Readings in Philippine History
Cory Aquino’s Speech before the U.S. Congress
MARIA CORAZON COJUANGCO AQUINO
(January 25,1933- August 1, 2009)
born on January 25, 1933 in Manila
sixth of the eight children of Don Jose Cojuanco Sr., lawyer, congressman
representing Tarlac, sugar magnate and banker, and Doña Demetria Sumulong, a
pharmacist and member of a politically famous clan from Rizal province.
Her formative years were spent at St. Scholastica’s College and the Assumption
Convent in Manila.
In 1946 the Cojuanco family left for the United States and she entered Ravenhill
Academy in Philadelphia, but later enrolled at, and graduated from, the Notre
Dame Convent School in New York.
She continued her studies at College of Mount St. Vincent also in New York, where
she took up French as major and mathematics as minor.
Back in Manila, she enrolled in law at Far Eastern University but her studies were
cut short when she married Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. on October 11, 1954 at
Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Pasay City.
They had five children namely, Maria Elena, Aurora Corazon, Benigno III, Victoria
Elisa and Kristina Bernadette.
Her first exposure to the world of Philippine politics began shortly after the birth of
their first child, in November of 1955, when her husband became the mayor of
Concepcion, Tarlac.
After Ninoy’s assassination, Corazon C. Aquino was thrust into the limelight. She
returned home from Boston and became the unofficial leader of the opposition to
the Marcos regime.
President Ferdinand Marcos signed Cabinet Bill Number 7 which formally set the
presidential poll on February 7, 1986. The next day, Cory Aquino announced that
she would run.
On February 25, 1986, Corazon Aquino took her oath of office as President
on March 24, 2008 in a public statement that President Aquino had been
diagnosed with colon cancer.
On August 1, 2009, at six in the morning Senator Benigno Aquino III announced
that Pres. Aquino died at around 3:18 in the morning.
SOURCE USED: http://nhcp.gov.ph/maria-corazon-cojuangco-aquino/
Historical Background of the Document
The mother of democracy had her speech before a joint session of the United
Congress in September of 1986 to appeal for the democracy and the justice for the death
of his husband, Ninoy. It was her first visit to America since the dictator Ferdinand Marcos
had been deposed in February of the same year and by then, the Philippines was just
recovering with everything that the past administration had done to the people of the
country.
Following her husband's assassination in 1983, Aquino became active and visible
in various demonstrations and protests held against the Marcos regime. She began to
assume the mantle of leadership left by her husband Ninoy and started to become the
symbolic figurehead of the anti-Marcos political opposition. In the last week of November
1985, Marcos surprised the nation by announcing on American television that he would
hold a snap presidential election in February 1986, in order to dispel and remove doubts
against his regime's legitimacy and authority.
Cory was hesitant to keep running at first, yet altered her opinion in the wake of
being given one million marks asking her to keep running for president. Amid Cory's kept
running for president, Ferdinand Marcos mocked her with sexist articulations, saying she
was "only a lady" whose place was in the room. Cory just replied: "May the better lady
win in this decision." He likewise assaulted her freshness in legislative issues. Cory
reacted by conceding she had "no involvement in bamboozling, misleading general
society, taking government cash, and slaughtering political rivals."
When this speech was delivered, it was a deeply personal, impassioned and
effective which actually was interrupted 11 times by applause and ended with a standing
ovation. Some national leaders of that time commended her after the speech and gave
their own commentaries and insights about it. According to House Speaker Tip O'Neill,
he called it the, "finest speech I've ever heard in my 34 years in Congress." It is due to
the feelings and conviction that Cory Aquino gave not only to the Filipinos but to the whole
world.
Aquino spared her most amazing execution for a discourse before a joint session
of Congress, whose individuals welcomed her wearing yellow ties and hurling yellow
roses flown in exceptionally from Texas; the shading has turned into Aquino's trademark.
