From the pages of the South China Morning Post this week in 1986
The destiny of the Philippines and its people was left in the hands of a 53-year-old housewife when, after 20 years of autocratic rule, Ferdinand Marcos abandoned the presidency and the country and flew into exile from a United States military base.
He threw in the towel following mounting domestic and diplomatic pressure and the desertion of his military leaders and political cronies. Before taking over, the claim to fame of the reluctant new president, Corazon Aquino, was as the widow of assassinated opposition leader Benigno Aquino, whose murder in 1983 was the trigger for Marcos' eventual downfall.
The almost bloodless revolution that overthrew the president and his ambitious ex-beauty queen wife, Imelda - known to Filipinos as the Iron Butterfly - stemmed from elections called by Marcos on February 7 under US pressure.
Inevitably, he was declared winner, but the opposition, supported by foreign observer groups, accused the president of winning the election by fraud.
US president Ronald Reagan distanced himself from Marcos and general Fidel Ramos and defence minister Juan Ponce Enrile led a revolution against their former boss. The end came hours after rival swearing-in ceremonies installing both candidates as president.
