Ninoy,s death was the third and the

last time that Cory and their

children lost Ninoy. She continued:
"And then, we rost him irrevocabry
and more painfuil5,than in
the past- The news came to us in
Boston. It had to be afber the
three happiest years of our lives together.
But his death was
my countr;r's resurrection and the
courage and faith by which
alone they courd be free again. The
dictator had carled him a
nobody. yet' two million people
threw aside their passivity
and fear and escorted him to his grave.,,

cory attributed the peaceful EDSA Revolution

to the martyrdom of
Ninoy. she stated that the death of Ninoy sparked the revorution
responsibility of "offering the democratic and the
arternative,, hacl ,,faren on
shoulders'" cory's address introduced ftrer)
us to her democratic philosophy,
which she claimed she also acquired
from Ninoy. She argued:
"I held fast to Ninoy's conviction
that it must be by the ways
of democracy. I heid out for participation
in trre 1gB4 election
the dictatorship calred, even if I
knew it would be riggecr. I
was warned by the lawyers of
the opposition, that I ran the
grave risk of regitimizing the
foregone results of erections that
were crearly going to be fraudurent.
But I was not fighting for
Iawyers but for the peopre in whose
interigence, r had impricit
faith. By the exercise of democracy
even in a dictatorship,
they would be prepared for democr€rcy
when it came. Ancr then
also' it was the onry way I knew
by which we courd me&sure
ollr power even in the terms dictated
by the dictatorship. The
people vindicated me in
an election shamefully marked b.y
government thuggery and
fraud. The opposition swept the
elections' garnering a clear majority
of the votes even if t.ev
ended up (thanks to a corrupt
commission on nr".rr""ri*rrr1
barely a third of the seats in parliament.
Now, I knew our
power."

cory talked about her miraculous.victory

through the people,s struggre
and continued talking about her
earliest initiatives as the president
a restored democracy. she stated that of
she intended to forge and d.raw
reconciliation after a broody
and porarizing dictatorship. cory
the importance of the EDSA emphasized
Revolrtio., in terms of being a ,,iirniged
revolution

38
Readings in philippine History