OCCIDENTAL MINDORO STATE COLLEGE

CORAZON
AQUINO'S
SPEECH
DURING JOINT SESSION OF THE U.S CONGRESS

RIO JUSTINE AGUSTINO MARWENDEL EMBANECIDO JERICHO ALEJANDRO WARREN ARELLANO

WHO IS CORAZON AQUINO?
BORN AS "MARIA CORAZON SUMULONG
COJUANGCO IN JANUARY 25, 1933 IN TARLAC
PHILIPPINES

THE PROMINENT FIGURE OF THE 1986 EDSA

PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION, WHICH ENDED
THE 21-YEAR RULE OF PRESIDENT FERDINAND
MARCOS.

FILIPINO POLITICIAN WHO SERVED AS 11TH

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE
PHILIPPINES, BECOMING THE FIRST WOMAN
TO HOLD THE OFFICE.

Tip: Use links to go to a different page inside your

presentation. DIED IN AUGUST 01, 2009 AT MAKATI MEDICAL
CENTER, MAKATI
How: Highlight text, click on the link symbol on the
toolbar, and select the page in your presentation you PRESEDENTIAL TERM: FEBUARY 25, 1986-
want to connect.
JUNE 30, 1992
 HISTORICAL CONTEXT
After four years of hearings on charges he denied and an unsuccessful
appeal to the Supreme Court, Mr. Aquino was sentenced to death by firing
squad in November 1977.

Instead, President Marcos allowed Mr. Aquino to fly to the United States in
May 1980 for a coronary bypass operation. Mr. Aquino said at the time that
he would be gone three weeks. He remained in this country for three years
and became a research fellow at Harvard's Center for International Affairs
and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Warned that he might risk assassination if he returned, Mr. Aquino spoke

instead of the urgency of his mission.

Moments before his airliner landed in Manila yesterday, he told a reporter:

''We're racing against time. I must convince the President to help me bring
democracy back in our country.'' 'Like a Taft in Ohio'
Back to Overview
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/22/obituaries/benigno-aquino-bitter-
foe-of-marcos.html
At the age of 17, Mr. Aquino became a journalist. In 1954, he got the first interview in four years with Luis
Taruc, leader of a Communist-inspired uprising in the mountains of central and southern Luzon. The rebel
leader told Mr. Aquino he was ready to cooperate with the new Government of President Ramon Magsaysay,
ending a rebellion that had kept the islands under arms since World War II. Within months, Mr. Taruc
surrendered. Mr. Aquino embarked on his political career in 1955 when he was 22, elected as the youngest
mayor in the archipelago by his native Concepcion. In 1959, he was elected vice governor of Tarlac province
and succeeded to the governorship two years later. Again, he was the youngest such official in the
Philippines.
In 1963, he was elected governor in his own right. Around this time, he married Corazon (Cory) Cojuangco, the
daughter of one of the largest landowners in the Philippines. Land to the Workers
''A radical rich guy'' was how Governor Aquino described himself. He presided over his father-in-law's 18,000-
acre sugar estate and parceled out plots of his inherited land to field and factory workers.
What would ultimately be a political collision course was set in November 1965, after Ferdinand E. Marcos,
president of the Philippine senate, quit the ranks of the Liberal Party and was elected President of the
country as leader of the Nationalist Party.
One year later, Mr. Aquino became secretary general of the Liberal Party and Mr. Marcos's prime foe. In
November 1967, Mr. Aquino won one of eight at-large Senate seats with the highest vote of any candidate.
The other seven seats went to Nationalist members or allies.The Boyish Senator Aquino was widely viewed as
a likely Presidential candidate in 1973. But in September 1971, Mr. Marcos charged Mr. Aquino with being a
Communist. Mr. Marcos was barred from seeking a third term in 1973, but said he would prevent Mr. Aquino
from being elected.
WHY MARCOS DECLARED MARTIAL LAW?
In September 1972 Marcos declared martial
law, claiming that it was the last defense
against the rising disorder caused by
increasingly violent student demonstrations,
the alleged threats of communist insurgency
by the new Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP), and the Muslim separatist
movement of the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF).

Despite halfhearted attempts to negotiate a

cease-fire, the rebellion continued to claim
thousands of military and civilian casualties.
Communist insurgency expanded with the
creation of the National Democratic Front
(NDF), an organization embracing the CPP
and other communist groups.
The CPP-NPA was established by Jose Maria Sison, a popular former student activist
who led a Maoist-oriented youth faction within the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP),
which was established in 1930. For decades, the PKP participated in electoral boycotts
and used a guerrilla army to fight Japanese colonialism, U.S. colonialism, and Filipino
elites. In 1957, Republic Act No. 1700 banned the PKP and any of its successors, which
would later include the CPP-NPA from participating in politics. Even after PKP elites
largely gave up on the idea of armed struggle, Sison argued for continuing the violence.
In February 1971, Sison met with CPP-NPA Central Committee members to discuss his
plan to attack a Manila rally of the Liberal Party, which opposed President Marcos. The
purpose of the attack was to provoke another government crackdown and ideally gain
support for the CPP-NPA. On August 21, three CPP-NPA members threw four grenades
onstage at the rally in Manila’s Plaza Miranda before fleeing the city to a CPP-NPA camp.
Liberal Party members blamed President Marcos for the attack, which had killed much of
his opposition. Marcos, who blamed the CPP-NPA for the bombing, responded by
suppressing leftist political activity and suspending habeas corpus. These measures
marked an increase in Marcos’ power. In response to Marcos’ repression, hundreds of
student recruits joined the CPP-NPA.
During the time of martial law, the CPP-NPA successfully established
relationships with local leaders in the countryside. Media and
academic sources have sometimes described the NDF as the CPP-
NPA’s political wing, since the CPP-NPA was still illegal under
Republic Act No. CPP-NPA-related violence reached its height in
1985 with 1,282 military and police deaths, 1,362 civilian deaths, and
2,134 CPP-NPA deaths. As in 1978, the central leadership ordered a
boycott of elections, but many CPP-NPA members ignored the
command. After days of mass protests called the People Power
Revolution, which were held in support of Aquino and against
Marcos, Aquino won the election and Marcos left the country. Later
that year, Aquino ordered the release of political prisoners, including
Sison and Buscayno.
MR. TEODORO LOCSIN JR.

