CORY AQUINO SPEECH

BEFORE THE U.S CONGRESS

IN 1986

GROUP 5
BSIT – AI17
CORY AQUINO BACKGROUND
 María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco
Aquino was a Filipino politician who served as the
11th President of the Philippines, becoming the
first woman to hold that office. Corazon Aquino
was the most prominent figure of the 1986 People
Power Revolution, which ended the 21-year rule
of President Ferdinand Marcos.
 Born: 25 January 1933, Paniqui
 Died: 1 August 2009, Makati Medical Center,
Makati
 Full name: María Corazón Sumulong Cojuangco
 Presidential term: 25 February 1986 – 30 June 1992
BACKGROUND
OF THE WRITER
MR.TEODORO LOCSIN JR.
 is a Filipino politician, diplomat, lawyer,
and former journalist who served as
congressman for the 1st District of Makati
from 2001 to 2010 and later served as
Philippine Ambassador to the United
Nations from 2017 to 2018.
 Born: 15 November 1948 (age
70 years), Manila
 Education: Ateneo de Manila University
 Parents: Teddy Boy Locsin
 Party: PDP–Laban
 He was the secretary and speechwriter of
Cory Aquino speech
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
When former President Corazon Aquino
spoke before a joint session of the United
States Congress in September of 1986, the
dust was only beginning to settle. It was
her first visit to America since the dictator
Ferdinand Marcos had been deposed in
February of the same year, and the
Philippines was reckoning with everything
his administration had inflicted. That
included $26 billion in total foreign debt,
and a communist insurgency that grew,
throughout the Marcos era, from 500 armed
guerillas to 16,000. We were just at the
start of a long road to recovery.
 So Aquino lodged an appeal for help.
Addressing the House, she delivered a
historic speech that managed to sway in
our favor the vote for an emergency
$200-million aid appropriation. In the
moving speech penned by her
speechwriter (and our current
ambassador to the United Nations)
Teddy Locsin, Jr., Aquino defended
her reconciliatory stand on the
communist insurgency—a sensitive
issue in the U.S., given that this was
1986—and asked for financial aid
towards rebuilding the Philippine
economy.
"We fought for honor, and, if only for
honor, we shall pay," she said,
agreeing to pay the debt that was
stolen by Marcos. "And yet, should we
have to wring the payments from the
sweat of our men’s faces and sink all
the wealth piled up by the
bondsman’s two hundred fifty years
of unrequited toil?"
The speech was impassioned, deeply
personal, and effective; interrupted 11
times by applause and bookended with
standing ovations. House Speaker Tip
O'Neill called it the "finest speech I've ever
heard in my 34 years in Congress." Senate
Majority Leader Robert Dole told her,
"Cory, you hit a home run." And House
Minority Whip Trent Lott said, "Let's just
say the emotion of the moment saved the
day." It would go down in the annals of our
history as one of the former President's
finest speeches.
ANALYSIS OF THE SPEECH
 “For myself and our children, Ninoy was a loving
husband and father. His loss, three times in our lives
was always a deep and painful one. Fourteen years
ago this month, was the first time we lost him. A
president-turned-dictator and traitor to his oath,
suspended the constitution and shutdown the
Congress that was much like this one before which
I'm honored to speak. He detained my husband along
with thousands of others - Senators, publishers, and
anyone who had spoken up for the democracy as its
end drew near. But for Ninoy, a long and cruel ordeal
was reserved. The dictator already knew that Ninoy
was not a body merely to be imprisoned but a spirit
he must break. For even as the dictatorship
demolished one-by-one; the institutions of democracy,
the press, the congress, the independence of a
judiciary, the protection of the Bill of Rights, Ninoy
kept their spirit alive in himself.”
 She became a widow at the age
of 50

 Shebecame the first female

president of the Philippines and
restored democracy to the
country, promulgated a new
constitution, and served until
1999.
She became the center of

anti-Marcos politics in the
Philippines—a movement
known as "People Power.“
RELEVANCE OF THE SPEECH
 Many in the audience of Cabinet
members, diplomats, senators and
congressmen honored Aquino's
signature color by displaying the color
themselves. The chamber was
sprinkled with yellow shirts, blouses,
ties, handkerchiefs and some of the
200 yellow roses flown in from Texas
by House Majority Leader James C.
Wright Jr. (D-Tex.).
 Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-
Kan.), escorting Aquino up the House
aisle to the tumultuous applause, told her,
"You hit a home run." Without a pause
between handshakes, according to a Dole
aide, Aquino replied, "I hope the bases
were loaded."
 Her stunningly successful U.S. visit will
not diminish the problems Aquino must
face when she returns this week to
Manila. But it certainly added a luster of
political sophistication to her image as an
honest, principled leader. And that
should buy her much needed time -- and
the increased loyalty of the Philippine
people -- in the difficult months ahead.
 The most important lesson we can learn
from the speech, I think, is that we cannot
entrust our redemption to another
sovereign state, and the only real solution
to any type of rebellion is to address the
causes. Solving the root problem will
encourage everything else to inevitably fall
into place.
REFERENCE:
 https://soapboxie.com/world-politics/A-Reaction-on-Cory-Aquinos-
speech-to-the-US-Congress

 https://www.esquiremag.ph/politics/news/revisit-cory-aquino-s-
historic-1986-speech-before-the-us-congress-a00207-
20180125?fbclid=IwAR3mBiq6c-
SXego0BPBtADDDH7MCm66s60zxPc8J8rQRdc77z0tdEfCcWWo

 https://www.google.com/search?q=MR.TEODORO+LOCSIN+JR.&rlz=1
C1VFKB_en__718__718&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi
Q9r6euJDlAhWaZt4KHU4hC_kQ_AUIEigB&biw=1366&bih=613#imgrc=
3Bg57Uyla4nD2M

 https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/21/speech-before-the-joint-
session-of-the-united-states-congress-sept-18-1986/

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/09/19/aquino-
appeals-to-congress/eb0d5b8e-dd7a-4381-ab51-a9626bd9cd2c/
GROUP FIVE BSIT- AI17 MEMBERS:
GARADO, ANGELO
– THE GENIUS
HOMEREZ, JILL MARC
– THE POWERPOINT
LAMPAYAN, BEVERLY
– THE WRITTEN REPORT
LIGUTAN, LEA
–REPORTER
LUMAGBAS, JAMES ANGELO
– THE RESEARCHER