HIST11

READINGS IN THE PHILIPPINE HISTORY

Name: CLAUDINE C. PADALAPAT Date: 03/05/2023

Course & Section: BSED-SCI-1A

Exercises 2.2 Speech of Former President Corazon C. Aquino

Read and watch (using the YouTube link given in the document) the speech of Corazon C.
Aquino and answer the questions given below.

Give a concise explanation/discussion on the following items below.

1. What can you say about this line in the speech of Corazon C. Aquino: “… and so began
the revolution that has brought me to democracy’s most famous home, the congress of the
United States”? Which concept in this line is important to you? Why?
In my pondering mind I can conceptualize within the line: “… and so began the
revolution that has brought me to democracy’s most famous home, the congress of the United
States”, from the speech of the late president Corazon C. Aquino, it presents how powerful a
revolution could do, it had led the Philippines to be recognized by the democracy beholder.
United States is well-known for their extending arms to help the global citizens whose
suffering persecution and in order attain liberty.
The most important concept I can draw from this line is that, the type of democracy a
society demands entails from the current situation a country like the Philippines is going
through. By that time, Martial Law had an important objective of which to protect the
Democracy of the Philippine Republic from the plot of insurgencies. The conflict in relation
to the death of Aquino’s husband were some like accused to the government and at the same
time the existence of some abusive soldiers, not all, had tainted the image of the government
that leads to a so-called revolution. Though with that case, the flow of history changes
overtime and undergo transitions as the time propel.

2. What did Corazon C. Aquino mention in her speech pertaining the aspiration of Filipino
people? What are the specific lines for this? What do you feel about these lines?

Pres. Corazon C. Aquino mentioned in her speech the aspiration of Filipino people for
the deliverance of Philippine freedom and the will to address the soaring poverty and aid the
thirst of which democracy could only be the relieve. These are the specific lines she uttered,
“Today, we face the aspirations of a people who had known so much poverty and massive
unemployment for the past 14 years and yet offered 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 work that will
put dignity in their lives. But I feel the pressing obligation to respond quickly as the leader of
a people so deserving of all these things. I feel proud to know how Filipinos attained the
dream of liberated Philippine’s away from oppression during those past challenging years.

3. In the video, how many times the former President Corazon C. Aquino have been
applauded by the members of the U.S. congress? Mention the lines she said for which she
received an over whelming applause.
The 14 applause she received from U.S congress:
1st applause – The arrival of Philippine president in US congress.
2nd applause – The introduction of the President Corazon C. Aquino of the Republic of the
Philippines.
3rd applause - “I have returned as the president of a free people”.
4th applause – “And so began the revolution that has brought me to
democracy’s most famous home, the Congress of the United States.”
5th applause – “That is my contract with my people and my commitment to God.”
6th applause – “I think there is a lesson here to be learned about trying to stifle a thing with the
means by which it grows.”
7th – “As President, I will not betray the cause of peace by which I came to power.”
8th applause - 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”.
9th – “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.”
10th – “Still, should it come to
that, I will not waver from the course laid down by your great liberator: “With malice towards
none, with charity for
all, with firmness in the rights as God gives us to see the rights, 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.”
11th – “Like 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.”
12th – “Yet ours must have been the cheapest revolution ever.”
13th – “And here you have a people who won it by themselves and need only the help to
preserve it.”
14th – “Today, I say, join us, America, as we
build a new home for democracy, another haven for the oppressed, so it may stand as a
shining testament of our two nation’s commitment to freedom.”