PHILIPPINE CARTOONS: POLITICAL CARICATURE OF THE AMERICAN ERA 1900-1941

Alfred McCoy, Alfredo Roces

MANILA: THE CORRUPTION OF A CITY

MEMORIES OF THE VISIT

MUNICIPAL HYGIENE

THE DISTANT PROVINCES

CONVENIENT BLINDNESS

SACK RACE IN CAVITE

REGATTAS IN BATANGAS

WHY THE APARCERO REBELS

A NEW WRINKLE IN THE ART OF THIEVING

THE CALAMITY OF THE MOMENT

ANG DATO, DATOON; ANG KABUS, KABUSON

FREE PRESS
THE COLONIAL CONDITION

THE DOCTOR IS BUSY

A MASS IS BETTER

THE DIRECTOR’S CONFIDANTES

POLITICAL MEETING FOR VELASCO

POLITICAL BEGGING

ANG MGA MAPAPALAD

LA PRENSA AMARILLA
AMERICAN WORKER/FILIPINO WORKER

UNCLE SAM AND LITTLE JUAN

POLITICA DE MANO FUERTE (TANONG NA MAKAHULUGAN)

TAFT’S SERENADE (ANG PANANAPAT NI TAFT)

FILIPINIZATION…?
NOTHING BETWEEN TWO PLATES

THE GREETING

EL ULTIMO ADIOS (THE LAST FAREWELL)

THE PARTIES TAKE TURNS

RENDEZVOUS (KAGANDAHANG LOOB)

THE RETURN

HEAVY LOAD

THE POWER OF THE TRUSTS

TOWARD LIBERTY

WHICH WEIGHS MORE?

THE LOYALTY OF THE FILIPINOS

THE ALIENS IN OUR MIDST

FRIAR DECEIT

THE SOLDIERS OF “LIBERTAS”

ANG PRAILE (PROPAGANDA FRAILESCA)

AFTER THE DEMONSTRATION

WHERE IS THE SHIP GOING?

VOYAGE TO HEAVEN

BEES AND DRONES

EVADING THEIR TAXES

GUIERA PATANI (DE POTENCIA A POTENCIA)

REPRESENTING…PEKING?

HALLUCINOGENIC BUSINESS

PRETENDING TO NOT SEE

CHINESE REPRISALS

LONG LIVE SPAIN

A DUEL TO THE DEATH

THERE ARE NO PROSECTING ATTORNEYS

HOW THE ‘TERECERISTAS’ GO TO FIGHT?

SHELLING THE FOGGERS

WHEN THE CHINESE PROGRESSES

QUESTION OF TIME

WHY THERE IS OPIUM

PAINTINGS

JUAN LUNA

 October 3, 1827-December 3, 1899

 Born in Bardoc, Ilocos Norte
 Third among the seven children of Don Joaquin Luna de San Pedro y Posadas and Doña Laureana Novicio y
Ancheta (1861)
 Filipino painter, sculptor, and a political activist of the Philippine Revolution during the late 19 th century
 Went to Ateneo Municipal de Manila (Bachelor of Arts degree)
 Excelled in painting and drawing and was influenced by his brother, Manuel Luna
 Enrolled at Escuela Nautica de Manila (now Philippine Merchant Marine Academy) and became a sailor
 In 1877, Manuel and Juan traveled to Europe, where Manuel studied music and Juan painting
 Entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, where he befriended the painter Don Alejo Vera. Luna was
discontented with the style of teaching in school and decided that it would be much better to work with Vera.
(mentor)


LUNA’S WORKS

1. DEATH OF CLEOPATRA- Philippine issue; suicide by a snake

 2. THE PARISIAN LIFE- gender issue; woman=low life, prostitute, seduction; yellowish=kulang sa nourishment; stiff
& choker=oppression; hugis ng mapa ng Pilipinas

3. LAS DAMAS ROMANAS- makakalaya ang Pilipinas

4. ESPAÑA Y FILIPINAS- Spanish and Filipino friendship

5. SPOLIARIUM- 1st international artist of the Philippines, Exposicion Nacional de Bellas Artes (Madrid, 1844) and
garnered the first gold medal (out of three), 1886, sold to Diputacion Provincial de Barcelona for 20, 000 pesetas