HE WAS THE SECRETARY AND THE SPEECH

WRITER OF CORY AQUINO'S SPEECH

HE IS A FILIPINO POLITIUCIAN, DIPLOMAT,

LAWYER AND FORMER JOURNALIST

SERVED AS PHILIPPINE AMBASSADOR TO THE

UNITED NATIONS (2017- 2018)

GRADUATED AT ATENEO DE MANILA

UNIVERSITY
 Cory Aquino in her speech tries
CONTEXTUAL to exemplify the nexus of
ANALYSIS catastrophic events in the
Philippines during the
The Marcos regime was also declaration of martial law. Aquino
responsible for 3,257 first instigated Marcos’s crimes
murders, 35,000 torture should be unveiled for the public.
cases, and 70,000 Aquino did not specify Marcos’
incarcerations, according to
crimes but many researchers and
members of Akbayan party-
scholars provided evidence of
list group, of whom many
the political unrest during the
suffered under the
dictatorship
martial law. According to Pantoja
(2014),
 CONTEXTUAL
ANALYSIS
Wherever I went in the campaign, slum area Furthermore, the pride of Cory Aquino to
or impoverished village, they came to me
with one cry: democracy! Not food, although
present in the Congress of America that the
they clearly needed it, but democracy. Not Philippines attained its democracy on its own.
work, although they surely wanted it, but Yet, Aquino tries to make an impression that she
needs America’s help for sustaining the
democracy. Not money, for they gave what
little they had to my campaign. They didn’t
expect me to work a miracle that would democracy which has reigned again. Tyranny is
instantly put food into their mouths, clothes not the dream of every Filipino. They would fight
on their back, education in their children, and
with full of might for the Philippines’ hidden light.
work that will put dignity in their lives.

I still fought for our honor, She emphasized that the fight they started was
and if only for honor, we not wasted and it was not a nonsense one. That
shall pay. they, Filipinos put up a good fight against the
administration.
 CONTEXUAL
ANALYSIS

The task had fallen on my
shoulders to continue offering
the democratic alternative to
our people.
She took the responsibilities in taking care
and fight for the sake of the freedom of the
whole country.
THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON WE CAN LEAR FROM THE SPEECH, IS THAT
WE CANNOT ENTRUST OUR REDEMPTION T OTHER SOVEREIGN STATE,
AND THE ONLY REAL SOLUTION TO ANY TYPE OF REBELLION IS TO
ADDRESS THE CAUSES. SOLVING THE ROOOT PROBLRM WILL
ENCOURAGE EVERYTHING ELSE TO INEVITABLY FALL INTO PLACE.
 REFERENCES:
1.^ Tiglao, Rigoberto. “Days of Shame: August 21, 1971 and 1983.” The Manila Times, 20 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Aug. 2015.
2.^ Jones, Gregg. “ExCommunists Party Behind Manila Bombing.” The Washington Post, 4 Aug. 1989. Web. 11 Aug. 2015
3.^ Pates, Karlo Paolo R. “NPA burns truck, kills civilian.” Sun.Star, 17 Aug. 2015. Web. 17 Aug. 2015.
4.^ “The Communist Insurgency in the Philippines: Tactics and Talks.” International Crisis Group, 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 11
Aug. 2015.
5.^ Santos, Jr., Soliman M., and Paz Verdades M. Santos. Primed and Purposeful: Armed Groups and Human Security
Efforts in the Philippines. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, April 2010. Print.
6.^ “Program For A People’s Democratic Revolution.” Communist Party of the Philippines, 26 Dec. 1968. Web. 11 Aug. 2015
7.^ Rosca, Ninotchka, and Jose Maria Sison. Jose Maria Sison: At Home In the World—Portrait of a Revolutionary.
Greensboro: Open Hand Publishing, LLC, 2004. Print.
8.^ Abinales, P.N. “Jose Maria Sison and the Philippine Revolution: A Critique of an Interface.” Kasarinlan: Philippine
Journal of Third World Studies 8.1 (1992). Web. 11 Aug. 2015.
9.^ “Republic Act No. 1700: An Act to Outlaw the Communist Party of the Philippines and Similar Associations, Penalizing
Membership Therein, and for Other Purposes.” Philippine Government. 20 June 1957.
10. ^ “The Philippines: The Philippine Communist Party (PKP) to Celebrate 75th Year.” Philippines Communist Party
(PKP), 6 Nov. 2005. Web. 17 Aug. 2015.
11. ^ “The Communist Insurgency in the Philippines: Tactics and Talks.” International Crisis Group, 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 11
Aug. 2015.
12. ^ Santos, Jr., Soliman M., and Paz Verdades M. Santos. Primed and Purposeful: Armed Groups and Human Security
Efforts in the Philippines. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, April 2010. Print.
13. ^ Datinguinoo, Vinia M. “Bernabe ‘Kumander Dante’ Buscayno.” Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, 2 Feb.
2006. Web. 11 Aug. 2015.