Lesson 7

Speech of President
Corazon C. Aquino Before
The Joint Session of The United States Congress,
September 18, 1986

Submitted by:

Wilfred G. Ledda

Lance Leeander G. Mayola

Franz Gaspar

Aldrin Deguzman

Lenard Villamin

Submitted to:

Sir. Michael Santos

 The gradual downfall of the additional regime of president Ferdinand E. Marcos began with the
assassination of his political rival former president,
Ninoy Aquino Jr. August 21, 1983.
 The Philippine economy began to fallen amidst accusations of corruption by Marcos and his
cronies.
 Marcos announced on American and local television that he would hold a snap presidential
election.
 Corazon Aquino decided to run as a president of the Philippines to go against Marcos.
 Later on, Marcos allies at the batasang Pambansa declared him the winner of the election.
 In protest, Aquino would for a nationwide boycott of product of business that supported
Marcos.
 February 22 Marcos defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile and armed forces of the Philippines
Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Fidel Ramos announced their defection from the Marcos government.
 This led to the four-day People Power Revolution.
 During Revolution Marcos eventually was flown to Hawaii to live.
 And Corazon was sworn into office as President of the Philippines.
 In September 1986, she went to the united states to meet the president of the United States,
Ronald Reagan.
 And President Corazon Aquino also met with American businessman to convince them to
invest in the Philippines.
About the Speaker

 Maria Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco Aquino was born on January 25, 1933 to a wealthy and
politically prominent family in Tarlac, she graduated from Mount St. Vincent College in New
York City in 1954.
 She married a popular young politician, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr, and raising their family of
five children while her husband’s career as a prominent opposition politician grew during the
Marcos administration.
 Cory stood by her husband when he was arrested and imprisoned for eight years (1972-1980)
by president Marcos after Martial Law was declared in 1972.
 Corazon Aquino was thrust into the limelight when her husband Ninoy was assassinated upon
his return to the Philippines in 1983.
 She became part of the growing opposition to the Marcos dictatorship which culminated in her
presidential candidacy for a united opposition in the snap elections of 1986.
 Losing the elections because of massive cheating, Cory challenged the results of the election
by calling for a boycott of all industries of Marcos cronies.
 The four-day People Power Revolution in February 1986 ended the Marcos dictatorship and
propelled Cory as the first filipino woman President.
 The Cory administration became known for its restoration of Philippine democracy and a new
constitution was written and a Congress was soon elected.
 In January 1987, Cory Aquino was named the Time Magazine’s 1986 person of the year. She
returned to the limelight in 2001 supporting the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada and
also known as Edsa 2.
About the Speech

 All of these statements are about Ninoy Aquino husband of Corazon Aquino
 The only thing that Ninoy Aquino wanted when he was living was the democracy and freedom
of every filipino.
 Ninoy became the pleasing sacrifice that answered their prayers for freedom
 Ninoy was detained along with 2 thousand people Senators, publishers and anyone who had
spoken up about democracy.
 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.
 It was 43 days with no communication.
 When that didn’t work, they put him on a 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.
 He did not know that an early death would still be his fate, that only timing was wrong.
 Then the news came to Boston, Ninoy was murdered.
 The million people threw aside their passivity and escorted him to his grave.
 The whole nation honored Ninoy by being brave even the Marcos regime threatened him
countless times.
 Cory left America in grief to bury her husband Ninoy Aquino.
 Then the task had fallen on Cory’s shoulders, offering the democratic alternative to our people.
 She was only looking for justice for her husband Ninoy. But she was pushed by herself to run
as the president of the Philippines.
 Archibald Madeish said that “Democracy must be defended by arms when it is attacked by
arms and by truth when it is attacked by lies, he failed to say how it shall be won.
 “But his death was my country’s resurrection in the courage and faith by which alone the
country could be free again.
 I was witness to an extraordinary manifestation of democracy on the part of the Filipino people,
the ultimate result was the election of Mrs. Salvador Laurel as Vice-president of the
Philippines.
 Today, we face the aspirations of a people who had known so much poverty and massive
unemployment for the past 14 years and yet offered their lives for the abstraction of
democracy. 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.
 When a subservient parliament announced my opponent’s victory, the people turned out in the
streets and proclaimed me President. And true to their word, when a handful of military leaders
declared themselves against the dictatorship, the people rallied to their protection, surely the
people take care of their own. It is on the faith and the obligation it entails, that I assumed the
presidency.
 When I met with President Reagan yesterday, we began an important dialogue about
cooperation and the strengthening of the friendship between our two countries. That meeting
was both a confirmation and a new beginning and should lead to positive results in all areas of
common concern.
 We have swept away absolute power by a limited revolution that respected the life and
freedom of every filipino. A jealousy 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 congressional elections. So within about a year from a peaceful but national upheaval
that overturned a dictatorship, we shall have returned to full constitutional government. Given
the polarization and breakdown we inherited, this is no small achievement.
 As President, I will not betray the cause of peace by which I came power. Yet equally, and
again no friend of Filipino democracy will challenge this, I will not stand by and allow an
insurgent leadership to spurn our offer of peace and kill our young soldiers, and threaten our
new freedom
 With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the rights as God gives us to
see the rights, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him
who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphans, to do all which may
achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.