FERNANDO AMORSOLO

 First national artist

 “Grand Old Man of Philippine Art” when Manila Hilton inaugurated its art center on January 23, 1969 with an
exhibit of a selection of his works
 Backlighting technique was his trademark
 “defined and perpetuated a distinct element of the nation’s artistic and cultural heritage”
 UP Fine Arts, 35 years professor
 Bureau of Public Works

AMORSOLO’S WORKS

1. DALAGANG BUKID- collections

2. MAIDEN IN A STREAM- freedom; daily life; beauty of Filipinas

3. TINIKLING- kabuhayan during colonial times

4. FRUIT PICKER HARVESTING UNDER THE MANGO TREE

5. EL CIEGO- glimpse of the rural area life

6. MARKET PLACE- landscape; Japanese occupation; dignities of Filipinas are protected

7. PORTRAITS- Andres Bonifacio, Apolinario Mabini, Jose Rizal, Emilio Jacinto, Gregorio del Pilar, and also of
himself (FEU)
SPEECH OF PRESIDENT CORAZON AQUINO DURING THE JOINT SESSION OF THE U.S. CONGRESS, SEPTEMBER 18, 1986

Speech
of
Her Excellency Corazon C. Aquino
President of the Philippines
During the Joint Session of the United States Congress

[Delivered at Washington, D.C., on September 18, 1986]

Three years ago, I left America in grief to bury my husband, Ninoy Aquino. I thought I had left it also to
lay to rest his restless dream of Philippine freedom. Today, I have returned as the president of a free
people.

In burying Ninoy, a whole nation honored him. By that brave and selfless act of giving honor, a nation
in shame recovered its own. A country that had lost faith in its future found it in a faithless and brazen
act of murder. So in giving, we receive, in losing we find, and out of defeat, we snatched our victory.

For the nation, Ninoy became the pleasing sacrifice that answered their prayers for freedom. For myself
and our children, Ninoy was a loving husband and father. His loss, three times in our lives, was always
a deep and painful one.

Fourteen years ago this month was the first time we lost him. A president-turned-dictator, and traitor to
his oath, suspended the Constitution and shut down the Congress that was much like this one before
which I am honored to speak. He detained my husband along with thousands of others – senators,
publishers and anyone who had spoken up for the democracy as its end drew near. But for Ninoy, a
long and cruel ordeal was reserved. The dictator already knew that Ninoy was not a body merely to be
imprisoned but a spirit he must break. For even as the dictatorship demolished one by one the
institutions of democracy – the press, the Congress, the independence of the judiciary, the protection
of the Bill of Rights – Ninoy kept their spirit alive in himself.

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.

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. God meant him for other things, he felt. He did
not know that an early death would still be his fate, that only the timing was wrong.

At any time during his long ordeal, Ninoy could have made a separate peace with the dictatorship, as
so many of his countrymen had done. But the spirit of democracy that inheres in our race and animates
this chamber could not be allowed to die. He held out, in the loneliness of his cell and the frustration of
exile, the democratic alternative to the insatiable greed and mindless cruelty of the right and the purging
holocaust of the left.

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. And so
began the revolution that has brought me to democracy’s most famous home, the Congress of the
United States.

The task had fallen on my shoulders to continue offering the democratic alternative to our people.

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. He failed to say how it shall be won.

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.

Last year, in an excess of arrogance, the dictatorship called for its doom in a snap election. The people
obliged. With over a million signatures, they drafted me to challenge the dictatorship. And I obliged
them. The rest is the history that dramatically unfolded on your television screen and across the front
pages of your newspapers.

You saw a nation, armed with courage and integrity, stand fast by democracy against threats and
corruption. You saw women poll watchers break out in tears as armed goons crashed the polling places
to steal the ballots but, just the same, they tied themselves to the ballot boxes. You saw a people so
committed to the ways of democracy that they were prepared to give their lives for its pale imitation. At
the end of the day, before another wave of fraud could distort the results, I announced the people’s
victory.

The distinguished co-chairman of the United States observer team in his report to your President
described that victory:

“I was witness to an extraordinary manifestation of democracy on the part of the Filipino people. The
ultimate result was the election of Mrs. Corazon C. Aquino as President and Mr. Salvador Laurel as
Vice-President of the Philippines.”

