Aquinos Speech

CORAZON AQUINO’S
SPEECH BEFORE THE

U.S. CONGRESS
LAST LESSON (MIDTERM)

INTRODUCTION: ON CORY AQUINO
 Cory Aquino (Corazon Cojuangco
Aquino) is the symbol of the
restoration of democracy and the
overthrew of the Marcos
dictatorship
 The EDSA, which installed Cory
Aquino in the presidency, put the
Philippines in the international
spotlight for overthrowing a
dictator for a peaceful means.
INTRODUCTION
September 18, 1986
This is where Cory Aquino spoke in a joint session
about his experience of the Marcos regime until she
became president.
She also told of Ninoy’s character, conviction,

and resolve in opposing the authoritarianism
of Marcos. She also talked of the three times
that they lost Ninoy, including his demise on
21 August 1983.
CONTINUATION…
Cory related…….
"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 well. For
forty-three days, the authorities would
not tell me what had happened to
him. This was the first time my
children and I felt we had lost him.”
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
dawned on him that the government would keep his
body alive after the fast had destroyed his brain. And so,
with barely any life in his body, he called off the fast on
the 40th day.”
OFFERING THE DEMOCRATIC
ALTERNATIVE
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
democratic alternative……..
It was a way by which we could response inversely with

the power manifested by the dictatorship of Marcos.
Mainly the people have spoken that the election was a
product of thuggery and fraud.
ON EDSA REVOLUTION
The importance of the EDSA
Revolution in terms of being “a He stated:
limited revolution that “Again as we restore democracy by
the ways of democracy under a
respected life and freedom of constitution that already gives full
every Filipino.” This also respect to the Bill of Rights. A
boasted the restoration of a jealously independent constitutional
commission is completing its draft
fully constitutional
which will be submitted later this
government whose year to a popular referendum. When
constitution gave utmost it is approved, there will be elections
respect to the Bill of Rights. for both national and local positions.”
ON PEACE AGENDA
● Cory then presented her peace agenda with the existing
communist insurgency, aggravated by the dictatorial and
authoritarian measures of Ferdinand Marcos. She stated:
“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 be learned about trying to
stifle a thing with a means by which it grows.”
ON PHILIPPINE FOREIGN DEBT
● Cory also turned into the topic of the Philippine foreign
debt amounting to 26 billion dollars that is also during
the time of Marcos.
● And it is not also good that the Filipino people has been
deprived of choices to pay those debts within the
capacity of the Filipino people. She stated:
“Many of the conditions imposed on the previous
government that stole this debt, continue to be
imposed on us who never benefitted it.”
WILLING TO LIVE WITH
THE AIM OF DEMOCRACY
● When Cory related to the U.S. legislators that wherever she
went, she met poor and unemployed Filipinos willing to live
their lives with democracy. As an excerpt to this:
“Wherever I went in the campaign, slum area…..
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…..”
FINAL REMARKS
● Cory ended her speech by thanking the United
States for serving as home to her family whom
she referred as the “three happiest years of
(their) lives together.”
● She urged the United States to build the
Philippines as a new home for democracy and in
turning the country as a “shining testament of
our two nations’ commitment to freedom.”
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES
• Aquino, C. (1986). Speech of President Corazon

Cojuangco Aquino during the Joint Session of the
U.S. Congress. Retrieved 20 October 2022 from:
http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph.
• Batas Militar. (Documentary). Retrieved 20 October
2022 from http://bit.ly/RdgsPHi2.
HANDS-ON ACTIVITY
MAKE A CRITIQUE ON
CORY’S SPEECH TO
THE U.S. CONGRESS IN
A SHEET OF PAPER.

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CORAZON AQUINO’S

SPEECH BEFORE THE

LAST LESSON (MIDTERM)

She also told of Ninoy’s character, conviction,

"The government sought to break him

Cory attributes the peaceful EDSA revolution to the

It was a way by which we could response inversely with

“My predecessor set aside democracy to save it from

• Aquino, C. (1986). Speech of President Corazon

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