Nationhood of a free people

On August 21, 1983 former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., whose exposés on the venalities of Marcos’ regime, put him in prison for seven years, boarded a China Airlines plane in Taipei to come home and meet his appointment with destiny.

Waiting for him on the Manila runway was a squad of soldiers dispatched by the President’s security chief, General Fabian Ver, to ostensibly “protect” Aquino from his political enemies.

Soon after his plane landed at 1 p.m. on that fateful day, a single gunshot made Ninoy a martyr and catapulted his widow, Corazon, into the role of unofficial leader of the opposition. Ninoy’s assassination also opened the floodgates of protest against violation of human rights and brought the spirit of nation-building out of the conventional institutions into the “parliament of the streets.”

To prove that he still had the mandate of the people, Marcos called for a snap presidential election on February 7, 1986. Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco Aquino called his dare.

Two days after the election, as the votes were being counted at the Philippine International Convention Center, 38 Comelec (Commission on Elections) computer programmers walked out of the premises to protest rampant manipulation of votes. Despite the incident, the Batasang Pambansa declared Marcos as the winner on Feb. 15.

Aquino refused to accept the results and called for a nationwide protest movement against widespread cheating.

The people responded with a mass uprising which came to be known by its geography, EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue). Clergy and laymen, students and laborers, the rich and the poor, converged on this Metro Manila highway demanding the ouster of Marcos and his crony government.

They brought placards, flowers and rosaries. Marcos met them with armed soldiers and tanks. This time the people prevailed. Marcos had lost his American supporters as well as his minister of defense, Juan Ponce Enrile, and vice chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Fidel V. Ramos.

On Feb. 25, 1986 an American helicopter flew Marcos and his family to Clark Airbase and then into exile in Hawaii. Although members of Marcos family would return to the Philippines five years later, Ferdinand himself would die in exile.

People Power in nation building (1986-2001)

 “People Power,” was the term coined to describe the nation’s “new politics,” one that took into account the voice of the people, respected their rights, involved them in governance, and recognized them as a moral force.

The EDSA Revolution not only removed Marcos from power but also proclaimed Cory (icon in the restoration of Philippine democracy) as the 11th President of the Philippines.

To ensure the stability of government, Aquino convened the Constitutional Commission for the purpose of writing a new constitution. Its members were selected from major social groups including the peasantry, labor, women and the Muslim sector. The fruit of the Commission’s labor was the Constitution of 1987, which was ratified in a plebiscite on February 2, 1987.

Source: “The Making of a Nation” published by the National Historical Institute