Gregorio Honasan

Also known as: Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan II — the standard public styling, after the "Gringo" nickname · Gregorio Ballesteros Honasan II — full name with maternal surname · Colonel Gringo Honasan — the rank and sobriquet carried from the coup years into politics

Government

Definition

Gregorio Ballesteros Honasan II (born March 14, 1948, in Baguio), known as Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II, is the Philippine Military Academy–trained Army colonel who co-founded the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), led the bloodiest coup attempts against the government of Corazon Aquino, and then served four terms in the Senate of the Philippines (1995–2004 and 2007–2019) and one term as Secretary of Information and Communications Technology (2019–2021). A Scout Ranger officer wounded at Lebak and Jolo, aide-de-camp from 1974 and later chief security officer to Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, Honasan was — with Victor Batac and Eduardo Kapunan, fellow PMA Class of 1971 graduates — a key founder of RAM, the movement this wiki’s Reform the Armed Forces Movement entry dates to July 23, 1982. (Wikipedia — Honasan, Wikipedia — RAM)

His mutinous record spans the hinge of the restored democracy: the February 1986 plot whose discovery triggered the People Power Revolution; the “God Save the Queen” plot of November 1986, in which he was RAM’s field leader; the August 1987 coup attempt (53 dead), for which he was captured on December 9, 1987 and escaped a Navy prison ship in 1988; and the December 1989 coup attempt (99 dead), after which he went underground until the Ramos-era amnesty. (Wikipedia — God Save the Queen Plot, Wikipedia — August 1987 coup, Wikipedia — 1989 coup) Elected to the Senate in 1995 — the second independent ever to win a Philippine Senate seat — he converted coup fame into a two-decade legislative career, ran for vice president in 2016, lost Senate comebacks in 2022 and 2025, and co-founded the Reform PH party in June 2024. (Wikipedia — Honasan)

Identities

Authority	Value
Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorio_Honasan
Wikidata	Q975565 (Gregorio Honasan II)
DBpedia	https://dbpedia.org/page/Gregorio_Honasan
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings	N/A
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22Gregorio+Honasan%22
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II — the standard public styling, after the “Gringo” nickname
Gregorio Ballesteros Honasan II — full name with maternal surname
Colonel Gringo Honasan — the rank and sobriquet carried from the coup years into politics

Examples and Analogies

The coup leader as living syllabus: reformist officer, mutineer, fugitive, amnestied senator, cabinet secretary, defeated comeback candidate — Honasan’s trajectory compresses the Philippine cycle of mutiny, amnesty, and reintegration into one biography. (Wikipedia — Honasan, Wikipedia — August 1987 coup)
Fame converted into votes: his 1995 Senate victory as an independent — 8,968,616 votes (34.85 percent) — is the political afterlife of RAM in one figure: the movement’s record carried to the electorate rather than to a court. (Wikipedia — Honasan)
Verified biographical and electoral data: (Wikipedia — Honasan)
Born: March 14, 1948, Baguio; parents Colonel Romeo Gillego Honasan and Alicia Masip Ballesteros of Sorsogon; educated at San Beda College, the Dominican School in Taipei, Don Bosco Technical College, and the Philippine Military Academy (Class of 1971; “Class Baron,” the academy’s top leadership award)
Military service: Philippine Army 1971–1989; 1st Scout Ranger Regiment; aide-de-camp to Enrile from 1974, then ministry chief security officer; rank Colonel; Distinguished Conduct Star and Presidential Government Medal, 1986
Senate elections won: 1995 — 8,968,616 votes (34.85%); 2001 special — 10,454,527 (35.47%), filling Teofisto Guingona Jr.’s unexpired term; 2007 — 11,605,531 (39.34%); 2013 (UNA) — 13,211,424 (32.91%)
Senate posts: acting Majority Leader (June 6 – July 22, 2013); chair, Agrarian Reform Committee (July 26, 2010 – June 30, 2016); chair, National Defense and Security and Peace, Unification and Reconciliation Committees (July 25, 2016 – November 20, 2018)
Executive post: Secretary of Information and Communications Technology — appointed November 22, 2018; sworn July 1, 2019; confirmed September 11, 2019; left October 8, 2021
Defeats: vice-presidential run 2016 (UNA) — 788,881 votes (1.92%), sixth of six; Senate runs 2022 — 10,643,491 (19.16%), conceded May 11, 2022 — and 2025 (Reform PH) — 6,700,772 (11.68%)

Usage Scenarios

1. Studying the Coup Decade

Researchers of the Aquino-era mutinies use Honasan as the constant across the attempts this wiki records in its August 1987 Philippine coup attempt and 1989 Philippine Coup Attempt entries. (Wikipedia — God Save the Queen Plot, Wikipedia — August 1987 coup, Wikipedia — 1989 coup)

2. Tracing Amnesty Into Office

Legal and political researchers follow his file as the amnesty system’s most prominent test case: fugitive after 1989, amnestied under the Ramos settlement, elected months after the reported availing — negotiated peace translated directly into electoral mandate. (Rappler — Honasan on Trillanes amnesty)

3. Reading the Post-Senate Record

Fact-checkers consult his later file for the distinction between adjudicated and unresolved matters: the Sandiganbayan case dismissed in 2021, the Commission on Audit findings on DICT confidential funds, and the Oakwood-mutiny implication he denied. (Philstar — Sandiganbayan junks graft cases, Wikipedia — Honasan)

