AUGUST 1987 PHILIPPINE COUP D'ETAT: PRESIDENT CORAZON AQUINO'S TV ADDRESS TO THE NATION | 28.08.1987

Paglalarawan

Corazon C. Aquino, President of the Philippines, delivers a televised address to the Filipino nation during the failed coup attempt on 28 August 1987. The address was delivered by the President at 3PM that day on GMA-7 -- the only TV station left in the hands of forces loyal to the Republic at that time. The other networks, ABS-CBN-2, RPN-9, IBC-13, and PTV-4 would be recaptured by government forces that evening. President Aquino had addressed the nation earlier that day at 4AM to announce that the attack on Malacañan Palace had been repulsed and that she was safe and well. She urged people to stay indoors until the rebellion was quelled and suspended classes in Metro Manila as well as her scheduled trip to Central Luzon that day. Listeners recalled her voice being reassuring, unhurried and unemotional. In this address, President Aquino declares an all-out attack against the rebel soldiers, whom she described as traitors and monsters, for their betrayal of the Republic. She tells the nation that there were be no negotiations and that she has "nothing to say to these traitors". She assures the nation that her government is in control, rallies the people to defend their young democracy, and vows to bring the rebel traitors to justice. She also reveals that her only son, future President Benigno S. Aquino III, had been ambushed by rebel soldiers outside the presidential palace and almost died. The coup was staged by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) belonging to the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) led by Colonel Gregorio Honasan, who had been a former top aide of ousted Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile, one of the instigators of the People Power Revolution that brought Aquino to power in February 1986. The coup was crushed by forces loyal to President Aquino within the day, although Honasan managed to escape. The August 28th coup was the sixth such attempt to overthrow President Aquino and destroy Philippine democracy. It marked her final break with RAM, whose mutiny against the re