Corazon Aquino in the context of Vice President of the Philippines

The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous peoples in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning 'native' or 'indigenous'. The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (lit. 'indigenous people'), the autonym officially adopted by the delegates of the Lumad Mindanao Peoples Federation (LMPF) founding assembly on 26 June 1986 at the Guadalupe Formation Center, Balindog, Kidapawan, Cotabato. Usage of the term was accepted in Philippine jurisprudence when President Corazon Aquino signed into law Republic Act 6734, where the word was used in Art. XIII sec. 8(2) to distinguish Lumad ethnic communities from the islands of Mindanao.

Mindanao is home to a substantial part of the country's indigenous population, comprising around 15% of the Philippine population.

This article covers the history of the current Philippine republican state following the 1986 People Power Revolution, known as the Fifth Philippine Republic.

The return of democracy and government reforms beginning in 1986 were hampered by national debt, government corruption, coup attempts, disasters, a persistent communist insurgency, and a military conflict with Moro separatists. During Corazon Aquino's administration, U.S. forces withdrew from the Philippines, due to the rejection of the U.S. Bases Extension Treaty, and leading to the official transfer to the government of Clark Air Base in November 1991 and Subic Bay in December 1992. The administration also faced a series of natural disasters, including the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991.

Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal-Arroyo (Tagalog: [ˈɡloɾja makapaˈɡal ʔaˈɾojo]; born April 5, 1947), often referred to as PGMA or GMA, is a Filipino academic and politician who served as the 14th president of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010. She is the longest-serving president since Ferdinand Marcos. Before her presidency, she was the 10th vice president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001 under President Joseph Estrada, becoming the first female vice president. She was also a senator from 1992 to 1998. After her presidency, she was elected as the representative of Pampanga's 2nd district in 2010 and continues to serve in this role. She also served as the speaker of the House from 2018 to 2019, and as deputy speaker from 2016 to 2017 and 2022 to 2023. Alongside former president Sergio Osmeña, she is one of only two Filipinos to hold at least three of the four highest offices: vice president, president, and house speaker.

Arroyo is the first president to succeed the presidency as the child of a previous president; her father was Diosdado Macapagal, the country's ninth president from 1961 to 1965. She studied economics at Georgetown University in the United States, where she became friends with her classmate and future U.S. president Bill Clinton. She then became a professor of economics at the Ateneo de Manila University, where her eventual successor, President Benigno Aquino III, was one of her students. She entered government in 1987 as assistant secretary and undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry under President Corazon Aquino, Benigno's mother.

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, and kleptocrat who served as the tenth and longest serving president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. Ruling the country as a dictator under martial law from 1972 to 1981, he granted himself expanded powers under the 1973 Constitution, describing his philosophy as "constitutional authoritarianism". He was eventually deposed in 1986 by the People Power Revolution and was succeeded as president by Corazon Aquino.

Marcos gained political success by exaggerating his actions in World War II, claiming to have been the "most decorated war hero in the Philippines"; United States Army documents described his claims as "fraudulent" and "absurd". After the war, he became a lawyer. He served in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the Philippine Senate from 1959 to 1965. He was elected president in 1965. He presided over an economy that grew during the beginning of his 20-year rule, but ended in the loss of livelihood and extreme poverty for almost half the Philippine population, combined with a debt crisis. He pursued infrastructure development funded by foreign debt, making him popular during his first term, although the aid triggered an inflation crisis that led to social unrest in his second term. Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law on September 23, 1972, shortly before the end of his second term. Martial law was ratified in 1973 through a fraudulent referendum. He ruled the country under martial law from 1972 to 1981. During this period, the constitution was revised and media outlets were silenced. Marcos also oversaw a violent crackdown against the political opposition, Muslims, suspected communists, and ordinary citizens.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP; Filipino: Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas) is a far-left, Marxist–Leninist–Maoist revolutionary organization and communist party in the Philippines, formed by Jose Maria Sison on 26 December 1968.

The CPP has been fighting a guerrilla war against the state since its establishment. Although its ranks initially numbered around 500, the party grew quickly, supposedly due to the declaration and imposition of martial law by former president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos during his 21-year rule. By the end of Marcos rule in the country, the number of combatants had expanded to include more than 10,000 fighters. In a speech before the US Congress in 1986, President Corazon Aquino accredited the party's rapid growth as being caused by Marcos' attempts to stifle it with the "means by which it grows" with his establishment of martial law, suggesting that other governments view it as a lesson when dealing with communist insurgencies.