PHILIPPINE HISTORY REVIEWER

IMPORTANT DATES IN HISTORY

April 22, 1980 - MV Don Juan (bound for Bacolod City) sank after colliding with the oil tanker M/T Tacloban City.
January 18, 1981 – Martial law lifted
Feb. 17-21, 1981 – Pope John Paul II visited the Philippines
June 30, 1981 – Cesar Virata is elected Prime Minister
August 21, 1983 – Benigno Aquino, Jr. assassinated.
May 6, 1985 – Death of Julie Vega
December 15, 1985 – Death of Carlos Romulo
February 22, 1986 – Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Philippine Constabulary Chief General Fidel Ramos
withdrew from Marcos Administration
February 25,1986- Aquino was sworn in as President by Senior Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee and Salvador Laurel
as Vice President by Justice Vicente Abad Santos.
October 18, 1987 – Canonization of San Lorenzo Ruiz, the first Filipino saint.
August 21, 1983 – by the name Marcial Bonifacio in a fake passport, Ninoy Aquino returned to the Philippines from his
3-yeat stay in America.

KEY IDEAS/FIGURES/CONCEPTS
>Agrava Commission - instituted by Marcos to investigate the assassination of Ninoy.
>NAMFREL –National Movement for Free Elections, this was formed by the people in response to the problematic
elections in the Philippines during the term of Marcos
>Chavit Singson revealed true the alleged corruption of Erap
>Ninoy Aquino was assassinated on a staircase leading to the tarmac of the Manila International Airport (now Ninoy
Aquino International Airport)
>Marcos called for a snap presidential election in February 7, 1986 to prove his regime’s legitimacy
> Salvador Laurel was Cory’s Vice President
> Governor Evelio Javier, an Aquino ally, was allegedly murdered by Marcos supporters during the snap election.
> 30 technicians walked out to dispute the election-rigging by Marcos led by Linda Kapunan
> After snap election, Aquino called for a rally dubbed “Tagumpay ng Bayan” claiming the real win in the election
> On February 2, 1987, the new Constitution of the Philippines, was approved by the Filipinos
> On February 22, 1987, at least 122 were killed and protesters were injured in the Mendiola Massacre. This happened
when agrarian workers and farmers marched to the Malacañan to demand genuine land reform
> Hacienda Luisita is in the Province of Tarlac
> On December 20, 1987, MV Doña Paz sank leaving a death toll of 4,300.
> On the eve of Fidel Ramos’ birthday on March 17, 1995 Ramos was on a foreign trip when Flor Contemplacion was
hanged in Singapore. Singaporean President: Ong Teng Cheong; Prime Minister: Go Chok tong
> It is alleged that Libyan leader Muammar al-Quaddafi had channeled $200,000 (5 million pesos) to Ramos’ 1992
election campaign.
>The OAKWOOD mutiny occurred in the Philippines on July 27, 2013. A group of 321 armed soldiers who called
themselves “Bagong Katipuneros” led by Army Capt. Gerardo Gambala and Lt. Antonio Trillanes IV of the Philippine
Navy took over the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center (now Ascott Makati) serviced apartment tower in Makati city to
show the Filipino people the alleged corruption of Arroyo.
>Article VII Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution: the president of the Philippines can only serve for one term.

PRESIDENT CORY AQUINO

- 11TH President of the Philippines - Magsaysay awardee (1998)
- Mother of Asian Democracy - sworn president in February 25, 1986
- Toppled the 21-year of authoritarian rule of Marcos - first female president in Asia
- Time’s magazine “Woman of the Year” in 1986”
- Born Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco
- Died age 76 due to colorectal/colon cancer
- Prize For Freedom Awardee in 1987
- Proclamation No. 3 – establishment of a revolutionary government
- Promulgated the Family Code of 1987, the Administrative code of 1987, and the 1991 Local Government Code
- Aquino appointed 48 members of the 1986 Constitutional Commission, led by Associate Justice Cecilia Muñoz
Palma
- Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229 on July 22, 1987 outlined Aquino’s land reform program,
which included sugar lands.
 - Republic Act No. 6657 (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law) of 1988- redistribution of agricultural lands to
tenant-farmers from landowners.