She shielded her approach of compromise with the Philippines' Communist guerillas and
approached Congress for more money related guide to remake the Philippines' smashed
economy. "You have spent numerous lives and much fortune to bring flexibility to
numerous grounds that were hesitant to get it," said Aquino. "Furthermore, here you have
a people who won it independent from anyone else and require just the assistance to
save it."
The smooth half-hour address started and finished with overwhelming applauses,
and was hindered by acclaim eleven times. It was, said House Speaker Tip O'Neill, the
"best discourse I've ever heard in my 34 years in Congress." Above the commotion of
cheering authorities, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole said to Mrs. Aquino, "Cory, you
hit a grand slam." Without thinking twice, Aquino grinned and shot back: "I trust the bases
were stacked."
References:
http://www.amazingwomeninhistory.com/corazon-aquino-revolutionary-president-
philippines/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corazon_Aquino
https://www.esquiremag.ph/politics/revisit-cory-aquino-s-historic-1986-speech-before-
the-us-congress-a00207-20180125
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/09/19/aquino-appeals-to-
congress/eb0d5b8e-dd7a-4381-ab51-a9626bd9cd2c/?utm_term=.7b7522446a0a
Content Presentation and Analysis of the Important Historical Information Found in the
Document
When Former President Corazon C. Aquino gave a speech to the United States
Congress on September 1986, a little more than half a year after assuming presidency,
she called on America to help the Philippines in preserving the freedom which the Filipinos
have won for themselves. Calling to “restore democracy by the ways of democracy”, she
aggrandized the role of America in the world as the promoter of a righteous system of
governance and further strengthened the reputation of said country as a model for
greatness.
Cory’s speech was adorned by countless references to her husband – Former
Senator Ninoy Aquino – whom the Filipino nation had assigned as the poster boy for anti-
Marcos movements. Her speech even went so far as to connect Ninoy’s struggle with that
of the whole nation, all the while laying their family’s history entwined with the fate of the
entire country. She justified her presence in front of the US Congress using figurative
words and metaphorical language, alluding to her connection with the late Ninoy on one
hand and fulfilling her mandate to the Filipino people on the other.
She succeeded in her analysis of the Martial Law era in terms of its origin and
outcome. Marcos’ attempt to stop a 500-strong communist insurgency by imposing a
restrictive policy only furthered the Red Army’s reach; in fact it has been said that the
Communist Party had 16,000 members by the end of Martial Law, making Marcos the
Party’s biggest recruiter. President Cory said that the Martial Law was like “trying to stifle
a thing with the means by which it grows”, acknowledging the fact that the communist
insurgency existed because of widespread economic inequality.
Cory Aquino appears to have the utmost confidence and trust in America that she
invited the country to help the Philippines in practicing and preserving its democracy.
Looking at it from today’s perspective, it seems like an open invitation for the former to
aid the latter and subsequently use it for its own strategic interests. We remember that
the US bases were evicted by a historic vote in 1991, during Cory’s term, but such was
the work of many nationalist senators who carried the lessons of Martial Law to their way
of service.
Not much has changed since the speech of Cory Aquino to the US Congress in
1986 – there is still no genuine economic and social transformation agenda which was
mentioned in her speech. Thirty years on, we still owe a huge amount of money to various
lending institutions and in fact our debt has grown ever larger and now includes not only
foreign banks but also local ones. Furthermore, the communist insurgency which Martial
Law sought to terminate is continually spreading and deepening its roots. This is no
wonder since inequality is increasing at a steady rate; President Cory was right when she
said that the communist insurgency feeds on economic deterioration. The most important
lesson we can get from the speech, I think, is that we cannot entrust our redemption to
another sovereign state and that the only real solution to any type of rebellion is to address
what’s causing it. Solving the root problem will encourage everything else to inevitably fall
into place.
Important Historical Information
In the content of the late president Corazon Aquino she has pointed a lot of events
that are considered as historically significant to the Philippines.
