EDSA Revolution Trivia
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49 free EDSA Revolution trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This EDSA Revolution trivia quiz covers the 1986 People Power Revolution from the declaration of martial law to the helicopter that carried the Marcos family out of Malacañang. It starts with the background every Filipino student learns: Proclamation 1081, the Ninoy Aquino assassination at Manila International Airport, the snap election of February 7, 1986, and the walkout of the COMELEC technicians. Then it walks the four days themselves: the Enrile–Ramos press conference at Camp Aguinaldo, Cardinal Sin's appeal on Radio Veritas, the nuns kneeling in front of Tadiar's tanks on Ortigas Avenue, June Keithley's Radyo Bandido, the Sotelo landing, Colonel Balbas refusing the kill order, and the rival inaugurations at Club Filipino and Malacañang. The easy questions are the ones that come up in any Philippine history class: what EDSA stands for, which colour the crowds wore, where Marcos fled. The harder ones ask who swore Cory Aquino in, which station's transmitter Radyo Bandido borrowed, who composed "Magkaisa", and what Senator Paul Laxalt told Marcos on the phone. If you want the wider country, our Philippines trivia quiz is the broader page. Every answer was checked against the encyclopaedia entry for the revolution, the people involved or the songs before publishing, and the sentence that supports it is stored with each question.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the EDSA Revolution called worldwide?
People Power Revolution
People Power Revolution. For four days unarmed crowds shielded rebel soldiers from the army with prayers, food and flowers, and the president left the country without a battle.
Q 02What does the acronym EDSA stand for?
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue
Epifanio de los Santos Avenue. The road was plain Highway 54 until 1959, when Congress renamed it to honour the scholar, jurist and historian from Rizal province.
Q 03Which colour gave the EDSA Revolution its other nickname?
Yellow
Yellow. The colour came from the hit 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree', which the rebel radio station kept playing between its bulletins during the four days.
Q 04Which Archbishop of Manila led the religious groups at EDSA?
Cardinal Jaime Sin
Cardinal Jaime Sin. On the night of February 22 he went on the radio to ask people to bring food and support to the rebel soldiers, and by the next day crowds had filled the avenue.
Q 05Which station carried the Archbishop of Manila's call for civilians to protect the rebel camps?
Radio Veritas
Radio Veritas. Armed men wrecked its main transmitter at dawn the next day, leaving a weak standby that reached far fewer listeners and failed by evening.
Q 06Where did the Marcos family go into exile?
Hawaii
Hawaii. US Air Force planes flew the family to Honolulu, and Marcos never came home alive: he died there in September 1989.
Q 07Hundreds of the shoes Imelda Marcos left in the palace in 1986 are now displayed in which city?
Marikina
Marikina. The country's shoemaking capital put the seized pairs on show in its Shoe Museum, and Imelda Marcos herself came to open it.
Q 08Where was Ninoy Aquino shot dead in August 1983?
Manila's airport
Manila's airport. Soldiers escorted him off his plane and he was shot within minutes; in 1987 Congress renamed the airport Ninoy Aquino International in his honour.
Q 09Under what alias did Ninoy Aquino fly home in 1983?
Marcial Bonifacio
Marcial Bonifacio. His wife Cory later explained the choice: 'Marcial' for martial law and 'Bonifacio' for Fort Bonifacio, where he had been held.
Q 10Which proclamation number placed the Philippines under martial law in 1972?
No. 1081
No. 1081. Marcos dated it September 21, 1972, but only announced it on television two days later, hours after the arrests of opposition leaders had begun.
Q 11Which party did Marcos run under in the 1986 snap election?
Kilusang Bagong Lipunan
Kilusang Bagong Lipunan. Marcos launched the 'New Society Movement' for the 1978 assembly elections, in which every candidate on Ninoy Aquino's opposition slate lost.
Q 12Who was Marcos's vice-presidential running mate in the snap election?
Arturo Tolentino
Arturo Tolentino. When the assembly proclaimed him and Marcos the winners on February 15, its opposition members walked out of the hall in protest.
Q 13Who ran as Cory Aquino's vice-presidential running mate?
Salvador Laurel
Q 21Enrile crossed EDSA on February 23 to join Ramos where?
Camp Crame
Camp Crame. Ramos had urged the move since morning so the rebels could hold one camp instead of two, and the crowd parted, chanting his nickname 'Johnny', as Enrile's armed column crossed the avenue.
