, when a handful of military leaders declared
themselves against the dictatorship, the people rallied to
their protection. Surely, the people take care of their own.
It is on that faith and the obligation it entails that I assumed
the Presidency.
As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it. That is my
contract with my people and my commitment to God. He
had willed that the blood drawn with a lash shall not in my
country be paid by blood drawn by the sword but by the
tearful joy of reconciliation. We have swept away absolute
power by a limited revolution that respected the life and
freedom of every Filipino.
Now, we are restoring full constitutional government. Again
as we restore democracy by the ways of democracy, so are
we completing the constitutional structures of our new
democracy under a constitution that already gives full
respect to the Bill of Rights. A jealously independent
constitutional commission is completing its draft which will
be submitted later this year to a popular referendum. When
it is approved, there will be elections for both national and
local positions. So, within about a year from a peaceful but
national upheaval that overturned a dictatorship, we shall
have returned to full constitutional government.
Given the polarization and breakdown we inherited, this is
no small achievement. My predecessor set aside democracy
to save it from a communist insurgency that numbered less
than five hundred. Unhampered by respect for human
rights he went at it with hammer and tongs. By the time he
fled, that insurgency had grown to more than sixteen
thousand. I think there is a lesson here to be learned about
trying to stifle a thing with a means by which it grows. I
don't think anybody in or outside our country, concerned
for a democratic and open Philippines doubt what must be
done. Through political initiatives and local re-integration
programs, we must seek to bring the insurgents down from
the hills and by economic progress and justice, show them
that which the best-intentioned among them fight. As
president among my people, I will not betray the cause of
peace by which I came to power. Yet, equally and again, no
friend of Filipino democracy will challenge this. I will not
stand by and allow an insurgent leadership to spurn our
offer of peace and kill our young soldiers and threaten our
new freedom.
Yet, I must explore the path of peace to the utmost. For at
its end, whatever disappointment I meet there is the moral
basis for laying down the Olive branch of peace and taking
up the sword of war.
Still, should it come to that, I will not waiver from the
course laid down by your great liberator.
"With malice towards none, with charity for all, with
firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us
finish the work we are in to bind up the nation's wounds. To
care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his
widow and for his orphans to do all which may achieve and
cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with
all nations."
Like Abraham Lincoln, I understand that force may be
necessary before mercy. Like Lincoln, I don't relish it. Yet, I
will do whatever it takes to defend the integrity and
freedom of my country.
Finally may I turn to that other slavery, our twenty-six
billion dollar foreign debt. I have said that we shall honor it.
Yet, the means by which we shall be able to do so are kept
from us. Many of the conditions imposed on the previous
government that stole this debt, continue to be imposed on
us who never benefited from it.
And no assistance or liberality commensurate with the
calamity that was vested on us have been extended. Yet
ours must have been the cheapest revolution ever. With
little help from others, we Filipinos fulfilled the first and
most difficult condition of the debt negotiation, the full
 GEPH REVIEWER
restoration of democracy and responsible government. home for democracy; another haven for the oppressed so it
Elsewhere and in other times, a more stringent world may stand as a shining testament of our two nations'
economic conditions, marshal plans and their like were felt commitment to freedom.
to be necessary companions of returning democracy.

When I met with President Reagan, we began an important

dialogue about cooperation and the strengthening of
friendship between our two countries. That meeting was
both a confirmation and a new beginning. I am sure it will
lead to positive results in all areas of common concern.
Today, we face the aspiration of a people who have known
so much poverty and massive unemployment for the past
14 years. And yet offer their lives for the abstraction of
democracy.

Wherever I went in the campaign, slum area or

impoverished village. They came to me with one cry,
DEMOCRACY. Not food although they clearly needed it but
DEMOCRACY. Not work, although they surely wanted it but
DEMOCRACY. Not money, for they gave what little they had
to my campaign. They didn't expect me to work a miracle
that would instantly put food into their mouths, clothes on
their back, education in their children and give them work
that will put dignity in their lives. But I feel the pressing
obligation to respond quickly as the leader of the people so
deserving of all these things.

We face a communist insurgency that feeds on economic

deterioration even as we carry a great share of the free
world defenses in the Pacific. These are only two of the
many burdens my people carry even as they try to build a
worthy and enduring house for their new democracy. That
may serve as well as a redoubt for freedom in Asia. Yet, no
sooner as one stone laid than two are taken away. Half our
export earnings, two billion dollars out of four billion dollars
which is all we can earn in the restrictive market of the
world, must go to pay just the interest on a debt whose
benefit the Filipino people never received.

Still we fought for honor and if only for honor, we shall pay.
And yet, should we have to ring the payments from the
sweat of our men's faces and sink all the wealth piled by
the bondsman's two-hundred fifty years of unrequited toil.
Yet, to all Americans, as the leader to a proud and free
people, I address this question, "Has there been a greater
test of national commitment to the ideals you hold dear
than that my people have gone through? You have spent
many lives and much treasure to bring freedom to many
lands that were reluctant to receive it. And here, you have a
people who want it by themselves and need only the help
to preserve it."

Three years ago I said, Thank you America for the haven
from oppression and the home you gave Ninoy, myself and
our children and for the three happiest years of our lives
together. Today I say, join us America as we build a new