Kathlyn Dennisse V.

Labeta
BS Accountancy - IA
Former President of the Philippines Corazon C. Aquino, in her speech before the Joint session of
the United States Congress, stated how the Filipino people cry and ask for democracy. She stated how the
Filipino people gave her the obligation to bring back the democracy that they ever wanted. She started
her speech by talking about Ninoy Aquino and later moved on how the Filipino people elected her. Then
she stated how it brought her to the home of democracy which is the Congress of United States. She later
mentioned how they are now facing a communist insurgency that feeds on economic deterioration to
appeal for financial assistance by informing the Americans about the Philippines’ state.

Watching the video of Cory’s speech, I observed how the audience listen to her with deep attention
and how they react to what Cory says which may imply that Cory’s speech is appealing to the audience
and I am very amazed by that. In Cory’s way of speech, she continue to mention how America helps in
bringing freedom to different lands specifically the Philippines and later mention the issues about
communism that the Philippines are facing during those times. But as I observe deeper by analyzing the
content of her speech, I noticed how she generalized some of her experiences. Most of the statements she
mentioned were only the sufferings and sacrifices of his husband, Ninoy Aquino, during the time of
martial law but she didn’t mentioned any of the sufferings experienced by other Filipinos. Later on, she
also mentioned how thankful she is that the America gave her family a home and those years were as she
stated were the “three happiest years of their lives together”. For me, it is very subjective that she take
her families’ experiences in America as an implication that America can be a good ally of the Philippines.
Repeatedly in her speech, she continue to mention Ninoy Aquino and how the Filipino people gave her
the power to be the leader who is obliged to bring the democracy that they want. I think that she is
somehow giving more emphasis on this rather than the real problem which is the communist insurgency.
I was also somehow confused because based on my understanding, it’s like she would like to pay our
debts with another debts. There was a part of her speech where she mentioned that the Philippines have
a $26 billion foreign debt which incurred during the previous government which continued to impose on
them who didn’t even receive any benefit from it. Then she later mentioned that through the help of
others, they have negotiated their debt , fully restored democracy, and their own government. She said
that they are facing communist insurgency that deteriorates their economic condition. And because they
are fighting for honor, they will pay. But as she mentioned, we are only capable of paying the interest of
the debt so with that she asks help from the Americans. She mentioned we will pay then immediately ask
support from Americans. It’s like she gives too much trust on Americans that she rely too much on them
on helping us bring back democracy that she even asked them to join us without thinking that Americans
may use us for their own particular interest.

I think that she trusted too much on the Americans. So this implies that we must not depend too
much in other countries especially in terms of making our country better. I think that the solution she
thought that would help us only made the situation somehow worse. As I have read before, our debts only
grew larger during Cory Aquino’s term. She decided to pay the debts with another debt. Having too much
debt is really hard and it would never help in improving our economic conditions. So I somehow disagree
to her decision. But in her statement, communist insurgency deteriorates economic condition. I agree
with this because as I have observed today, those rich people continue to be richer and richer but poor
people continue to be poorer due to economic inequality. That is why our economic condition continues
to deteriorate.