People Power Revolution: Marcos Falls in the Philippines
Two million people filled a Manila highway for four days in February 1986 and removed Ferdinand Marcos without a battle. He had governed since 1965 and ruled by decree since declaring martial law in 1972, on a pretext of communist insurgency, having exhausted the two terms the constitution allowed him. The years since had produced enormous foreign debt, an economy contracting sharply, and a family fortune estimated in the billions. The murder of Benigno Aquino on the airport tarmac in August 1983, as he returned from exile, was the beginning of the end; two million attended his funeral procession. Marcos called a snap election for February 1986 to prove his mandate, and Aquino's widow Corazon ran against him. The official count declared Marcos the winner; the independent count and the poll watchers who walked out of the tabulation centre on live television said otherwise. The revolt began as a failed coup. The defence minister Juan Ponce Enrile and the deputy chief of staff Fidel Ramos barricaded themselves in two military camps on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue expecting to be killed, and Cardinal Sin went on Radio Veritas asking Manila to protect them. The crowds that came stood in front of the tanks with rosaries, food and flowers, and the tank crews would not drive through them. Marcos was flown out by the Americans on 25 February and died in Hawaii in 1989. The method was copied in Seoul, in Eastern Europe and at Tiananmen. Imelda Marcos left some 3,000 pairs of shoes in the palace, which became the emblem of the whole thing. The family returned to Philippine politics within a decade, and Ferdinand Marcos Jr was elected president in 2022.
- Year: 1986 CE
- Category: Political