Many of you here today played a part in changing the policy of your country towards us. We, Filipinos,
thank each of you for what you did: for, balancing America’s strategic interest against human concerns,
illuminates the American vision of the world.

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 that faith and the obligation it entails, that I assumed the presidency.

As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it. That is my contract with my people and my commitment
to God. He had willed that the blood drawn with the lash shall not, in my country, be paid by blood
drawn by the sword but by the tearful joy of reconciliation.

We have swept away absolute power by a limited revolution that respected the life and freedom of
every Filipino. Now, we are restoring full constitutional government. 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. Given the polarization and breakdown we inherited, this is no small
achievement.

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.

I don’t think anybody, in or outside our country, concerned for a democratic and open Philippines,
doubts what must be done. Through political initiatives and local reintegration programs, we must seek
to bring the insurgents down from the hills and, by economic progress and justice, show them that for
which the best intentioned among them fight.

As President, I will not betray the cause of peace by which I came to 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.
Yet, I must explore the path of peace to the utmost for at its end, whatever disappointment I meet there,
is the moral basis for laying down the olive branch of peace and taking up the sword of war. Still, should
it come to that, I will not waver from the course laid down by your great liberator: “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.”

Like Lincoln, I understand that force may be necessary before mercy. Like Lincoln, I don’t relish it. Yet,
I will do whatever it takes to defend the integrity and freedom of my country.

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.
And no assistance or liberality commensurate with the calamity that was visited on us has been
extended. Yet ours must have been the cheapest revolution ever. With little help from others, we
Filipinos fulfilled the first and most difficult conditions of the debt negotiation the full restoration of
democracy and responsible government. Elsewhere, and in other times of more stringent world
economic conditions, Marshall plans and their like were felt to be necessary companions of returning
democracy.

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.

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. 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.

We face a communist insurgency that feeds on economic deterioration, even as we carry a great share
of the free world defenses in the Pacific. These are only two of the many burdens my people carry even
as they try to build a worthy and enduring house for their new democracy, that may serve as well as a
redoubt for freedom in Asia. Yet, no sooner is one stone laid than two are taken away. Half our export
earnings, $2 billion out of $4 billion, which was all we 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.

Still, we fought for honor, and, if only for honor, we shall pay. 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?

Yet to all Americans, as the leader of a proud and free people, I address this question: has there been
a greater test of national commitment to the ideals you hold dear than that my people have gone
through? You have spent many lives and much treasure to bring freedom to many lands that were
reluctant to receive it. And here you have a people who won it by themselves and need only the help
to preserve it.

Three years ago, I said thank you, America, for the haven from oppression, and the home you gave
Ninoy, myself and our children, and for the three happiest years of our lives together. Today, I say, join
us, America, as we build a new home for democracy, another haven for the oppressed, so it may stand
as a shining testament of our two nation’s commitment to freedom.

TAGALOG

Talumpati
ng
Kagalang-galang Corazon C. Aquino
Pangulo ng Pilipinas
Sa Pinagsanib na Sesyon ng Kapulungan ng Estados Unidos

[Inihayag sa Washington, D.C., noong ika-18 ng Setyembre 1986]

Tatlong taon na ang nakararaan, nagdadalamhati akong lumisan sa Amerika upang ilibing ang aking
kabiyak, si Ninoy Aquino. Akala ko’y umalis ako doon upang ilibing din nang ganap ang kaniyang di-
makaling pangarap na kalayaan ng Pilipinas. Ngayon, nagbabalik ako bilang pangulo ng malayang
sambayanan.

Sa paglilibing kay Ninoy, dinarakila siya ng buong bansa. Sa magiting at mapagpaubayang pakikibakang
magbigay ng karangalan, ang buong bansa ay nakabangon nang mag-isa. Ang bansang nawalan ng
pananalig sa kinabukasan ay natagpuan yaon sa marahas at lantarang pagpaslang. Kaya sa pagbibigay ay
nakatatanggap tayo; sa pagkawala ay nakatatagpo tayo; at mula sa pagkabigo ay nahablot natin ang
tagumpay.