PRESIDENT FIDEL V. RAMOS

- 12th President of the Philippines
- In office: June 30, 1992 – June 30, 1998
- Born in Lingayen, Pangasinan on March 18, 1928
- Ramos, along with the Philippine’s 20 th Battalion Combat Team and the Philippine Expenditionary Forces to
Korea (PEFTOK), fought in the Korean War.
- He is a second degree cousin to Ferdinand Marcos
- Father of the Philippine Army’s Special Forces and the Philippine National Police Special Force
- He lost the nomination of the then-dominant party Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) to House Speaker
Ramon Mitra, Jr. Days later, he bolted from the party LDP and cried foul and founded his own party, the Partido
Lakas Tao (People Power Party), inviting Cebu governor Emilio Mario Osmenia to be his running mate as his Vice
Presidential candidate.
- He won the race on May 11, 1992, narrowly defeating popular Agrarian Reform Secretary Miriam Defensor
Santiago
- Under Ramos, the Philippines was a pioneer in the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme where private investors
are invited to build certain government projects (i.e. tollways, powerplants, railways, etc.), make money by
charging users, and transfer operation to the government after a set amount of time.
- He led the 4th Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit in the Philippines on November (1996)
- Philippines became the “Tiger Cub Economy of in Asia” in his term
- Philippine 200 Five-Point Program: Peace and Stability, Economic Growth and Sustainable Development, Energy
and Power Generation, Environmental Protection, Streamlined Bureaucracy
- Adopted lethal injection as the method for capital punishment
- He facilitated the enactment of Republic Act 8042 better known as the “Magna Carta for Overseas Workers” or
the Migrant Workers Act, which was signed into law on June 7, 1995.
- Ramos is currently the Chairman Emeritus of the Lakas CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats) Party. He is also
currently representing the Philippines in the ASEAN Eminent Persons Group, tasked to draft the Charter of the
Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
PRESIDENT JOSEPH ESTRADA
- Developed the Angat Pinoy 2004 for the privatization of NAPOCOR, Philippine National Railways, at NFA
- 13th President of the Philippines. In office: June 30, 1998 – January 20,2001
- In 2000 he declared an “all-out-war” against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
- In 2001, Estrada was ousted by “People Power 2”
- In 2007, Estrada was sentenced by the special division of the Sandiganbayan to reclusion perpetua for the
plunder of stealing $80 million from the government and was sentenced to a lifetime in prison, but was later
granted pardon by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
- He acquire the nickname “Erap” (a pay on the Tagalog slang “pare”, meaning ‘buddy’) from his friend, fellow
actor Fernando Poe, Jr.
- Married to former Dr. Luisa “Loi” Pimentel
- In 1989, the Free Press cited hims as one of the Three Outstanding senators of the Year.
- He was conferred the degree Doctor of Humanities, Honoris Causa by the Bicol University in April 1997
- Estrada was inaugurated on June 30, 1998 in the historical town of Malolos in Bulacan province in paying
tribute to the cradle of the First Philippine Republic. That afternoon the new president delivered his
inaugural address at the Quirino Grandstand in Luneta.
- Courtesy of house speaker Manuel Villar, Erap underwent trial in the Senate
- In his term, Father Luciano Benedetti was kidnapped by the MILF
- In October 2000, Ilocos Sur governor Luis “Chavit” Singson, a close friend of the President, alleged that he
had personally given Estrada P400 million as payoff from jueteng, a grassroots-based numbers game, hidden
in a bank account known as “Jose Velarde”
- The impeachment suit was brought to the Senate and an impeachment court was formed, with Chief Justice
Hilario Davide, Jr. as presiding officer.
- In the 2004 Global Transparency Report, Estrada made into the list of the World’s All-Time Most Corrupt
Leaders in the World. He was listed tenth.
- On September 12, 2007, the Sandiganbayan finally gave its decision, finding Estrada not guilty on his perjury
case.
- On October 26,2007, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted executive clemency to Joseph Estrada.
 - In October 2010, the magazine Foreign Policy included Estrada in its lift of five former head of
states/governments who did not make “a positive difference in the world”, but “faded away into obscurity.”
PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO
- Dr. Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal-Arroyo, Ph.D. (born April 5,1947)
- 14th President of the Philippines from 2001 until 2010, 10 th Vice President of the Philippines from 1998 to
2001, Deputy Speaker of the 17th Congress and a member of the House of Representatives representing the
2nd District of Pampanga since 2010.
- Daughter of President Diosdado Macapagal
- In office: January 20,2001 – June 30, 2010
- A former professor of economics at Ateneo de Manila Uniiversity where Benigno Aquino III was one of her
student.
- She entered government in 1987, serving as assistant secretary and undersecretary of Department of Trade
and Industry upon the invitation of President Corazon Aquino
- Arroyo was sworn into the presidency by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. on January 20,2001.
- She was elected to a full six-year presidential term in the controversial May 2004 election
- On November 18,2011, Arroyo was arrested following the filing of criminal charges against her electoral
fraud. She was held at the Veteerans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City under the charges of electoral
sabotage but release on bail in July 2012.
- On July 19,2016, after the public backing of President Rodrigo Duterte, she was acquitted by the Supreme
