Faith and revolution in the Philippines
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Forty years ago, a Filipino soldier serving under Ferdinand Marcos Sr, was ordered to attack civilians opposing the corrupt regime. After wrestling with his conscience, Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan found he could not do it. Along with other soldiers who resigned from their posts, he founded the Reform for Armed Forces Movement, and they planned to storm the presidential palace and arrest the Marcoses. The coup, however was foiled when an insider leaked the plan to the government. Honasan and his men retreated back to their headquarters, but they knew the Marcos’s forces were on their way to them. Then, Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Jaime Sin, broadcast an appeal on the Catholic radio station Radio Veritas, calling for support from the public. Hundreds arrived at the camp to form a human shield around the rebel soldiers. They brought guitars and sang to the Marcos military. Meanwhile nuns, among them Sister Mary John Mananzan, handed out flowers. Jay Behrouzi speaks to Senator Gregorio Honasan, now 78 and retired from politics, and 88-year-old Sister Mary John, who is still an activist, to hear their firsthand accounts of that day, and how their faith has sustained them in the years since.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:10.8 | This is Manila, the capital of my home country, the Philippines, and the city I spent my |
| 0:17.4 | university years in. Today, these streets are busy with traffic and street vendors, but 40 years ago, they were |
| 0:26.1 | occupied by Filipinos demanding change. |
| 0:33.2 | We don't have to worry about anything anymore. Everything is all right for us. |
| 0:37.7 | We went in front of the tanks, and we told them, please don't have to worry about anything anymore. Everything is all right for us. We went in front of the tanks, and we told them, please don't go. |
| 0:41.8 | And of course, they cannot go because we are in front of the tanks. |
| 0:45.1 | They cannot run over us, no? |
| 0:47.2 | We were dreaming hard, young, idealistic professional soldiers. |
| 0:51.9 | We were also praying very hard. |
| 0:55.2 | We felt that we were being true to the oath we took as professional soldiers, as protectors of the people. |
| 1:01.8 | I'm Jay Baruzi, and this is the documentary from the BBC World Service. |
| 1:06.6 | For Heart and Soul, which hears personal stories of faith, I'm going back to 1986, |
| 1:13.2 | to what's now known as the Philippines People Power Revolution. |
| 1:17.1 | I'm speaking to some of the last people alive who were at the heart of what happened, |
| 1:22.0 | to hear how their Catholic faith helped overthrow a dictator and restore democracy to our country. |
| 1:28.9 | What was miraculous, and I fall back on my sense of faith during the time, was the divine |
| 1:35.5 | intervention that happened. |
| 1:38.0 | We were afraid that the spirituality means you have values in yourself that can make you overcome fear. |
| 1:47.1 | That for me is a very deep spirituality. |
| 1:54.1 | When I was a schoolgirl in the late 90s, I of course learned about the history of the Philippines. |
| 2:00.9 | But while it's one thing to read about it in the history books, |
... |
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