Chapter 2.4 Corazon Aquino.s Speech Before The U.S. Congress

 

REVISITING CORAZON AQUINO'S SPEECH BEFORE THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS SEPTEMBER 18, 1986

 

Corazon “Cory”of Cojuangco Cojuangco restoration democracyAquino and thefunctioned overthrowasofthe thesymbol Marcosof the Dictatorship in 1986. The EDSA People Power Power,, which installed Cory Aquino in the presidency, put the Philippines in the international spotlight for overthrowing a dictator through peaceful means

 

THE PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION OF 1986

A widely recognized around the world for its peaceful character.

 

When former was shot at theSenator tarmac Ninoy of the Aquino Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983, the Marcos regime greatly a crisis of legitimacy.

 

Protest rallies erupted in the streets of Manila and other major cities in the provinces calling for Marcos to resign.

 

Marcos's credibility in the international community also suffered. paired with the looming economic crisis, Marcos had to do something to prove to his allies in the United States that he remained to be the anointed leader of the country.

 

  He

called for a Snap Election in February 1986, Where Corazon Aquino was convinced to run against Marcos. The canvassing was rigged to Marcos's favor but the people expressed their protests againts the authoritarian government

corrupt

and

 

The opposition field their own candidate. it was decided that Corazon Aquino  Aquino  will run as President and Salvador Laurel  Laurel  as Vice President

 

Leading Military officials of the regime and Martial law orchestrators themselves Juan Ponce Enrile  Enrile  and Fidel Ramos  Ramos  plotted to take over the presidency. presidency.

 

Civilians heeded the call of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin and other civilian leaders gathered at EDSA. the overwhelming presence of civilians in EDSA turned a coup into a civilian demonstration.

 

The

thousand

of

people

who

overthrew Ferdinand Marcos presidency after 21 years.

gathered from

the

 

On September 18, 1986 seven months since Cory became president wentthe to the united states and spoke she before  joint session of the U.S. congress.

 

Cory was welcomed long applause as she took the podium and addressed the Unitedwith States about her presidency and the challenges faced by the new republic. she began her speech with her story of her leaving the united states three years prior as a newly widowed of Ninoy Aquino.

 

She

told

of

Ninoy's

character,

conviction and resolve in opposing the authoritarianism of Marcos. She talked of the three times that they lost him. the first time was when Ninoy was detained.

 

“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 fortythree 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 that when Ninoy survived that first detention, he was charged of subversion, murder and other crimes. He was tried by a military court whose legitimacy he questioned. Ninoy decide to a hunger strike and fasted for 40 days. “ When 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”. 

 

“Then , we lost him irrevocably and more painfully in the past”. .....But his death is my counrty's resurrection andbethe courage and faith by which alone they could free again..” 

 

Cory emphasized the importance of the EDSA revolution in terms of limited revolution that respected the life and freedom of every Filipino.

” 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.” 

 

“

 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”.

Cory the proceeded on her peace agenda with the existing communist insurgency aggravated by the dictatorial and authoritarian measure of Ferdinand Marcos.

 

“Finally

may I turn to that other slavery: our $26 billion foreign debt. I have said that we shall honor

Cory then turned to the controversial topic of the Philippine foreign debt amounting to 26 billion dollars, this debt had balloned during the Marcos regime. Cory expressed her intention to honor those debts despite mentioning that the people did not benefit from such debt.

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 us who never benefited  from it” .

 

Cory ended her speech by thanking America for serving as home to her and family for what she referred to as the “three happiest years of our lives together.” “

Three years ago I said, Thank you America for the haven from oppression and the home you gave  Ninoy, myself and our children and for the three happiest years of our lives together. T Today oday I say, join us America as we build a new home for democracy; another haven for the oppressed so it may stand as a shining testament of our two nations' commitment to freedom”.

 

ANALYSIS ANAL YSIS OF CORY AQUINO'S AQUINO' S SPEECH

Cory Aquino's speech was an important event in the political and diplomatic history of the country because it cemented the legitimacy of the EDSA government in the international arena.

 

•

•

The ideology or the principles of the new democratic government. Aquino was able to draw sharp contrast between government and of predecessor by expressing

the her her her

commitment to a democratic constitution drafted by an independent commission

 

Despite Cory's effots to hoist herself as the except opposite of Marcos her speech still revealed certain parallelism between her and Marcos's government.

 

In terms of continuing alliance between the Philippines and the United States and effectively implemented a similar foreign policy to that of Marcos.

 

•

Cory recognized the large sum of foreign debt, she expressed her intention to pay off those debts.

•

Uknown to many Filipinos was the fact that there was a choice of waiving the said debt because those were the debt of the dictator and not of the country.

 

POSTSCRIPT ON CORY'S SPEECH •

The task of writing the speech was given to Cory's PressJr. *Teodoro  Boy”Locsin Jr.Secretary who admitted years“Teddy later that he was unable to finished the draft and it was Cory who finished the speech.

•

 

It ran half an hour and was interrupted with several applause and standing ovation. (* Now Secretary of Foreign Affairs)

 

Robert Dole the Senate Majority Leader said to Mrs. Aquino

Cory, you hit a home run”

 “ I hope the bases were loaded.” 

 

Five Hours later the U.S. Congress voted in favor of $200 million as emergency aid to the Philippines