REVISITING

CORAZON AQUINO’S
SPEECH
Before the US Congress
 CORAZON “CORY” CONJUANGCO AQUINO

She functioned as the symbol of the restoration of democracy and the overthrow of the
Marcos Dictatorship in 1986.

The widow of the slain Marcos oppositionist and former Senator Benigno “Ninoy”
Aquino Jr.

Always been in the shadow of her husband and relatives and had no experience in
politics

Came from a rich haciendero family in Tarlac and owned vast estates of sugar
plantacion and whose relatives occupy local and national government positions.
 PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION

Widely recognized around the world for its peaceful character

When former senator Ninoy Aquino was shot at the tarmac of the Manila International
Airport on August 21, 1986, the Marcos regime greatly suffered a crisis of legitimacy.

Marcos called for a Snap Election in February 1986 to prove to his allies in the US that
he remained to be the democratically anointed leader of the country

The canvassing was rigged to Marcos’ favor but the people expressed their protest
against the corrupt authoritarian government.
 PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION

Leading military officials of the regime and Martial Law orchestrators themselves, Juan
Ponce Enrile and Fidel V. Ramos, plotted to take over the presidentcy until civilians
heeded the call of then Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin and other civilian leaders
gathered in EDSA.

The overwhelming presence of civilians in EDSA successfully turned a coup into a

civilian demonstration.

The thousands of people who gathered overthrew Ferdinand Marcos from the
presidency after 21 years.
On September 18, 1896, seven months since Cory became president she went to the United States and spoke
before the joint session of the US Congress. She was welcomed with long applause as she took the podium.

Ninoy’s character, conviction and resolve in opposing the authoritarianism of Marcos

3 times that they lost Ninoy

- first was then the dictatorship detained Ninoy with other dissenters

- second was when Ninoy decided to do a hunger strike and fasted for 40 days.

- third was Ninoy’s death

Cory attributed the peaceful EDSA Revolution to the martyrdom of Ninoy. She stated that the death of Ninoy
sparked the revolution and the responsibility of “offering the democratic alternative” had “fallen on her
shoulders.”

Cory’s address introduced us to her democratic philosophy, which she claimed she also acquired from
Ninoy. She talked about her miraculous victory through the people’s struggle and continued talking about her
earliest initiatives as the president of a restored democracy.

Cory emphasized the importance of the EDSA Revolution in terms of being a “limited revolution that
respected the life and freedom of every Filipino.” She also boasted of the restoration of a fully constitutional
government whose constitution gave utmost respect to the Bill of Rights.
 Cory then proceeded on her peace agenda with the existing communist insurgency, aggravated by the
dictatorial and authoritarian measure of Ferdinand Marcos.

“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 that 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.

Cory took a step back when she said that while peace is the priority of her presidency, she “will not waiver”
when freedom and democracy are threatened. She said that, similar to Abraham Lincoln, she understands that
“force may be necessary before mercy” and while she did not relish the idea, she “ will do whatever it takes to
defend the integrity and freedom of (her) country.”
 Cory turned to the controversial topic of the Philippine foreign debt amounting to $26 billion at the time of
her speech. This debt had ballooned during the Marcos regime. She expressed her intention to honor those debts
despite mentioning that the people did not benefit from such debts.

“Finally may I trun 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.”

She continued that while the country experienced the calamities brought about by the corrupt dictatorship of
Marcos, no commensurate assistance was yet to be extended to the Philippines.
 She even remarked that given the peaceful character of EDSA People Power Revolution, “ours must have
been the cheapest revolution ever.” She demonstrated that Filipino people fulfilled the “most difficult condition of
the debt negotiation, “ which was the “restoration of democracy and responsible government.”

Cory related to the US legislators that wherever she went, she met poor and unemployed Filipinos willing to
offer their lives for 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.”
 Cory proceeded in enumeration the challenges of the Filipino people as they tried building the new
democracy. These were the persisting communist insurgency and the economic deterioration.

Cory further lamented that the problems worsened by the crippling debt because half of the country’s
export earnings amounting to $2 billion would “go to pay just the interest in a debt whose benefit the
Filipino people never received.

She ended her speech by thanking America for serving as home to her family for what she referred to
as the “three happiest years of our lives together.” She enjoined America in building the Philippines as a
new home for democracy and in turning the country as a “shining testament of out two nations’
commitment to freedom.
 ANALYSIS
OF
CORY AQUINO’S
SPEECH
 1. Cory Aquino’s speech was important in
political and diplomatic history

2. Ideology or the principles of the new

democratic government

3. Parallelism between Cory Aquino and the

Marcos’ Government