Para sa bansa, si Ninoy ang kaaya-ayang sakripisyo na tumugon sa mga panalangin nito hinggil sa kalayaan.
Para sa akin at sa aking mga anak, si Ninoy ang mapagmahal na esposo at ama. Ang kaniyang pagkawala,
nang tatlong ulit sa aming buhay, ay palaging malalim at makirot.

Ikalabing-apat na apat na taon ngayong buwan ang unang pagkakataon na nawala siya sa amin. Ang
pangulong naghunos diktador, at nagtaksil sa kaniyang sinumpaang tungkulin, ay sinuspinde ang Saligang
Batas at isinara ang Konggreso na parang gaya nito na isang karangalan ang magsalita. Ibinilanggo niya ang
aking asawa kapiling ang ilang libo pang tao—mga senador, pabliser, at sinumang nagsalita para sa
demokrasya—habang papalapit na ang wakas ng kaniyang pamamahala. Ngunit nakalaan para kay Ninoy
ang mahaba at malupit na pagsubok. Batid ng diktador na si Ninoy ay hindi lamang katawan na makukulong
bagkus diwaing dapat wasakin. Dahil kahit gibain nang isa-isa ng diktadura ang mga institusyon ng
demokrasya—gaya ng press, Konggreso, independensiya ng hukuman, ang proteksiyon ng Talaan ng
Karapatan— pinanatiling buhay ni Ninoy ang alab ng diwain nito.

Sinikap ng gobyerno na durugin si Ninoy sa pamamagitan ng panghihiya at paninindak. Ibinilibid siya sa

maliit, halos walang hanging selda sa kampo militar sa hilaga. Hinubdan siya at binantaang ipabibitay
pagsapit ng kalagitnaan ng gabi. Pinanindigan lahat iyon ni Ninoy. At gayon din halos ang ginawa ko.
Inilihim sa akin ng mga awtoridad kung ano ang nangyari sa kaniya sa loob ng apatnapu’t tatlong araw. Ito
ang unang pagkakataon na nadama ko at ng aking mga anak na naglaho na siya.

Nang hindi nagtagumpay ang gayong paraan, nilitis siya sa salang subersiyon, pagpatay, at iba pang krimen
sa harap ng komisyong militar. Hinamon ni Ninoy ang awtoridad nito at siya’y nag-ayuno. Kung
makaliligtas siya doon, pakiwari niya, ang Diyos ay may nakalaang ibang tadhana sa kaniya. Muling nawala
si Ninoy sa amin. Dahil walang makapipigjil sa kaniyang sigasig na mag-ayuno hanggang wakas, huminto
lamang siya nang mabatid na pananatilihin ng gobyerno ang kaniyang katawan makalipas na sirain ng pag-
aayuno ang utak. Lupaypay ang katawan na halos walang buhay, winakasan ni Ninoy ang kaniyang pag-
aayuno sa ikaapatnapung araw. May inilaan ang Diyos sa kaniya na ibang bagay, ramdam ni Ninoy. Hindi
niya alam na ang maagang kamatayan ay siya ring magiging tadhana niya, dangan lamang at hindi pa
panahon.

Sa alinmang sandali ng kaniyang mahabang pagsubok, maaari na sanang makipagkasundo si Ninoy sa

diktadura, gaya ng ginawa ng marami niyang kababayan. Ngunit ang diwa ng demokrasya na nananalaytay
sa aming lahi at nagpapasigla ng kamarang ito ay hindi mahahayaang maupos. Pinanindigan niya, sa kabila
ng galimgim ng kaniyang selda at kabiguan ng destiyero, ang demokratikong alternatibo sa hindi mapigil
na kasakiman at salat-sa-katwirang kalupitan ng kanan at sa mala-holokawstong pagpupurga ng kaliwa.

Pagkaraan, naglaho siya sa amin nang ganap at higit na masakit kaysa noon. Sumapit sa amin sa Boston ang
balita. Iyon ay pagkaraan ng tatlong masasayang taon ng aming pagsasama. Ngunit ang kaniyang
kamatayan ay resureksiyon ng tapang at pananampalatayang magpapalaya sa aming bayan. itinuring na
walang kuwenta ng diktador si Ninoy. Dalawang milyong tao ang bumasag ng kanilang pananahimik at
nagmartsa tungo sa libingan niya. At doon nagsimula ang rebolusyon na naghatid sa akin sa pinakatanyag
na tahanan ng demokrasya, ang Konggreso ng Estados Unidos.

