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    Corazon Aquino

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    Soleil Dyana

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    Corazon Aquino

    Uploaded by

    Soleil Dyana
    9 views2 pages

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    9 views2 pages

    Corazon Aquino

    Uploaded by

    Soleil Dyana

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    CORAZON AQUINO

    Analysis ON THE Speech OF CORY

    HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE DOCUMENT

    When former President Corazon Aquino spoke before a joint session of theUnited
    States Congress in September of 1986, the dust was only beginning to settle. Itwas her first visit to
    America since the dictator Ferdinand Marcos had been deposed inFebruary of the same year, and the
    Philippines was reckoning with everything hisadministration had inflicted. That included $26 billion in
    total foreign debt, and acommunist insurgency that grew, throughout the Marcos era, from
    500 armedguerillas 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 ahistoric speech that managed to sway in our
    favor the vote for an emergency $200-million aid appropriation. In the moving speech penned by her
    speechwriter (and ourcurrent ambassador to the United Nations) Teddy Locsin, Jr., Aquino
    defendedher 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 thePhilippine economy."We
    fought for honor, and, if only for honor, we shall pay," she said, agreeing topay 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 timesby applause
    and bookended with standing ovations. House Speaker Tip O'Neill calledit the "finest speech I've ever
    heard in my 34 years in Congress." Senate MajorityLeader Robert Dole told her, "Cory, you hit a home
    run." And House Minority WhipTrent Lott said, "Let's just say the emotion of the moment saved the
    day." It would godown in the annals of our history as one of the former President's finest speeches.II.
    CONTENT AND ANALYSIS OF THE IMPORTANT HISTORICALINFORMATION FOUND IN THE
    DOCUMENTOn September 22, 1972, opposition Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. Together withSenators,
    publishers, and anyone who had spoken up for the democracy wasarrested at the Manila Hilton
    Hotel in Ermita, Manila by elements of thePhilippine Constabulary-Metropolitan Command (PC-
    METROCOM) led by Col.Romeo Gatan. This arrest happened a day after President Ferdinand E.
    Marcossigned Proclamation Number 1081 declaring the entire Philippines under MartialLaw. This was
    the first time that his family lost him.This was the second time they’ve lost him. On August 27, 1973,
    Ninoy wasbrought back to Fort Bonifacio where he faced a Military Tribunal on charges ofmurder, illegal
    possession of firearms, and subversion. They locked him up in atiny, nearly airless cell in a military camp
    in the north. They stripped him nakedand held a threat of a sudden midnight execution over his head.
    Ninoy held upmanfully under all of it. For forty-three days, the authorities would not tell hisfamily what
    had happened to him.On August 13, 1983, Aquino began a meandering, week-long flight that took
    himfrom Boston to Los Angeles and through Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.Because Marcos had cut
    off diplomatic relations with Taiwan, the governmentthere was under no obligation to cooperate with
    his regime's goal of keepingAquino away from Manila. As China Airlines Flight 811 descended into
    ManilaInternational Airport on August 21, 1983, Aquino warned the foreign journaliststraveling with him
    to have their cameras ready. "In a matter of three or fourminutes it could all be over," he noted with
    chilling prescience. Minutes after theplane touched down, Aquino was dead—killed by an assassin's
    bullet. So CoryAquino left America to bury her husband.“Still, we fought for honor, and if only for
    honor, we shall pay.”She emphasizedthat the fight they started was not wasted and it was not a
    nonsense

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