Philippines, 1989 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

Beginning on 1 December 1989 the most serious and bloodiest coup attempt against Philippine President Corazon Aquino was launched by an alliance of Reform the Armed Forces Movement rebels under Colonel Gregorio Honasan and soldiers loyal to the late Ferdinand Marcos, in a large, well financed Christmas time assault that came close to toppling her government. Upwards of three thousand troops, including elite Scout Rangers and marines, mounted coordinated attacks that seized Villamor Air Base, Sangley Point, Mactan Air Base in Cebu, Fort Bonifacio, and parts of Camp Aguinaldo, and rebel aircraft dive bombed and strafed Malacanang Palace, Camp Crame, and Camp Aguinaldo. With loyalist forces hard pressed and much of Manila's public staying home rather than rallying to her as in 1986, Aquino took the extraordinary step of requesting United States military help, and American jets from Clark Air Base, in Operation Classic Resolve, buzzed the rebel airfields and cleared the skies, allowing government F-5s to destroy the rebel T-28s.

The coup was defeated by 9 December, though rebels holed up in Makati high rises for days. Aquino survived, and the failed coup pushed her government rightward.