Q 22In his televised appeal on February 22, Marcos urged Enrile and Ramos to 'stop this' what?
Stupidity
Stupidity. 'Stop this stupidity and surrender so that we may negotiate', he said on live television, but when he tried to reach Enrile by phone that night, Enrile would not take the call.
Q 23Butz Aquino called supporters to gather in which Quezon City district before marching to the rebel camps?
Cubao
Salvador Laurel. 'Doy' Laurel had been nominated for president himself and gave way to Aquino only in December 1985, two months before the vote.
Q 14Which accredited poll watcher's count had Aquino beating Marcos?
NAMFREL
NAMFREL. While its volunteers' count showed Aquino ahead, the official tally had Marcos winning, and on February 9 the official count's own computer operators walked out in protest.
Q 15What was the name of Aquino's February 16 rally at Luneta Park?
Tagumpay ng Bayan
Tagumpay ng Bayan. At the 'People's Victory' rally she claimed the win and called for civil disobedience and a boycott of companies owned by Marcos's cronies.
Q 16What does RAM, the group of officers behind the aborted coup, stand for?
Reform the Armed Forces Movement
Reform the Armed Forces Movement. Its officers had planned to storm the presidential palace, and turned to the crowds for protection only after Marcos uncovered the plot.
Q 17Which colonel helped found RAM and planned the assault on Malacañang?
Gringo Honasan
Gringo Honasan. His commandos were to cross the Pasig River in rubber boats and seize the Marcoses, but the palace had been warned and the raid was called off.
Q 18During the 1986 revolt, which event used to justify martial law was admitted to have been staged?
The defense minister's ambush
The defense minister's ambush. Enrile told reporters in 1986 that the 1972 shooting at his car had been faked; within hours of it, Marcos had opposition leaders under arrest.
Q 19Which general asked Marcos on live television for permission to attack the rebels?
Fabian Ver
Fabian Ver. Viewers heard Marcos overrule him on air with 'My order is not to attack', and minutes later rebel soldiers took the station off the air.
Q 20Where did Enrile and Ramos hold the February 22 press conference that announced their break with Marcos?
Camp Aguinaldo
Camp Aguinaldo. They spoke from Enrile's own defense ministry building inside the armed forces headquarters, where the plotters had holed up once their coup was exposed.
Cubao. He named the Isetann department store as the meeting point and found only four people waiting, but the crowd swelled into the thousands and marched to the camps' gates that night.
Q 24Radyo Bandido kept replaying which old tune?
Mambo Magsaysay
Mambo Magsaysay. The 1950s campaign jingle was already identified with the silenced church station, so replaying it told listeners who was speaking without naming the station or its hiding place.
Q 25Which broadcaster kept Radyo Bandido on air through the nights of the revolution?
June Keithley
June Keithley. She broadcast from a hidden booth, relaying news that reporters phoned in and never giving the station's real name or frequency, so that Marcos's troops could not find it.
Q 26The hand sign flashed by Cory Aquino's supporters at EDSA forms which letter?
L
L. The sign began with LABAN, the opposition party Ninoy Aquino led from his prison cell in the 1978 elections, whose name is also the Filipino word for 'fight'.
Q 27Which patriotic kundiman became the opposition's protest anthem and was sung at EDSA?
Bayan Ko
Bayan Ko. The kundiman was sung beside Ninoy Aquino's coffin in 1983, and the crowd broke into it again after Cory Aquino took her oath as president.
Q 28Crowds stopped General Tadiar's tank column on February 23 where EDSA meets which road?
Ortigas Avenue
Ortigas Avenue. People knelt in prayer in front of the tanks, Tadiar asked them to clear a path, nobody moved, and his troops pulled back without firing a shot.
Q 29Colonel Antonio Sotelo's dawn defection on February 24 handed the rebels which weapons?
Attack helicopters
Attack helicopters. The crowd braced for an air strike as his gunships circled the rebel camp, then cheered as they landed inside and the crews climbed out to join the revolt.
Q 30Colonel Braulio Balbas's stalling on orders to shell the rebel camp cost Marcos control of which force?
Marines
Marines. With his howitzers aimed and a general shouting that the President was waiting on the other line, Balbas kept replying that his men were 'still positioning the cannons'.