98 Chasing the Wind: Assessing Philippine Democracy foisted on Marcos because of questions about the legitimacy of his martial law regime. When the National Assembly proclaimed Marcos the winner, civilian and religious groups insisted on the electoral victory of Corazon Aquino, and mounted a campaign of civil disobedience—non-payment of taxes and boycott of products of companies owned by the cronies of Marcos. Seemingly by design, the division in the military surfaced. In response to an arrest order for Defense Minister Enrile and the leaders of RAM, the rebel group holed up in Camp Aguinaldo and vowed to fight to the last man. General Fidel Ramos, from his headquarters in Camp Crame, declared his support for the rebel soldiers. Heeding the call of Cardinal Sin, civic and religious groups converged at Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame and formed a “human shield” to protect rebel soldiers from the military forces loyal to Marcos. These historic images along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue 25 years ago started another democratic transition of our country. The Stalled Democratization The main problem of this research is to understand why the democratization since 1986 under the Presidential, formally democratic government in the Philippines has been stalled, and has not transformed into a substantive, much less a consolidated democracy. The nearly successful coup d'état of 1989, extra-constitutional transfer of power in 2001, the Oakwood mutiny in 2003, the insubordination of the Marines at Fort Bonifacio and the Scout Rangers in the attempted military withdrawal of support in 2006, and the “rebellion” at the Peninsula Hotel in 2007, show that the elected civilian government has remained vulnerable to military intervention. Moreover, during the campaign season of the periodic national elections, the uncertainty of the electoral process is heightened by the dissemination by mass media of rumors about the “Noel” or “Noproc” scenarios. “Noel” is the abbreviation for no election or failure of election, while “Noproc” is the abbreviation for no proclamation of winning candidates. Both scenarios picture the conspiratorial political coalition in power as being out to abort the scheduled election and prolong its stay in power. In 2004, the alleged rigging of the canvassing of votes in the Presidential election seriously jeopardized the legitimacy of the electoral process. These threats of military intervention and the skepticism about the certainty and legitimacy of elections are symptomatic of the fragile transition of our political system. Added to these are the two longest direct challenges to the Philippine government: the Communist insurgency and the Moro secessionist movement. The literature on the comparative experiences with democracy of developing countries identifies 12 factors that either facilitate or obstruct