The God Save the Queen Plot was a planned coup d’etat in November 1986 by Minister of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), a rebel faction within the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to overthrow President Corazon Aquino, whom it helped install during the People Power Revolution nine months before. However, the staging of the coup was delayed and ultimately stopped by maneuvers within the AFP led by Chief of Staff General Fidel Ramos before a shot was even fired. As a result, Enrile was fired by Aquino from her cabinet.

The coup, along with another one in July 1987, were the only attempts against Aquino, out of a total of nine, that were uncovered before execution. It also marked the beginning of RAM's break with Aquino, which culminated in the August 1987 Philippine coup attempt against her.

The Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) was a group of dissident soldiers and officers of the AFP that had formed in the latter years of the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos. In 1986, some of these officers, led by Colonel Gringo Honasan and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile launched a failed coup d'état against Marcos and were later joined by AFP Vice Chief of Staff General Fidel Ramos, prompting a large number of civilians to attempt to prevent Marcos from wiping the RAM rebels out. This eventually snowballed into the People Power Revolution of February 1986, which overthrew the Marcos regime and forced his family into exile in the U.S. state of Hawaii, replacing him with his electoral rival, Corazon Aquino.

However, RAM's relations with President Aquino gradually deteriorated, mainly due to its hardline stance on negotiations with her government's conciliatory approach on the communist insurgency, and the presence of supposedly left-wing officials in Aquino's cabinet, namely Joker Arroyo (Executive Secretary), Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (Local Government Minister), Augusto Sanchez (Labor Minister), and Ernesto Maceda (Natural Resources Minister). In addition, the military accused Arroyo, Pimentel and Sanchez of having links to the Communist Party of the Philippines, and Maceda of corruption in his handling of the logging industry.

Enrile, whom Aquino retained as Defense Minister, shared RAM resentment over being sidelined by her after the Revolution. Likewise, Enrile's relations with Aquino further soured due to his public criticism of her supposed betrayal of the Revolution and her approach to the communist insurgency, his inclusion in a Marcos loyalist cabinet presented during the Manila Hotel Siege in July 1986 which he rejected, and the way he had preempted Aquino in giving a blanket amnesty to the soldiers involved in what had been the first coup attempt against her government. The lenient way in which Aquino handled the coup, along with her failure to investigate RAM and Enrile for liaising with Marcos loyalists who had staged the coup, appeared to convince RAM and Enrile that they could launch another move against Aquino with impunity.

At the same time, the Aquino government also grappled with other issues such as drafting a new constitution and renegotiating of billions of dollars in debt accumulated by the Marcos regime.

Preparations began for the coup are estimated to have begun in September 1986, when RAM officers unveiled a hybrid warfare plan involving psychological warfare and systematic assassination of prominent left-wing figures and officials in the Aquino cabinet. Their first step was to increase RAM's public visibility, and claim greater emphasis of their role in the People Power Revolution at the expense of Aquino and other civilian actors. On October 21, Enrile met with Aquino and demanded a greater share of political power and a revamp of her cabinet, which she refused.

Weeks before the coup, RAM began trying to rally support for the move from senior commanders of the Philippine Army, the Philippine Air Force, and the Philippine Marines, hoping to capitalize on their shared resentment against leftist elements in the government and investigations into human rights violations by the military.