CORY AQUINO’S SPEECH BEFORE THE US CONGRESS

For the Philippines, Cory is known to be the mother of democracy and the face of EDSA as the
People Power fired up. This revolution steps up not only in the Philippines but in some countries since
it is a bloodless revolution. During the US congress, Cory Aquino made her first speech as the
president of the Philippines and I will here to reiterate some important words that the president said.

• For the nation, Ninoy became the pleasing sacrifice that answered their prayers
for freedom
Noong panahon na yun tila isang bida sa pelikula si Ninoy at kontrabida naman si Marcos.
Pangunahing kritiko ni Marcos si Ninoy kung kayat kahit ano mang mangyari kay Ninoy at sa
pamilya o kaalyado nito ay siyang biglaang sisi lahat kay Marcos. In fact, magkaibigan silang
dalawa. Naniniwala ang mga Pilipino na kailangan ng isang bagong pinuno ng bansa at yun
ay sa katauhan ng kanyang kritiko, si Ninoy. Isang bagong Pilipinas na siya ang Pinuno.
• 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 the threat of sudden midnight execution over his head. Ninoy held up manfully–all
of it. I barely did as well. For 43 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.
Sa bahaging ito, tila isang batang walang laban na nasusumbong sa kanyang ama ang
ginawa ni Cory, ang kanyang asawa ang bata at ang America naman ang ama. Ayon kay
Cory, tatlong beses namatay si Ninoy (Mala pusa pala kumbaga) ang bahaging ito ay
pagsasalarawan kung paano unang namatay si Ninoy na di umano ay nakatikim ng
pagpapahirap sa ilalim ng administrasyong Marcos. Nakahubad, walang kain, ligo at kahit na
ano pa mang kalayaan.Ni ultimo pamilya niya ay di niya masilayan at tanging si Cory lang,
kung minsan pa nga wala pa. Nakalaya din siya matapos ang ilang buwan.
• 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. He stopped only when it dawned on him that the government would keep
his body alive after the fast had destroyed his brain. And so, with barely any life in his
body, he called off the fast on the fortieth day
Matapos makalaya ni Ninoy ay siya namang pagharap nito sa panibagong kaso gaya ng
Subversion at pagpatay. Hinatulan siya ng Military Court, gaya ng inaasahan muli siyang
nakulong sa halip na magreklamo pinili ni Ninoy na magsagawa ng Hunger strike sa loob ng
40 araw at sa pangyayaring ito ay naniniwala si Cory na ito ang pangalawang beses na
nawala ang kanyang asawa. Mali ng aba ang gpbyerno? Pumatay ng aba si Ninoy? Abusado
ng aba si Marcos at ang mabait na bersyon niya naman si Ninoy? Ang tanong na ko na
marahil ay tanong niyo din. Ngunit kung ang pagbabasehan ay ang speech ng biyuda,
malinaw pa sa sinag ng araw. Masama si Marcos. Mabuti si Ninoy.
• And then, we lost him, irrevocably and more painfully than in the past. The news came
to us in Boston. It had to be after the three happiest years of our lives together. But his
death was my country’s resurrection in the courage and faith by which alone they could
be free again. The dictator had called him a nobody. Two million people threw aside
their passivity and escorted him to his grave.
Malinawag na sa bahaging ito ng kanyang speech ay ang pagsasalarawan ng kanyang
namatay na asawa na sinabi niyang nagging mitsya ng pagkakaisa ng taong bayan, ng
Pilipinas.Ilang milyon ang nakipaglibing sa kamamatay lang na senador na sinabing
maliwanag na tagpo kung saan ipinapakita nito na ganun din ang taong naniniwala sa
talamak na mali sa adminitrasyon. Ipinaliwanag niya na mabilis na para bang napunta sa
kanya ang tanong na sino ang magtutuloy ng laban ng aking asawa? Sino ang magpapatuloy
ng laban sa presidente?
