Revisiting Corazon Aquino’s

Speech Before the US Congress

Reading in
Philippine History
 Learning outcomes:
At the end of the lesson, you must be able to:
1.Analyze the historical context and perspective of the
document;
2.Examine the content of the document;
3.Relate the speech to the country’s current socio-
economic and/or socio-political conditions.
 Reference
Bacud, Arnold et al.
CENTRAL LUZON
STATE UNIVERSITY
History of the Author
• Maria Corazon “Cory”
Sumulong Cojuangco Aquino
• January 25, 1933-August 1,
2009
• The wife of Ninoy Aquino
• The first female president of
• Featured in Time
magazine and named
as Woman of the year
in 1986
• She Died on August 1,
2009 due to colorectal
 Historical Background of the
• Corazon C.Document
Aquino delivered her
historical speech before the US
congress on September 18, 1986.
• Barely seven month after being
sworn into office under a
revolutionary government brought
about by 1986 EDSA People Power.
• At that time, Cory’s presidency was
• The economic situation she inherited is
shamble.
• There is massive unemployment and
poverty.
• The military’s loyalty to the new
administration is still in question.
• Just five months for office, her
• The communist insurgency is still gripping
the country side(though she release political
detainees).
• The newly established administration needs
all foreign allies.
• Marcos also considered the
cessationistmovement in the South by
the Muslims a threat to national
security
• Marcos crushed the initiation of
democracy enshrined in the
constitution.
• • Concocting cases rebellion and criminal
acts for those who bought the dictatorship
as evidenced by the trial on Ninoy before
a military commission.
• Due to Ninoy’s health which led to his
medical exile in Boston, USA.
• Although lining in comfort with his
family, Ninoy decide to go back home to
• Benigno S. Aquino Jr. was fatally shot to
the ground as he exited the plane.
• Rolando Galman, the alleged assassin,
was also immediately gunned down by
personnel of the aviation security
command.
• Rebecca Quijano testified that she saw a
man who was wearing a military uniform
• Approximately 2 million Filipinos set aside
their passivity and fear of oppressive
regime during his funeral.
• Awakening of the peoples’ desire for
democracy.
• Faced with mounting pressure here and
abroad , President Marcos called for a recap
• Cory became the standard bearer of the
opposition.
• The election that took place when marred by
reports of cheating, violence, and
disenfranchisement of voters but the people
stood their ground in protecting the Balot
boxes.
• Among the highlights of the 1986 election was
the famous walkout of the 30 tabulators of the
• In February 22, 1986, a small group
of military personnel headed by the
Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile
and Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, call of the
Philippine Constabulary, issued a
joint statement demanding Marcos
• •Then manila archbishop cardinal Jamie
Sin appealed to the people vi radio
veritas broadcast to bring food and
supplies for the rebels and to be
nonviolence to block pro-Marcos troop
ordered to crush the military rebellion
• Culminating
the EDSA
PEOPLE
POWER of
1986.
• Which led to
the installation
of Cory
Content Presentation and Analysis
of the Important Historical
Information Found in the
Documents
• The speech starts out with the
narrative of the assassination
of Ninoy on August 21, 1986.
• “The government sought to
break him by indignities and
terror.They locked him up in a
tiny, nearly airless cell in a
military camp in the
north.They stripped him naked
and held a threat of a sudden
midnight execution over his
head. Ninoy held up manfully
under all of it. I barely did as
• Cory continued “When that didn’t
work, they put him on trial for
subversion, murder and a host of
other crimes before a military
commission. Ninoy challenged its
authority and went on a fast.If he
survived it, then he felt God
intended him for another fate.We
had lost him again. For nothing
would hold him back from his
determination to see his fast through
to the end.He stopped only when it
• “And then, we lost we lost him
irrevocably and more painfully
than in the past. The news
came to us in Boston. It had to
be after the three happiest
years of our lives together. But
his death was my country’s
resurrection and the courage
and faith by which alone they
could be free again. The
dictator had called him a
nobody. Yet, two million
• I held fast to Ninoy’s conviction
that it must be by the ways of
democracy. I held out for
participation in the 1984 election
the dictatorship called, even if I
knew it would be rigged.I was
warned by the lawyers of the
opposition, that I ran the grave risk
of legitimizing the foregone results
of elections that were clearly going
to be fraudulent.But I was not
fighting for lawyers but for the
By the exercise of democracy even
in a dictatorship, they would be
prepared for democracy when it
came.And then also, it was the only
way I knew by which we could
measure our power even in the terms
dictated by the dictatorship.The
people vindicated me in an election
shamefully marked by government
thuggery and fraud.The opposition
swept the elections, garnering a clear
• Again as we restore democracy by the
ways of democracy, so are we
completing the constitutional
structures of our new democracy
under a constitution that already gives
full respect to the Bill of Rights.A
jealously Independent constitutional
commission is completing its draft
which will be submitted later this year
To a popular referendum. When it is
approved, there will be elections for
both national and local positions.So,
within about a year from a peaceful
• She asserted:“ 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
than sixteen thousand. I think
there is a lesson here to learned
• Nevertheless, 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
• Finally may turn 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
• People Revolution, “our
must have been 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.”
• She stated:“ 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
• Cory then asked a rather compelling
question to the U.S. Congress: “Has
there been a greater test of national
commitment to the ideals you hold
dear than that my people have gone
through? You have many lives and
much treasure to bring freedom to
many lands that were reluctant to
receive it. And here, you have a
people who want it by themselves
and need only the help to preserve
 Analysis
Analysis of Cory Aquino’s Speech
• Cory Aquino’s speech was an
important event in the political and
diplomatic history of the country
because it has arguably cemented the
legitimacy of the EDSA government in
the international arena. The speech
talks of her background, especially her
relationship with her late husband,
• In her speech, Cory talked at length
about Ninoy’s toil and suffering at the
hands of the dictatorship that he resisted.
Even when she proceeded talking about
her new government, she still went back
to Ninoy’s legacies and lessons.
• The ideology or the principles of the new
democratic government can also be seen
in the same speech. Aquino was able to
draw the sharp contrast between her
government and of her predecessor by
expressing her commitment to a
• Cory claimed that her main
approach to this problem was
through peace and not through the
sword of war.
• Despite Cory’s efforts to hoist
herself as the exact opposite of
Marcos, her speech still revealed
certain parallelisms between her and
the Marcos’s government.
• Cory expressed her intention to
pay off those debts. Unknown to
many Filipinos was the fact that
there was a choice of waiving the
said debt because those were the
of the dictator and not of the
country. Cory’s decision is an
indicator of her government’s
intention to carry on a debt-driven
• Reading through Aquino’s
speech, we can already take
cues, not just on Cory’s
individual ideas and
aspirations, but also the guiding
principles and framework of
the government that she
represented.
Contribution and Relevance of the Document
in Understanding the Grand narrative of
Philippine History

• The document significantly

contribute to the development
of diplomatic history of the
country in general and in the
US-Philippine relation in
particular
• The historic speech made by President
Aquino strengthened the political,
economical, social ties between the two
nations.
• The US Congress granted the Philippines an
initial 200 million dollars as emergency aid
to help build the economy.
• The US also reiterated its long time
commitment to defend the security of the
Philippines via the Mutual defense
agreement.
• With present administration’s foreign policy
shift especially towards the US, the speech
Relevance of the Document
• The document speaks on the
social reality of the Philippines
during and after the Marcos
regime
• The author who happened to be
the main participants and key
stakeholder of the political
events unfolding in those eyes,
saw her personal and political
prejudice adds to the level of
Thank You
for
listening!