People Power Ends Marcos’s Rule in the Philippines

In late February 1986, huge crowds of Filipino citizens filled Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in Metro Manila, transforming a heavily trafficked highway into the center of a peaceful uprising. The demonstrations arose after two decades of authoritarian rule under President Ferdinand Marcos, who had first won election in 1965 and later placed the nation under martial law in September 1972. During that period, the regime dissolved the legislature, jailed leading political rivals, and curtailed basic civil liberties. Popular discontent deepened significantly in August 1983 following the assassination of exiled opposition senator Benigno Aquino Jr. upon his return to Manila, which galvanized broad civic resistance and worsened a severe economic contraction.

Mounting international scrutiny and domestic unrest pressured Marcos into scheduling a snap presidential election for February 7, 1986. The unified opposition rallied behind Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, who ran alongside Salvador Laurel against the incumbent administration. When the official state election canvasser, the Commission on Elections, credited Marcos with victory, the accredited independent poll watcher known as the National Movement for Free Elections published conflicting tallies showing Aquino ahead. The credibility of the official count collapsed when thirty-five government computer technicians walked out of the official tabulation center on February 9 to protest the manipulation of results, prompting the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines to condemn the proceedings and urge the public to address the injustice.