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Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco is the one who spoke on the speech in US Congress
. She known as the Mother of Asian Democracy, who was born in Paniqui, Tarlac on
January 25, 1933.She studied in Mount St. Vincent College in New York where she
earned her degree both in Mathematics and French. Eventually she came back to our
country to pursue her law course at the University of Far Estern. Because of that, she met
Benigno Aquino who would soon be her partner in life. Furthermore, Cory was 50 years
old when she became the first female president of our countryy, which led her to be
successful in the movement. During her time as a president it was well known for the
country’s restoring democracy because of the people power revolution that happened in
Edsa.

On the other hand, Teodoro Lacson who was the one who wrote and prepared the speech
of President Cory Aquino also known as Teddy Boy was born on November 15, 1948, in
Manila. He is a lawyer, publisher, an anchor and an editorial writer. He also pursued his
master’s degree in Law in Harvard. Mr. Lacson became writer in speech and legal
counsel under the government of the late president Cory Aquino and after being elected
as the House Representatives in the Philippines, he acted as the first district of Makati for
9 years. They both became credible in making up the source as they are knowledgeable
on the dictatorship of Marcos regime as they had been present and experienced that
allows them to be a competent writer of the speech/document about Martial law era in
our country that Cory delivers in the before joint session of United States Congress.

Before she permanently became the 11thpresident of the country, Cory Aquino delivered
her speech before the joint session of the United States Congress on September18, 1986
in Washington DC. As she stated in her speech she expressed her sorrow for her late
husband and how good a father he is to their children. Furthermore she also shared a brief
narration of how Marcos managed the whole country, where he suspended the
constitution and shutting down the congress. That led to the execution of the late senator
Benigno Aquino.

In Cory’s speech, she highlighted a particular event that happened to her husband in the
hands of the powerful dictator. In connection with it, she provided detailed information
on how she took a stand to set free the Filipino people to fight against the Marcos regime.
She also mentioned how she experienced the corruption under the commission on
election and she also praised the people’s bravery to face the injustice system to have a
revolution. As her responsibility to be the next president she shared some of the plans she
had to reinstitute the government to put in the right place by restoring and modifying the
Constitution of the country, also the beginning of reintegration initiatives to aid the
country’s localities in terms of healing.
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In addition, she addressed the 26 billion debt left by the Marcos government, in that she
was planning to settle the debt on behalf of the former controlling group, and seek the
international community for help. As her speech is about to end, she recognized and
showed gratitude towards the people of America for their relentless support in assisting
the Filipinos in attaining their goal of democracy for which they have battled.

Due to the Philippines' affiliation with the United States, Marcos adopted the Nixon
doctrine between 1968 and 1972, which said that the Allies of the United States would be
responsible for their own defense. In September 1972, Marcos imposed martial law as a
result of this. In order to put a halt to family disputes, he also declared martial law. Marco
backed American enterprises as well as American military goals. He also supported
maintaining American bases in the Philippines, which are important hubs for American
military operations. Despite the underlying issues in the Philippines, Washington has
continued to back former president Corazon Aquino since the previous president
Ferdinand Marcos abdicated and was replaced by her. Instead, Washington was happy
with the prevailing state of affairs thanks to its "special relations" strategy with Manila.
The Aquino administration is viewed as a unique example of a successful transition from
a US-backed dictatorship to a friendly liberal democracy. The Reagan administration
strove in vain to achieve similar results in other third-world nations.

According to her, the Philippines was about to begin on a lengthy road back to settle,
since the failure of the Marcos regime in February of that year, where the country is still
dealing with the consequences of his rule. Including the 26 billion dollars debt of the
country, the growing population of the communist insurgency under the Marcos
presidency.

The document has a central theme in the Philippine independence from the hand of
Ferdinand Marcos. She also mentioned the assassination of her husband Benigno Aquino
in August 1983, that give them the courage to take a stand to fight against the
government under Marcos to show all the victims by the dictatorship of him and how
traitor he is in his oath. Cory voices out to encourage Filipino people to strive for the
change to achieve the freedom of the whole country. In her speech she mentioned the
debt left by the former president and sought for the help from Americans to attain our
democracy.

One of the remarkable lines of late president Cory that she emphasized is “We fought for
honor, and, if only for honor, we shall pay “believing that paying the debt left by Marcos
in our country was the act of ethically and morally. And the battle they started is not a
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waste of time, but it is a good fight against the previous administration. For a person to
obtain the honor, one must be truthful and make smart decisions. As she states it is a wise
decision to pay Marcos’s debt that he stole in the people’s money.

After Corazon Aquino's speech in the United States, I believe I can say that America is
the real winner. Congress because we continue to request assistance from them despite
the fact that they supported martial law throughout the Marcos administration and
benefitted greatly from it. The Philippines is regarded by the United States as a
trustworthy commercial and economic growth partner. Despite their tumultuous
relationship, the US and the Philippines continue to be friends because the US gains from
the foreign aid that the Philippines receives in a variety of ways. also throughout Corazon
Aquino's address in the U.S. She thanked America and explained how large our foreign
debt is before the US helped the Philippines with this issue.

The speech of late president Cory Aquino allows us to reconstruct the past of our own
country and to have a knowledge of the experiences of the people during the Marcos
regime. As she stated the cruelty of her husband in the hands of the dictator and how
Marcos managed the whole country under his dictatorship. Primarily the contribution of
the document are follows:

A comprehensive program reform in terms of Agrarian and agrarian law (CARP) that
aims to support those marginalized farmers by giving them access to those lands and
other necessary inputs. In addition, it promotes industrialization and social justice, as well
as providing a vehicle for their implementation.

To have good governance to help the Philippines to be stable again after the ill-gotten
gains accumulated by the dictator Marcos.

Reorganization of the Philippine governments for the purpose of streamline bureaucracy

And lastly the cancellation of the 1973constitution that was used during the martial law
and later ordered the committee to change and write a new constitution. That constitution
was the1987 that we used until the present day.

Reference :
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1402&context=masters_theses
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40468591