REVISITING

“CORAZON
AQUINO’S SPEECH
BEFORE THE US
CONGRESS”
 MARIA CORAZON
“CORY” SUMULONG
COJUANGCO AQUINO
✘ ELEVENTH
PRESIDENT OF
THE PHILIPPINES
✘ FIRST FEMALE
PRESIDENT
✘ BORN (JANUARY
25, 1933)
✘ DIED (AUGUST 1,
2009)
✘ FEBRUARY 7, 1986
 CORAZON AQUINO
CORY FUNCTIONED AS THE
SYMBOL OF THE
RESTORATION OF
DEMOCRACY AND THE
OVERTHROW OF THE
MARCOS DICTATORSHIP IN
1986. THE EDSA PEOPLE
ON 18 SEPTEMBER 1986, SEVEN MONTHS SINCE
CORY BECAME PRESIDENT, SHE WENT TO THE
UNITED STATES AND SPOKE BEFORE THE JOINT
SESSION OF THE US CONGRESS. CORY WAS
WELCOMED WITH A LONG APPLAUSE AS SHE
TOOK THE PODIUM AND ADRESSED THE UNITED
STATES ABOUT HER PRESIDENCY AND THE
CHALLENGES FACED BY NEW REPUBLIC. SHE
BEGAN HER SPEECH WITH THE STORY OF HER
LEAVING THE US THREE YEARS AGO PRIOR AS A
NEWLY WIDOWED WIFE OF NINOY AQUINO.
VIDEO OF CORY
AQUINO’S
SPEECH
- U.S. CONGRESS
She then told of Ninoy’s character, conviction, and
resolve in opposing the authoritarianism of Marcos. She talked
of the three times that they lost Ninoy including his demise on
23 August 1983. The first time was when the dictatorship
detained Ninoy with other dissenters.
Cory continued that when Ninoy survived that
first detention, he was then charged of
subversion, murder, and other crimes. He was
tried for buying a military court, whose
legitimacy Ninoy adamantly questioned. They
solidify his protest, Ninoy decided to do a
hunger strike and fasted for 40 days. Cory
treated this event as the second time that they
lost Ninoy.
Ninoy’s death was the
third and and the last
time that Cory and their
children lost Ninoy.
NINOY AQUINO’S DEATH

A B C

Yellow 10 20 7

Blue 30 15 10

Orange 5 24 16
Cory attributes 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 claims she also acquired
from Ninoy.
Cory talked about her miraculous victory through the
people’s struggle and continued talking about her earliest
initiatives as the president of a restored democracy. She
stated that she intended to forge and draw reconciliation
after a bloody and polarizing dictatorship. 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. .
Cory then turned to the controversial
topic of the Philippine foreign debt
amounting to $26 billion at the time of
her speech. Cory expressed her
intention to honor those debt despite
mentioning that the people did not
benefit from such debts.
She continued that while the
country has experienced the
calamities brought by the corrupt
dictatorship of Marcos, no
commensurate assistance was yet
to be extended to the Philippines.
Cory related to the US
legislators that wherever she
went, she meet poor and
unemployed Filipino willing
to offer their lives to
democracy.
Cory proceeded in enumerating the
challenges of the Filipino people as they try
building the new democracy. These are the
persisting communist insurgency and the
econimic deterioration. Cory further
lamented that these problems worsened by
the crippling debt.
Cory 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 our
two nation’s commitment to freedom”.
THANK YOU
FOR
LISTENING!