Analysis ON THE Speech OF CORY Aquino During THE US Congress PDF

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Former President Corazon C. Aquino Speech to the United States Congress on September 18, 1986 Analysis

Corazon C. Aquino I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE DOCUMENT When former President Corazon Aquino spoke before a joint session of the United States Congress in September of 1986, the dust was only beginning to settle. It was her first visit to America since the dictator Ferdinand Marcos had been deposed in February of the same year, and the Philippines was reckoning with everything his administration had inflicted. That included $26 billion in total foreign debt, and a communist insurgency that grew, throughout the Marcos era, from 500 armed guerillas to 16,000. We were just at the start of a long road to recovery. So Aquino lodged an appeal for help. Addressing the House, she delivered a historic speech that managed to sway in our favor the vote for an emergency $200million aid appropriation. In the moving speech penned by her speechwriter (and our current ambassador to the United Nations) Teddy Locsin, Jr., Aquino defended her reconciliatory stand on the communist insurgency—a sensitive issue in the U.S., given that this was 1986—and asked for financial aid towards rebuilding the Philippine economy. "We fought for honor, and, if only for honor, we shall pay," she said, agreeing to pay the debt that was stolen by Marcos. "And yet, should we have to wring the

payments from the sweat of our men’s faces and sink all the wealth piled up by the bondsman’s two hundred fifty years of unrequited toil?" The speech was impassioned, deeply personal, and effective; interrupted 11 times by applause and bookended with standing ovations. House Speaker Tip O'Neill called it the "finest speech I've ever heard in my 34 years in Congress." Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole told her, "Cory, you hit a home run." And House Minority Whip Trent Lott said, "Let's just say the emotion of the moment saved the day." It would go down in the annals of our history as one of the former President's finest speeches.

II. CONTENT AND ANALYSIS OF THE IMPORTANT HISTORICAL INFORMATION FOUND IN THE DOCUMENT  On September 22, 1972, opposition Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. Together with Senators, publishers, and anyone who had spoken up for the democracy was arrested at the Manila Hilton Hotel in Ermita, Manila by elements of the Philippine Constabulary-Metropolitan Command (PC-METROCOM) led by Col. Romeo Gatan. This arrest happened a day after President Ferdinand E. Marcos signed Proclamation Number 1081 declaring the entire Philippines under Martial Law. This was the first time that his family lost him.  This was the second time they’ve lost him. On August 27, 1973, Ninoy was brought back to Fort Bonifacio where he faced a Military Tribunal on charges of murder, illegal possession of firearms, and subversion. 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. For forty-three days, the authorities would not tell his family what had happened to him.  On August 13, 1983, Aquino began a meandering, week-long flight that took him from Boston to Los Angeles and through Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Because Marcos had cut off diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the government there was under no obligation to cooperate with his regime's goal of keeping Aquino away from Manila. As China Airlines Flight 811 descended into Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983, Aquino warned the foreign journalists traveling with him to have their cameras ready. "In a matter of three or four minutes it could all be over," he noted with chilling prescience. Minutes after the plane touched down, Aquino was dead—killed by an assassin's bullet. So Cory Aquino left America to bury her husband.  “Still, we fought for honor, and if only for honor, we shall pay.”She emphasized that the fight they started was not wasted and it was not a nonsense one. That they, the Filipinos put up a good fight against the administration.

 “The task had fallen on my shoulder to continue offering the democratic alternative to our people.” She took the responsibilities in taking care and fighting for the sake of freedom of the whole country.  In May 1984, new elections for parliament took place and opposition parties claimed 58 of the 183 available seats even though there were large allegations of election fraud. Corazon had publicly endorsed all of the candidates running for the opposition parties.  Marcos recently called for 'snap,' or early, presidential elections amid sharp domestic and U.S. criticism over his handling of a growing communist insurgency and a severe economic crisis.  Corazon Aqunio, despite a lack of political experience, said she would consider running against Marcos if 1 million signatures had been collecting urging her to enter the race. Former newspaper publisher Joaquin Roces, 72, said his group had collected 1,005,882 signatures as of 6:35 p.m. Monday in support of her candidacy.  The ultimate result was the election of Mrs. Corazon Aquino as President and Mr. Salvador Laurel as Vice-President of the Philippines.  And yet, despite all these serious challenges, not once did Aquino consider declaring martial law. Her stubborn adherence to the democratic process (“Archibald MacLeish had said that democracy must be defended by arms when it is attacked by arms and by truth when it is attacked by lies.) is all the more notable when one recalls that even as she was fighting off military rebels, she was also dealing with a fractious Cabinet, long-standing domestic rebellions and pernicious problems like a bankrupt economy, corruption and poverty—the shambles left behind by the Marcos regime.  In March 1986 Aquino proclaimed a provisional constitution and soon thereafter appointed a commission to write a new constitution. She failed to undertake fundamental economic or social reforms, and her popularity steadily declined as she faced continual outcries over economic injustice and political corruption. These problems were exacerbated by persistent warfare between the communist insurgency and a military whose loyalties to Aquino were uncertain. In general, her economic policies were criticized for being mixed or faltering in the face of mass poverty. Aquino was succeeded in office by her former defense secretary, Fidel Ramos. The ratification of the new Constitution was followed by the election of senators and congress that same year and the holding of local elections in 1988.  President Aquino and President Reagan discussed her strenuous efforts to bolster the democratic institutions of her country and to insure its security and strengthen its economy. And he assured her that all America wants the Philippine democracy to succeed and to prosper and that we’ll do what we can to help.  Most of the money went to buy the 1986 snap election. On top of that, we have been left with a staggering foreign debt of $26 billion and nothing to show for it

except some remarkable architecture in New York. Half of our much needed export revenues are required just to pay for the interest on that debt.  It is stated also that Filipinos face a communist insurgency that feeds on economic deterioration, even though they carry a great share of the free world defenses in the Pacific. These are only two of the many burdens the people carry even as they try to build a worthy and enduring house for their new democracy. Half the export earnings, $2 billion out of $4 billion, which was all they could earn in the restrictive markets of the world, went to pay just the interest on a debt whose benefit the Filipino people never received.

 Cory Aquino was devastated and sad about the situation of the country; about two decades of social and political oppression.

III. CONTRIBUTION AND RELEVANCE OF THE DOCUMENT IN UNDERSTANDING THE GRAND NARRATIVE OF PHILIPPINE HISTORY The speech of the former President Corazon Aquino gives us the insights on how Filipinos struggled to attain freedom and between the insisted resistance from the past have inspired Filipino revolutionaries in our current era. It also gives clarification about what really happened during the time of Ninoy Aquino. The document describe the struggles faced by the Aquinos to help the Philippines achieve freedom. The document also mentioned about the debt incurred by the former government before Cory Aquino. This speech also shows how the dictatorship transforms into democratic government. From its president down to its laws, order, and rules. The document also mentioned the killing of Ninoy Aquino and the terror from torture and conviction during the Martial Law. It shows the problem faced by Cory Aquino as soon as she became the President. For instance the poverty and unemployment. The document mentioned two elections occurred after the death of Ninoy Aquino. His wife participated during the election and lose in the first election. During the second which is snap election, she became the president and declares democracy in the country....