Court by a vote of 11-4 despite numerous evidences pointing to her guilt.
- She is fluent in English, Tagalog, Spanish, French, and several other Philippine languages, such as
Kapampangan, Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Pangasinense, Bikolano, and Cebuano.
- She was 14 when her father became president.
- Arroyo studied for two years at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington,
D.C. where she was a classmate of future United states President Bill Clinton. She earned her Bachelor of
Arts degree in Economics from Assumption College, graduating magna cum laude in 1968.
- In 1968, Arroyo married Jose Miguel Arroyo of Binalbagan, Negros Occidental.
- As a legislator, Arroyo filed over 400 bills and authored or sponsored 55 laws during her tenure as senator,
including the Anti-Sexual Harassment Rights Law, the Indigenous People’s Rights Law, and the Export
Development Act.
- Later in 2011, after being ousted from presidency, Arroyo was charged with electoral fraud and corruption.
- On June 23, 20044, Congress proclaimed Arroyo and Noli de Castro as president and vice president.
- In a press conference held on June 10, 2005, Samuel Ong, former deputy director of the National Bureau of
Investigation (NBI) claied to have audio recordings of wiretapped conversations between Arroyo and an
official of the Commision on Elections (COMELEC). Virgilio Garcillano, a former COMELEC commissioner,
would later be identified as the official talking to Arroyo.
- In October 2007, lawyer Alan Paguia filed an impeachment complaint against Arroyo in connection with the
issue of bribery. Paguia’s complaint was based on the revelation of Pampanga Governor Ed Panlilio that
various governors received half a million pesos from Malacañang.
- Value Added Tax (e-VAT) law, considered the centerpiece of the Arroyo administration’s economic reform
agenda, was implemented in November 2005, aiming to complement revenue –raising efforts that could
plug the country’s large budget deficit.
- In early 2011 she was diagnosed with cervical spondylosis or cervical radiculopathy.
- Arroyo was arrested on November 18, 2011 after a Pasay court issued a warrant of arrest against her,
following the filing of a complaint for electoral sabotage by the COMELEC. She was transferred to the
VETERANS MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER in Quezon City on December 9, 2011. Arroyo was released from
hospital arrest on bail on July 25, 2012.
- On July 19, 2016, a few weeks after Duterte was sworn in as president, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of
the dismissal of plunder case against Arroyo despite massive evidences pointing to her guild, gathering a
vote of 11-4 which was read by Spokesperson Theodore Te.
- Arroyo is the Chief Girl Scout of the Philippines.
PRESIDENT BENIGNO SIMEON “NOYNOY” COJUANCO AQUINO III
- 15th President of the Philippines
- In office: June 30, 2010 – June 30, 2016
- Chairman of the Liberal Party from 2010 to 2016.
- Third of the five children of Benigno S. Aquino, Jr and Corazon Conjuangco
- On August 28, 1987, eighteen months into the presidency of Aquino’s mother, rebel soldiers led by Gregorio
Honasan staged an unsuccessful coup attempt, attempting to lay siege to Malacañang Palace. Aquino was
two blocks from the palace when he came under fire. Three of Aquino’s four security escorts were killed,
 and the last was wounded protecting him. He himself was hit by five bullets, one of which is still embedded
in his neck.
- From 1993-19998, he worked for Central Azucarera de Tarlac, the sugar refinery in the Cojuangco-owned
Hacienda Luisita.
- On June 9, 2010, at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City, the Congress of the Philippines
proclaimed Aquino as the President-elect of the Philippines, following the 2010 election with 15,2018,678
votes.
- He took oath before Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales.
- The Presidency of Benigno S. Aquino III began at noon on June 30, 2010. Since the start of his presidency, he
has also been referred to in media as PNoy.
- The presidential residence of Aquino is Bahay Pangarap. The House was built and designed by architect Juan
Arellano in the 1930’s. In 2008, the house was demolished and rebuilt in contemporary style by architect
Conrad Onglao.
- Aquino refused to live in Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines, or in
an Arlegui Mansion, the residence of former presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos, stating that the
two residence are too big.
- Aquino announce the formation of truth commission that will investigate various issues including corruption
allegations against outgoing President Gloria Arroyo. Aquino named former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr.
to head the truth commission.
- During the inaugural address, Aquino created the no ‘wang-wang’ policy, strengthening the implementation
of Presidential Decree No. 96.
- Presidential Decree No. 96 was issued on January 13, 1973 by President Marcos, regulating the use of sirens,
bells, whistles, horns, and other similar devices only to motor vehicles designated for the use of the
president, vice president, House Speaker, Chief Justice, Philippine National Police, armed Forces of the
Philippines, National Bureau of Investigation, Land Transportation Office, Bureau of Fire Protection, and
ambulances.
- On July 26, 2010, at the Batasang Pambansa, in Quezon City, Aquino delivered his first State of the Nation
Address (SONA).
- Because of the Manila hostage crisis, on August 24, 2010, Aquino signed Proclamation No. 23, declaring
August 25, 2010, as a national day of mourning, instructing all public institutions nationwide and all
Philippine embassies and consulates overseas to lower the Philippine flag at half—mast, in honor of the
eight Hong Kong residents who died in the crisis.