"Ginoong Enrile --- talaga bang…wala ka nang hiya? Tinatanong ko lang naman po ito. Dahil bakit mo aangkinin mo ang People Power sa taumbayan? Alam mo, Ginoong Enrile, magpakalalaki ka! Mabuti nga siguro, magpakababae ka."

On 25 February 1990, the Philippines commemorated the fourth anniversary of the People Power Revolution. The revolution had ousted the dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and restored democratic rule in the country. Under the leadership of President Corazon Aquino, the nation's first female president, the Philippine state underwent a transition to democracy --- with the restoration of civil liberties, the ratification of a new constitution, and the holding of free elections.

The transition was extremely difficult and the Aquino government had to face down many threats to the young democracy. She defeated seven coup attempts orchestrated by disgruntled soldiers and Marcos loyalists, of which the deadliest one took place in December 1989. The coup attempt was crushed in less than a week.

In an address commemorating the revolution, President Aquino, amidst the cheers of approximately 100,000 supporters gathered at EDSA, struck back at the suspected coup plotters, notably then-Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, opposition politician and her former Defense Secretary, for attempting to alter the history of the revolt and dismantle the recently restored Philippine democracy through violence. Aquino delivered this historic speech merely two months after the December 1989 coup attempt. Whilst under fire from rebel fighter jets in the presidential palace, she defended her government in an address on national television by giving the rebels "who had so shamelessly betrayed their solemn oath to the Constitution" two choices: "To surrender or die."

Having fulfilled her promise to peacefully hand over power to her elected successor, Aquino stepped down from the presidency in June 1992. Even as a private citizen, Aquino was regarded as the matriarchal guardian of the country's democracy, admonishing her successors whenever it was perceived that they were abusing their powers and failing to keep their promises to uphold democracy. She passed away from cancer in August 2009, aged 76.

The massive clamor for a return to good governance following her death led to her son, Benigno Aquino III, launching his own bid for the presidency in the 2010 elections. He won the presidential election with 15.2 million votes and the highest percentage of the vote in all of the elections held under the 1987 Constitution --- a record that is maintained to this day. He served as the fifteenth President of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016, bringing the country to investment grade status for the first time in its history, facilitating its highest GDP growth since the 1950s, and defending Philippine sovereignty by leading the country to victory over China in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague . He passed away in June 2021, aged 61.

For historical and educational purposes only.

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