Corazon Aquino

Name: Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress
Author: Corazon Aquino

Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

Summary

“Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress”, published in 1986, is a work by Corazon Aquino. It explores elements such as democracy, Ninoy and dictatorship.

Quotes from Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (Corazon Aquino)

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ 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 want it by themselves and need only the help to preserve it.”
Three years ago I said, Thank you America for the haven from opression 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 opressed so it may stand as a shining testament of our two nations’ commitment to freedom. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ Through political initiatives and local re-integration programs, we must seek to bring the insurgents down from the hills and by economic progress and justice, show them that which the best-intentioned among them fight. As president among my people, 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ When a subservient parliament announced my opponent’s victory, the people then turned out in the streets and proclaimed me the President of all the people. 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ 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 as one stone laid than two are taken away. Half our export earnings, $2 billion dollars out of $4 billion dollars which is all we can earn in the restrictive market of the world, must go to pay just the interest on a debt whose benefit the Filipino people never received. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ Yet ours must have been the cheapest revolution ever. With little help from others, we Filipinos fulfilled the first and most difficult condition of the debt negotiation, the full restoration of democracy and responsible government. Elsewhere and in other times, a more stringent world economic conditions, marshal plans and their like were felt to be necessary companions of returning democracy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ At any time during his long ordeal, Ninoy could have made a separate peace with a 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ 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 restore 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 elections for both national and local positions. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ Many of you here today played a part in changing the policy of your country towards ours. We, the 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. The co-chairman of the United States observer team, in his report to the President said, “I was witness to an extraordinary manifestation of democracy on the part of the Filipino people. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ 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. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ And yet, should we have to ring the payments from the sweat of our men’s faces and sink all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two-hundred fifty years of unrequitted toil. Yet, to all Americans, as the leader to 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? ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ I am sure it will lead to positive results in all areas of common concern. Today, we face the aspiration of a people who have known so much poverty and massive unemployment for the past 14 years. And yet offer their lives for the abstraction of democracy. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ As I came to power peacefully, so shall I keep it. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Corazon Aquino, Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (1986)

“ I think there is a lesson here to be learned about trying to stifle a thing with a 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. ”

Corazon Aquino

Summary

Quotes from Speech before the Joint session of the United States Congress (Corazon Aquino)

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