Nakasalalay sa aking mga balikat ngayon ang tungkuling ipagpatuloy ang paghahain ng demokratikong
alternatibo sa aming sambayanan.

Winika ni Archibald Macleish na dapat ipagtanggol ang demokrasya sa pamamagitan ng sandata kapag
tinapatan ng sandata, at sa pamamagitan ng katotohanan kapag tinapatan ng kasinungalingan. Nabigo
niyang banggitin kung paano iyon ipapanalo.

Naniniwala ako sa ipinaglalaban ni Ninoy na dapat ipanalo iyon sa mga pamamaraan ng demokrasya.
Naghintay akong makalahok noong halalan 1984 na inihayag ng diktadura, kahit alam kong dadayain iyon.
Nagbabala sa akin ang mga abogado ng oposisyon sa panganib na maging lehitimo ang resulta ng halalang
malinaw na dadayain. Ngunit hindi ako nakikipaglaban para sa mga abogado bagkus para sa mga
mamamayang ang talino’y pinanaligan ko. Sa pagsasagawa ng demokrasya kahit nasa ilalim ng diktadura’y
maihahanda sila sa demokrasya kapag sumapit ito. Ito rin ang tanging paraan na alam kong masusukat
narnin ang kapangyarihan ikahit sa mga bagay na idinidikta ng diktadura.

Itinaguyod ako ng mga tao sa halalang hitik sa karahasan at pandaraya ng gobyerno. Nagwagi ang
oposisyon sa mga halalan, lumikom ng malinaw na mayorya ng mga boto, bagaman ang natamo nila—
salamat na lamang sa tiwaling Komisyon sa Halalan—ay halos sangkatlo lamang ng mga puwesto sa
batasan. Ngayon, alam ko na ang aming kapangyarihan.

Noong nakaraang taon, nanawagan ng biglaang halalan ang diktadura bilang pagpapamalas ng labis na
kapaluan. Tumango ang bayan. Sa bisa ng mahigit isang milyong lagda, iniluklok nila ako na hamumin ang
diktadura. At sinunod ko ang mithi nila. Ang sumunod ay kasaysayang nabuksan nang dramatiko sa inyong
telebisyon at sa mga pambungad na pahina ng inyong mga pahayagan.

Nakita ninyo ang bansa, na armado ng giting at integridad, na mariing nanindigan sa demokrasya laban sa
mga banta at korupsiyon. Nasaksihan ninyo ang mga babaeng tagapagbantay ng halalan na nagsitangis
nang manloob ang mga armadong maton upang hablutin ang mga balota, ngunit itinali ng mga babae ang
kanilang mga kamay sa mga kahon ng balota. Namalas ninyo ang mga tao na nagtaya sa mga pamamaraan
ng demokrasya at handa nilang ihandog ang buhay para sa mababa nitong katumbas. Sa pagwawakas ng
araw, bago pa sumapit ang bagong agos ng pandaraya na makapagpapabaligtad ng mga resulta, inihayag
ko ang tagumpay ng bayan.

Inilarawan ng iginagalang na kawaksing pinuno ng pangkat tagapagsubaybay ng Estados Unidos sa

kaniyang ulat sa inyong Pangulo ang nasabing tagumpay:

“Saksi ako sa pambihirang pagpapamalas ng demokrasya sa panig ng sambayanang Pilipino. Ang ultimong
resulta ay ang pagkakahalal kay Gng. Corazon C. Aquino bilang Pangulo at kay G. Salvador Laurel bilang
Ikalawang Pangulo ng Republika ng Pilipinas.”

Marami sa inyo na narito ngayon ang gumanap ng papel sa pagpapanibago ng patakaran ng inyong bansa
hinggil sa aming bansa. Kami, ang mga Pilipino, ay nagpapasalamat sa inyo sa ginawa ninyo: na sa
pagtitimbang ng estratehikong interes ng Amerika laban sa mga usaping pantao ay maliliwanagan ang
Amerikanong bisyon sa daigdig.

