The year was 1986 and the people of the Philippines had been oppressed by their elected president turned dictator Ferdinand Marcos for twenty years. And a four-day series of non-violent mass protests toppled the Marcos dictatorship. It was a series of non-violent popular revolutions and mass prayer demonstrations in the Philippines that took place in 1986, which marked the restoration of democracy in the country. Nonviolent resistance is the best method for peacefully achieving social change in times of political oppression. Nonviolent resistance is just one of Mahatma Gandhi's teachings that has been used by the Filipino people in times of political oppression and is evident throughout the 1986 Philippine Revolution that helped the country restore democracy. One of the Philippines' most influential revolutionary leaders was influenced by the teachings and beliefs of the famous "originator of the modern nonviolent or passive resistance movement," Mahatma Gandhi (Bedford/St. Martin's 445). Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino is one of Marco's political opponents who must be immediately arrested after declaring martial law. While wrongly incarcerated by Marcos Ninoy, he read Gandhi whose life and work greatly influenced him to want to liberate his people in the Philippines. Ninoy was assassinated at the Manila National Airport on August 21, 1983, upon his return to the Philippines after a three-year exile in the United States. He had prepared a speech for that day although he was unable to deliver it, it was clear in his speech that he planned to resolve the political clashes with Marcos through non-violent means which he had borrowed from the work of Gandhi. In his speech, Ninoy writes: I have returned from my free will middle of paper...to their era of political oppression and this is just one of the many teachings of Gandhi that are evident in the 1986 Philippine Revolution. The law of suffering is one of Gandhi's teachings that was used during the Philippine People's Revolution and contributed to its progress. Faith and Satyagraha are also two of Gandhi's teachings that the people of the Philippines used to fight against political oppression and unite the people. If the people of the Philippines had resorted to violence to combat their oppressive political force, the outcome would not have been as peaceful as those four days in February 1986, during which no lives were lost. the past. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. Print. Kumar, Ravindra. Mahatma Gandhi at the end of the 20th century. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 2004. Print.