only way the opposition stood a chance against the overwhelming influence of Marcos and the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), and decided to run as Aquino's vice president. Massive poll fraud and rampant cheating marred the vote on the day of the elections, February 7, 1986. Thousands of registered voters-who had voted successfully in previous elections-found their names suspiciously missing from the lists. Approximately 850 foreign correspondents flew in to observe, including a delegations headed by U.S. senators and congressmen, who saw vote rigging happen. On February 9, 35 COMELEC employees and computer operators at the COMELEC Tabulation Center walked out in protest due to the wide discrepancy between the computer tabulation and the tally board, showing blatant manipulation of electoral results. In the countryside, precincts were hounded by the military and ballot-rigging was rampant. NAMFREL, in turn, showed Aquino in the lead with almost 70 percent of the votes canvassed. By February 15, 1986, in an unprecedented announcement that was met with public outrage, the Batasang Pambansa proclaimed Marcos and Arturo Tolentino as the winners of the presidential and vice- presidential race respectively, by virtue of Resolution No. 38. Opposition assemblymen walked out of the Session Hall in protest. This led to the opposition's indignation rally in Luneta the next day where Cory Aquino spoke to around two million people in Luneta, in what would be known as the Tagumpay ng Bayan rally. At the event, Aquino called for massive civil disobedience and boycott of Marcos-crony owned companies and products. The Aquino- Laurel ticket also proclaimed victory. F. Coup Plot by the RAM The Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) emerged in 1982 as a small, secret group intent on strengthening military rule through a coup d'etat. Initially, it was composed of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and a RAN handful of regular officers from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), who harbored resentment against General Fabian Ver, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Plans for a Christmas coup in 1985 were started in August, but when President Marcos unexpectedly called for snap elections in November, RAM leaders had torethink their strategy, and the coup was postponed for the following year. When Marcos was proclaimed the winner in the fraudulent February 7 elections, the RAM leaders agreed to launch their coup at 2:00 a.m. ("H- hour") on Sunday, February 23, 1986. Yet for all the RAM leaders' confidence in their plan, they did not have the command experience to successfully carry out the complicated operation. The rebels only realized that their plan had been compromised on the Friday night before the coup, when Honasan and Kapunan saw a large number of troops amassing at Malacanang. They informed Enrile about the situation, and the assault on the palace had to be called off. Faced with only two options-dispersing or regrouping-Enrile chose the latter as the "more honorable" option. He announced his defection from Marcos on Saturday night in a press conference at Camp Aguinaldo, alongside Lieutenant General Fidel V. Ramos, Ver's deemed successor. At 9:00 p.m., Jaime Cardinal Sin made his famous announcement over Radio Veritas, beseeching the people to bring food and gather at Camps Aguinaldo and Crame to support Enrile and Ramos. An hour later, Enrile finally reached Cory Aquino via telephone. Aquino was at an anti-Marcos rally in Cebu City. She was informed of the coup, but she was also suspicious of Enrile's motives. Half a day later, she announced her support for the rebellion and asked the people to help. On that first night, people came to EDSA by the thousands with whatever provisions they could offer: pans of pancit, boxes of pizza, tins of biscuits, bunches of bananas. Edwin Lacierda, presidential spokesperson of President Benigno S. Aquino Ill, was there to witness: "More than a rally," he recalls, "all of us came to EDSA to break bread and fellowship with all who were willing to stand in the line of fire and take the bullet, as it were, for freedom and change of government." Thus began the four-day EDSA People Power Revolution. The revolution was a peaceful one, with soldiers being coaxed with food, prayers, flowers, and cheers by people from all walks of life who sat, stood, and knelt in prayer in front of the tanks. For instance, on February 24, the government-controlled Channel 4 was liberated by women who were sent into the compound to negotiate with the loyalist soldiers. Church-owned radio station Radio Veritas did a marathon coverage of the revolution; disc jockey June Keithley, who averaged seventeen hours on air daily over the four days, kept the public informed in between airings of Ang Bayan Ko, Tie a Yellow Ribbon, and a curiously resurrected political jingle from the 1950s called Mambo Magsaysay. After Marcos lost complete control of the military, his presidency came to an end the following day, on February 25, 1986.EDSA People Power From February 22 to 25, 1986, hundreds of thousands of people amassed at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), Metro Manila's main thoroughfare, calling for the peaceful ouster of the dictator. On February 25, 1986, Corazon C. Aquino and Salvador H. Laurel took their oaths in Club Filipino as President and Vice President respectively. Meanwhile, Marcos was inaugurated in the Ceremonial Hall of the Malacanan Palace and delivered his inaugural address in Maharlika Hall (now Kalayaan Hall) on that same day. Rocked by key military and political defections and the overwhelming popular support for Aquino, Marcos was forced to depart with his family a few hours later for exile in Hawaii, effectively ending Marcos' two- decade long dictatorial rule. By March 1986, intelligence sources surfaced indicating that President Marcos was planning to stage widespread bombing and arson operations throughout Manila, so he could impose another martial law- called "Operation Everlasting." The plan was to neutralize all opposition by arresting all opposition leaders, the entire executive council of NAMFREL and the RAM rebels in a planned concentration camp in Caballo Island near Corregidor. Hence, the EDSA People Power Revolution averted a resumption of an oppressive regime that would have curtailed the country's civil liberties in the years to come.DEVELOPING THE SKILL Activity 3. Reading comprehension: Pre-printed Concept Notes. Read the concept notes and highlight important information. Despite the absolute rule of Marcos, specific factors converged and eventually led to the fall of the dictatorship and the eventual restoration of democracy in the Philippines. The excerpt below is written by Sarah Jessica Wong, Francis Kristoffer Pasion, and Coline Esther Cardeno for the Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines website. The copy is taken from M. Quezon's (editor) Heroism, Heritage, and Nationhood: Essays and Features from the Official Gazette, pp. 202-225. E. The Failure of the Snap Election of 1986 In the first week of November 1985, when President Marcos was interviewed in the David Brinkley Show, he stated his intention to call for a snap election, even going so far as to invite the members of the US Congress to observe, calling the accusation of fraud as unfounded. This, it seems, was an attempt to consolidate support and show the United States the legitimacy of the Marcos administration. The announcement for a snap election within three months was ahead of schedule; the next regular elections were supposed to be held in 1987. The President was overconfident; he disregarded the objections of his family, his Cabinet, and his party. Cory Aquino announced her intention to run if a snap election was to be held, and if she had the support of a million citizens. She was successful in gaining this support. The opposition, therefore had two frontrunners: Aquino, and former Senator Salvador "Doy" Laurel. However, in the same year, on December 7, Laurel decided to give way to Aquino. Though initially reluctant, Laurel was eventually convinced that their tandem was the