Nang ihayag ng sunod-sunurang batasan ang tagumpay ng aking kalaban, nagsilabasan sa mga kalye ang
mga tao at inihayag na ako ang Pangulo nila. At tapat sa kanilang winika, nang ang iilang pinuno ng militar
ay naghayag ng pagsalungat sa diktadura, ang mga tao’y nagbayanihan upang pangalagaan sila. Totoong
kinakalinga ng mga tao ang kaisa nila. Sa gayong pananalig at pananagutang taglay nito nanungkulan ako
bilang pangulo.

Isinantabi ng nauna sa akin ang demokrasya upang iligtas umano ito sa komunistang pag-aaklas na hindi
lalabis sa 500 tao. Masigasig niyang nilabag ang mga karapatang pantao at ni hindi inalintana ang paggalang
dito. Nang tumakas ang diktador palayo, ang armadong pakikibaka ay lumago sa 16,000. Wari ko’y may
leksiyon dito na dapat matutuhan hinggil sa pagsisikap na supilin ang isang bagay sa pamamagitan ng mga
pamamaraang magpapalago rito.

Walang tao sa aking palagay, sa loob man o labas ng bansa, na may malasakit sa demokratiko at bukas na
Pitipinas, ang magdududa sa mga dapat isagawa. Sa pamamagitan ng mga pagkukusang pampolitika at
lokal na programang pagtanggap ng mga tao mula sa armadong pakikibaka, kailangan nating pababain ang
mga maghihimagsik pababa sa mga burol at, sa bisa ng pangkabuhayang progreso at katarungan, ay
maipakita sa kanila ang lantay na layuning ipinaglalaban nila.

Bilang Pangulo, hindi ako magtataksil sa simulain ng kapayapaang nagluklok sa akin sa kapangyarihan.
Gayundin, at walang sinumang kapanalig ng demokrasyang Pilipino ang mapasusubalian ito, hindi ko
palalampasin at pababayaan ang pamunuan ng maghihimagsik na talikdan ang aming handog na
kapayapaan at paslangin ang aming kabataang kawal, at magbanta sa aming bagong kalayaan.

Kailangan ko pa ring maghanap ng landas ng kapayapaan sa sukdulang paraan dahil ang wakas nito,
anuman ang kabiguang masalubong, ang magiging batayang moral para sa pagpapalaganap ng kapayapaan
at pagsusulong ng digmaan. At kung sumapit sa gayong yugto, hindi ako matatakot sa landas na iginiit ng
inyong dakilang tagapagpalaya: “Walang malisya sa sinuman, may pagkalinga para sa lahat, at may
katatagan sa mga karapatan, gaya ng mga ibinigay na karapatan ng Maykapal, tapusin natin ang trabahong
nasa atin, bendahan ang mga sugat ng bansa, kalingain ang sinumang sumabak sa digmaan, at para sa
kaniyang balo at mga ulila, ay gawin ang lahat ng matatamo at pahalagahan ang makatarungan at
pangmatagalang kapayapaan sa atin at sa lahat ng bansa.”
Gaya ni Lincoln, nauunawaan kong kinakailangan ang puwersa bago ang kapatawaran. Gaya ni Lincoln,
hindi ko iyon gusto. Gayunman ay gagawin ko ang dapat gawin upang ipagtanggol ang integridad at
kalayaan ng aking bansa.

At pangwakas, hayaang dumako ako sa iba pang kaalipnan: ang aming $26 bilyong utang panlabas. Sinabi
ko noon na kikilalanin namin ito. Ngunit ang mga pamamaraan ba para magawa iyon ay ipagkakait sa amin?
Maraming kondisyon na ipinataw sa nakaraang gobyerno na nagnakaw ng inutang ang patuloy na
ipinapataw sa aming hindi nakinabang dito. At walang tulong o liberalidad na katumbas ng kalamidad na
ibinigay sa amin ang pinalawig. Gayunman, ang amin ang pinakamatipid na rebolusyon marahil. Kaming
mga Pilipino, na kakaunti ang tulong na nasagap sa ibang bansa, ang tumupad ng una at pinakamahirap
na kondisyon sa negosasyon ng utang: ang pagpapanumbalik ng demokrasya at responsableng gobyerno.
Sa ibang pook, at sa ibang panahon na higit na mahigpit ang mga pandaigdigang ekonomikong kondisyon,
ang mga planong Marshall at kauri nito ang naisip na mahalagang kasama sa pagpapanumbaiik ng
demokrasya.