Strategies

Keep the ledger by instrument: for each episode, name the record — the Davide Commission report for the 1986 plot, the casualty counts for 1987 and 1989, the amnesty instruments for the settlement, the court orders for the 2017–2021 case. (Wikipedia — God Save the Queen Plot, Wikipedia — August 1987 coup)
Read the elections against the coups: his vote totals from 1995 through 2013 measure how the electorate re-priced a coup leader; the 2022 and 2025 losses measure the same asset’s depreciation for a new generation. And carry the gaps as documented: his biography omits his 2003–2007 legal episode, and his amnesty year is reported variously — attribution, not smoothing. (Wikipedia — Honasan, Rappler — Honasan on Trillanes amnesty)

Security and Safety Measures

The amnesty settlement: Proclamation No. 10 (July 27, 1992) implemented the amnesty program under Executive Order No. 350 for 4,453 applicants, closing December 31, 1992; the RAM-specific instruments of 1994 and 1996 are recorded in this wiki’s Reform the Armed Forces Movement entry. Sources divide on Honasan’s personal availing — his Wikipedia biography dates Ramos’s grant to 1992, the August 1987 coup record to 1993, and Rappler’s 2018 report to 1995 — a conflict this wiki carries with attribution rather than resolving. (LawPhil — Proc 10, Wikipedia — Honasan, Wikipedia — August 1987 coup, Rappler — Honasan on Trillanes amnesty)
Court-record register — adjudicated: the Sandiganbayan Second Division issued arrest orders in August 2017 for Honasan, seven National Commission on Muslim Filipinos officials, and a coordinator, on two counts of graft alleging misuse of ₱30 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund allocations in 2012 (₱29.1 million coursed to an NGO and the NCMF); on January 14, 2021 the division dismissed the cases against him and the NCMF officials on demurrer to evidence. (Philstar — Sandiganbayan junks graft cases)
Audit record — status only: in January 2020 the Commission on Audit flagged ₱300 million in confidential-fund cash advances at the DICT during his secretaryship; he and Undersecretary Eliseo Rio Jr. jointly called the expenses “lawful and legitimate.” No adjudicated outcome is documented in the sources cited here. (Wikipedia — Honasan)
The Olalia case — where liability did not reach him: for the November 13, 1986 murders of Rolando Olalia and Leonor Alay-ay linked to the God Save the Queen plotters, the 2021 convictions fell on three other RAM members and the 2016 acquittal on Kapunan; Honasan denied involvement and was not among those convicted. (Wikipedia — God Save the Queen Plot)

Historical Context

Honasan was commissioned in 1971 and built his career inside the defense establishment — Scout Ranger combat tours, then Enrile’s security detail, within whose ministry RAM organized. The movement’s February 1986 plot to seize Malacañang was uncovered on the eve of its execution; the Enrile–Ramos stand at Camps Aguinaldo and Crame became the People Power Revolution, and Honasan received the Distinguished Conduct Star in 1986 from the government his movement then turned against. (Wikipedia — Honasan, Wikipedia — RAM)

The Aquino years made him the era’s emblem. As RAM field leader in the God Save the Queen plot (November 11–22, 1986) he commanded 800 soldiers and ten armored vehicles before the standoff dissolved bloodlessly; Enrile was dismissed on November 24 and Honasan reassigned to Fort Magsaysay, where he built the force that struck on August 28, 1987 — more than 2,000 men led into Manila, the assault on Malacañang, the burning of the Camp Aguinaldo GHQ wing, the Nagtahan Bridge firing on civilians (11 dead), and his escape by helicopter. Captured on December 9, 1987 at Valle Verde, Pasig after a shoot-to-kill order, he escaped the Navy prison ship in Manila Bay in 1988 — reportedly by convincing his guards to join his cause — and led the December 1–9, 1989 attempt (99 dead, 570 wounded) before going underground. (Wikipedia — God Save the Queen Plot, Wikipedia — August 1987 coup, Wikipedia — 1989 coup)

The settlement made him a politician. Amnestied in the Ramos era, he won Senate seats in 1995, 2001 (special), 2007, and 2013, chaired the defense and agrarian-reform committees, spoke at the EDSA III rallies of April–May 2001, and ran for vice president on Jejomar Binay’s 2016 ticket. Appointed DICT Secretary on November 22, 2018, he assumed office July 1, 2019 after his Senate term ended, was confirmed September 11, 2019, and resigned October 8, 2021 to file for the failed 2022 comeback; a 2025 run under Reform PH — the party he co-founded on June 10, 2024 — also failed. (Wikipedia — Honasan)

Challenges and Controversies

The Coup Leader’s Balance Sheet

The record sets RAM’s founding reform grievances against the counts of its methods — 53 dead in 1987, 99 in 1989, the Nagtahan firing among them. (Wikipedia — August 1987 coup, Wikipedia — 1989 coup)

The Amnesty Question Renewed

When President Rodrigo Duterte voided Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s amnesty in 2018, Honasan’s own availing returned to public attention; he urged the armed forces to “implement policy and enforce the law and not interpret it” and to let the courts decide. (Rappler — Honasan on Trillanes amnesty, Wikipedia — Honasan)

Oakwood and Its Shadow

The July 27, 2003 Oakwood mutiny implicated him — his “National Recovery Program” circulated in the Magdalo gripe sessions, and a June 12, 2003 blood-compact meeting was alleged to have been presided over by him — allegations he denied; the record of any ensuing charge is not carried in the sources cited here. (Wikipedia — Oakwood mutiny, Rappler — Honasan on Trillanes amnesty)

Pork Barrel: Charged, Then Cleared

The 2017 graft prosecution over his 2012 PDAF allocations ended in the January 14, 2021 demurrer dismissal. (Philstar — Sandiganbayan junks graft cases)