Corazon Aquino

REVISITING
CORAZON
AQUINO’S
SPEECH BEFORE
THE U.S
CONGRESS
EDSA PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION
Functioned as the symbol of the
restoration of democracy and the
overthrow of the Marcos
Dictatorship on 1986
It installed Cory Aquino in the

presidency, put the Philippines
in the international
spotlight for overthrowing dictator
through peaceful means.
❑ Cory was easily a figure of the said
revolution, as the widow of the slain
Marcos oppositionist and former
Senator Benigno”Ninoy” Aquino Jr.
❑ Hoisted as an the antithesis of the

dictator
❑ Her image as a mourning, widowed

housewife who had always been in the
shadow of her husband and relatives
and had no experience in politics was
juxtaposed against Marcos’s
statemanship, eloquence, charisma
and cunning political skills.
THE PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION OF 1986
When former senator
Ninoy Aquino was shot at
the tarmac of the Manila
International Airport on 21
August 1983, the Marcos
regime greatly suffered a
crisis of legitimacy.
Protests from different

sectors frequented different
areas in the country.
Marcos’s credibility in the
international community
also suffered. Paired with
the looming economic
crisis.
He had to do something to
prove his allies in the united
states that he remained to
be democratically anointed
leader of the country.
Februaray 1986: SNAP ELECTION
Where Corazon Aquino, the

widow of the slain senator was
convinced to run against
Marcos.
The canvassing was rigged to
Marcos’s favor but the people
expressed their protest
against the corrupt and
authoritarian government.
SEPTEMBER 18, 1986
She went to the United and spoke before

the joint session of the U.S Congress.
She began her speech with the story of her

leaving the United States three years prior
as a newly widowed wife of Ninoy Aquino.
She then told of Ninoy’s character,

conviction, and resolve in opposing the
authoritarianism of Marcos. She talked of
the three ttimes that they lost Ninoy
including his demise on 23 August 1983.
“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 manually
under all of it. I barely did as well. For forty- three days, the authorities would tell me
what had happen to him. This was the first time my children and I felt we had lost
him.”
“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 through 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.”
“And then , we lost him irrevocably and more painfully than in the past. The
newszcame to us in Boston. It had to be after the three happiest years of our live
stogether. But his death was my country’s resurrection and the courage and the
courage and faith by which alone they could be free again. The dictator had called him
a nobody. Yet, two million people threw aside their passivity and fear and escorted
him to his grave.”
“I held fats 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 oppositon, that I ran the grave risk
legitimizing the foregone results of elections that were clearly going to be fraudulent.
But I was not fighting for lawyers but for the people in whose intellegence , I had
implicit faith. By the excercise of democracy even in a dictatorhip. The people
vindicated me in an election shamefully marked by government thuggery and fraud.
The opposition swept the elections, garnering a clear majority of the votes even if they
ended up (thanks to a corrupt Commission on Elections) with barely a third of tyeh
seats in Parliament. Now, I knew our power.”
“Again as we restore democracy by the ways of democracy, so are we completing the

constitutional structues of our new democracy under a constitution that already gives
full respect to teh Bill of Rights. A jelousy independent constitutional commisision 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 andlocal positions. So,
within about a year from a peaceful but national upheaval that overturnes a
dictatorship, we shall have returned to full constitutional government.”
“My predecessor set aside democrary to saveit from a communist insurgency that
numbered less than five hundred. Unhampered by respevt for human rights he went at
it with nhammer 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
stefile a thing with a means by which it grows.”
“Again as we restore democracy by the ways of democracy, so are we completing the

constitutional structues of our new democracy under a constitution that already gives
full respect to teh Bill of Rights. A jelousy independent constitutional commisision 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 andlocal positions. So,
within about a year from a peaceful but national upheaval that overturnes a
dictatorship, we shall have returned to full constitutional government.”
“Finally may I turn to that other slavery, our twenty- six billion dollar foreign debt. I
ahve 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 imposed on the previous government that stole this debt,
continue to be imposed on us who never benifited from it.”
“Wherever I went in the camopaign, slum area or improverished villafge. They came to
me with one cry, democracy. Not food although they clearly needed it but democracy.
Not work, although they say surely wanted it but democracy. Not money, for they give
what little they had to my campaign . They didn’jt expect me to work a miracle that
would instantly put food into their mouths, clothes in their back, education in their
children and give them work that will put dignity in their lives. But I Feel the pressing
obligation to respond quickly as the leader of the people so deserving of all these
things.”
“Has there been a greater test of national commitment to the ideals you hold dear
than that my people have gone through? You have spent 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 it.”
ANALYSIS OF CORY AQUINO’S SPEECH
• Arguably cemented the legitimacy of the EDSA
government in the international arena.
• The speech talks of her family background, especially

her relationship with her late husband.
• She talked at lenght about Ninoy’s toil and suffering at

the hands of yhe dictatorship that he resisted.
• Ideology or the principles of teh new democratic

government.
• She was also able to draw the sharp contrast

between her government and of her predecessor by
expressing her commitment to a democratic
constitution drafted by an independent commission.
• She claimed that such constitutions upholds
and adheres to the rights and liberty of the
Filipino people.
• She also hoisted herself as the reconciliatory

agent after more than two decades of a
polarizing authoritarian politics.
• Her speech still revealed certain parrallelism

between her and the Marcos’s government.
• Cory recognized that the large sumof regime

never benifitted the Filipino people.
Nevertheless, she expressed her intention to

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REVISITING

It installed Cory Aquino in the

❑ Hoisted as an the antithesis of the

❑ Her image as a mourning, widowed

Protests from different

Where Corazon Aquino, the

She went to the United and spoke before

She began her speech with the story of her

She then told of Ninoy’s character,

“Again as we restore democracy by the ways of democracy, so are we completing the

“Again as we restore democracy by the ways of democracy, so are we completing the

• The speech talks of her family background, especially

• She talked at lenght about Ninoy’s toil and suffering at

• Ideology or the principles of teh new democratic

• She was also able to draw the sharp contrast

• She also hoisted herself as the reconciliatory

• Her speech still revealed certain parrallelism

• Cory recognized that the large sumof regime

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