Nang makaharap ko si Pang. Reagan kahapon, nagsimula kami ng mahalagang diyalogo hinggil sa
kooperasyon at pagpapalakas ng pagkakaibigan sa panig ng dalawang bansa. Ang naturang pulong ang
kapuwa kumpirmasyon at bagong simula, at dapat mauwi sa mga poslibong resulta sa lahat ng panig ng
pangkalahatang usapin.

Hinaharap namin ngayon ang mithi ng sambayanang dumanas ng labis na kahirapan at matinding kawalan
ng trabaho sa loob ng labing-apat na taon, ngunit inialay pa rin ang kani-kanilang buhay para sa malabong
demokrasya. Tuwing nangangampanya ako sa mga pook maralita o liblib na nayon, lumalapit ang mga tao
sa akin at sumisigaw ng demokrasya. Hindi trabaho, bagaman tiyak na nais nila iyon, bagkus demokrasya.
Hindi salapi, dahil ibinigay nila sa akin ang anumang munti nilang naipon para sa kampanya. Hindi nila ako
inasahang magbibigay ng himala na magpapalitaw ng pagkain, damit, edukasyon sa kanilang mga anak, at
trabahong maglalaan nig dignidad sa kanilang buhay. Subalit nararamdaman ko ang pananagutang kumilos
nang mabilis bilang pinuno ng mga tao na karapat-dapat matamo ang mga bagay na ito.

Hinaharap namin ang armadong pakikibaka ng komunista na lumulusog sa pagguho ng kabuhayan, kahit
nakikibahagi kami sa mga tanggulan ng malalayang daigdig sa Pasipiko. Ito ang tanging dalawang pasaning
dinadala ng aking mga kababayan habang sinisikap nilang magtatag ng karapat-dapat at matibay na
tahanan para sa kanilang bagong demokrasya, na makapagsisilbi ring tanggulan para sa kalayaan ng Asya.
Gayunman, hindi pa natatapos maglatag ng bato ay dalawa naman ang tinatangay palayo. Kalahati ng aming
kita sa pagluluwas, na tinatayang $2 sa $4 bilyong dolyar, ang tanging naiipon namin sa labis na mahigpit
na merkado ng daigdig, at ibinabalik pa upang bayaran ang interes ng utang na ang benepisyo ay hindi
natatanggap ng mga tao.

Lumaban kami nang matamo ang dangal, at kahit man lang sa dangal, handa kaming magbayad. Ngunit
dapat pa ba nating pigain ang pambayad mula sa pawis sa mukha ng aming kababayan at ilubog ang lahat
ng kayamanang natipon ng tagapanagot na dalawang daan at limampung taon kumayod nang dibdiban?

Sa lahat ng Amerikano, bilang pinuno ng marangal at malayang bansa, ipinupukol ko ang tanong na ito:
Mayroon bang hihigit sa pagsubok ng pambansang pagtataya sa mga mithi na inyong pinahahalagahan
kaysa sa dinanas ng aking mga kababayan? Gumugol kayo ng maraming buhay at maraming yaman upang
maghatid ng kalayaan sa maraming lupain na pawang bantulot tanggapin yaon. At dito ay may
sambayanang nagwagi nang mag-isa at kailangan lamang ang tulong upang mapanatili ang natamo.

Tatlong taon na ang nakalilipas ay sinabi kong Salamat, Amerika, para sa kanlungan ng inaapi, at sa
tahanang ibinigay mo kay Ninoy, sa akin at sa aking mga anak, at para sa tatlong masayang taon
naming pinagsamahan. Ngayon, sinasabi kong, samahan ninyo kami, Amerika, habang itinitindig
namin ang bagong tahanan para sa demokrasya, ang bagong kanlungan para sa inaapi, upang
makatindig ito bilang kumikinang na—testamento ng ating dalawang bansang nagtataya sa kalayaan.

Isinalin sa Filipino ni G. Roberto T. Añonuevo ng Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino