Renegade soldiers led by supporters of the exiled Ferdinand Marcos stormed a Manila television station and attempted to rally military support against President Corazon Aquino's government. Loyalist troops crushed the uprising within hours, but it was one of several coup attempts that tested the fragile democracy restored after the 1986 People Power Revolution.
Barely a year after the People Power Revolution swept Aquino into office and sent Ferdinand Marcos into exile in Hawaii, elements of the Philippine military still loyal to the old regime tried to reverse the result by force. Rebel soldiers seized Channel 7's transmission facilities, broadcasting appeals for a popular uprising against Aquino that never materialized.
Government loyalist forces, backed by tanks and armor, surrounded the station and forced a surrender after a tense standoff lasting through the day, with several people killed in the fighting. Aquino, informed of the coup while inspecting a project outside Manila, projected calm defiance in public statements even as aides worried about the military's true loyalties.
The attempt was one of at least seven coup plots Aquino would survive during her presidency, underscoring how precarious the transition to democracy remained even after Marcos's fall, and how deeply the military's loyalties stayed divided for years afterward.