such debts' Thus'

despite mentioning that the people d,id not benefit from

she mentioned her protestations about the way
the Philippines was deprived
Fiiipino people' she
of choices to pay those debts within the capacity of the
Iamented:
..Fina}Iymayl.turntothatotherslavery,ourtwenty.sixbillion
Yet, the
dollar foreign debt. I have said that we shall honor it.
meansbywhichweshallbeabletodosoarekeptfromus.
Manyoftheconditionsimposedonthepreviousgovernment
that stole this debt, continue to be imposed on us who never
benefited from it."

She continued that while the country had experienced

the calamities
brought about by the corrupt dictatorship of Marcosr no
commensurate
she even remarked that
assistance was yet to be extended to the Phiiippines.
"ours must
glven the peaceful character of EDSA People Power Revolution,
have been the cheapest revolution ever." she demonstrated
that Filipino
which
people fulfitled the "most difficult condition of the debt negotiation,"
,,restoration of democracy and responsible governrnent."
was the

cory related to the u.s. tegislators bhat wherever she went'

she met

poor and unemployed Filipinos willing to offer their lives

for democracy' She
stated:
. ,Tyherever 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'
for
although they surely wanted it but democracy' Not money'
they gave what little they had to my campaign' They didn't
expectmetoworkamiraclethatwouldinstantlyputfoodinto
their mouths, clothes on their back, education in their children
and give them work that will put dignity in their lives.
But I
fee}thepressingobligationtorespondquickiyastheleaderof
the people so deserving of all these things'"
people as
cory proceeded in enumerating the challenges of the Filipino
communist
they tried building the new democracy. These were the persisting
that these
insurgency and the economic deterioration. cory further lamented
export
problems worsened by the crippling debt because half of the country's
earnings amounting to $2 biliion would "go to pay
just the interest on a debt

40 Readings in PhilipPine Historr