• Cory then proceed on her peace agenda with the

existing communist insurgency, aggravated by

the dictatorial and authoritarian measure of
Ferdinand Marcos. She asserted;
“My predecessor set aside democracy to save it
from a communist insurgency that numbered less
than five hundred. Unhampered by respect for
human rights he went at it with hammer and tongs.
By the time he fled, that insurgency have grown to
more than sixteen thousand. I think there is a
lesson here to be learned about trying to stifle a
thing with a means by which it grows.”
• Cory’s peace agenda involve political initiatives
and re-integration program to pursued insurgents
to leave the countryside and return to the
mainstream society to participate in the
restoration of democracy.

• She invoked the path of peace beacause she

believed that it was the moral path that a moral
government must take.
• Nevertheless, Cory took a step back when she
said that while peace is the priority of her
presidency, she ”will not waiver” when freedom
and democracy are threatened.

• She said that, similar to Abraham Lincoln, she

understand that “force maybe necessary before
mercy” and while she did not relish the idea, she
“will do whatever it takes to defend the integrity
and freedom of (her) country.”