• I held fast to Ninoy’s conviction that it must be by the ways of democracy. I held out for
participation in the 1984 election the dictatorship called, even if I knew it would be
rigged. I was warned by the lawyers of the opposition that I ran the grave risk of
legitimizing the foregone results of elections that were clearly going to be fraudulent.
But I was not fighting for lawyers but for the people in whose intelligence I had implicit
faith. By the exercise of democracy, even in a dictatorship, they would be prepared for
democracy when it came. And then, also, it was the only way I knew by which we could
measure our power even in the terms dictated by the dictatorship. The people
vindicated me in an election shamefully marked by government thuggery and fraud.
The opposition swept the elections, garnering a clear majority of the votes, even if they
ended up, thanks to a corrupt Commission on Elections, with barely a third of the seats
in parliament. Now, I knew our power.
Paglabag sa batas. Malinawag na sa bahaging ito ay ipinaliwanag ni Cory na binalaan na siya
ng ilang abogado na huwag makisali sa gobyerno dahil malinawag na ito ay paglabag sa
saligang batas. Ngunit anong ginawa ng babaeng walang karanasan? Pinilit niyang maging
boses ng kalayaan na agad namang sinakyan ng mga Pilipino kung kayat ito ang nagging
hudyat na sa kanyang paggiging kauna unahang babaeng pangulo ng bansa. Sa tulong ng
oposisyon, matagumpay na naisakatuparan ni Cory ang hangarin ng iilang tao na pumalibpot
sa kanya. At dahil dito, naniniwala siya na alam niya at nauunawaan niya na ngayon ang
tunay na kahulugan ng kapangyarihan.
• Again, as we restored 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. A jealously 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.
Dahil sa pagiging pangulo, agad silang nagkaroon ng pagpupulong upang balangkasin ang
panibagong saligang batas na pinaniniwalaan nilang mas maggiging makatao. Speaking of
makatao, dito din nabuo ang “Comission on Human Rights” sa pagkakataong ito, naniniwala
si Cory na napanatili niya ng kalayaan at kapayaan ng bansa.
• My predecessor set aside democracy to save it from a communist insurgency that
numbered less than 500. Unhampered by respect for human rights, he went at it
hammer and tongs. By the time he fled, that insurgency had grown to more than
16,000. I think there is a lesson here to be learned about trying to stifle a thing with the
means by which it grows.
Sa patuloy na pagkaupo sa pwesto, naniniwala si Cory na bumaba ang bilang ng mga taong
galit sa gobyerno. Ang mga mapang api na komunista ay tila isa isang sumuko at nagpakita
pagsuporta sa bagong mukha ng gobyerno. Sabi niya. Sabi niya yun.
 • Finally, may I turn to that other slavery: our $26 billion foreign debt. I have said that we
shall honor it. Yet must the means by which we shall be able to do so be kept from us?
Many conditions imposed on the previous government that stole this debt continue to
be imposed on us who never benefited from it.
Muli, sa bahaging ito ay nagsumbong ang biyuda sa International media na napakalaki ang
utang na iniwan sa kanya ng nagdaang administrasyon at sino nga naman daw ang
nagbenepisyo sa mga ito? Ito daw ay utang na pagbabayaran ng Pilipinas. Pagbabayaran ng
Pilipino. Masama si Marcos. Ito ang hindi direktang pagsusumbong ng biyuda
• 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. They didn’t expect me to work a miracle that would
instantly put food into their mouths, clothes on their back, education in their children,
and work that will put dignity in their lives. But I feel the pressing obligation to respond
quickly as the leader of a people so deserving of all these things.
Walang tanging hiling ang mga tao nuon kundi Kalayaan! Sa katotohanang mas kailangan
nila ng pera o pagkain ngunit wala silang ibang bukang bibig kundi kalayaan/kapayapaan.
Naniniwala si Cory na ang kanyang pagkakaupo ang sagot sa kanila at isang himala ay
gumawa siya ng himala sa nangyaring iyon.