Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. was a Filipino lawyer, politician, and kleptocrat who served as the tenth and longest serving president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. Ruling the country as a dictator under martial law from 1972 to 1981, he granted himself expanded powers under the 1973 Constitution, describing his philosophy as "constitutional authoritarianism". He was eventually deposed in 1986 by the People Power Revolution and was succeeded as president by Corazon Aquino.
Marcos gained political success by exaggerating his actions in World War II, claiming to have been the "most decorated war hero in the Philippines"; United States Army documents described his claims as "fraudulent" and "absurd". After the war, he became a lawyer. He served in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the Philippine Senate from 1959 to 1965. He was elected president in 1965. He presided over an economy that grew during the beginning of his 20-year rule, but ended in the loss of livelihood and extreme poverty for almost half the Philippine population, combined with a debt crisis. He pursued infrastructure development funded by foreign debt, making him popular during his first term, although the aid triggered an inflation crisis that led to social unrest in his second term. Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law on September 23, 1972, shortly before the end of his second term. Martial law was ratified in 1973 through a fraudulent referendum. He ruled the country under martial law from 1972 to 1981. During this period, the constitution was revised and media outlets were silenced. Marcos also oversaw a violent crackdown against the political opposition, Muslims, suspected communists, and ordinary citizens.
After his election to a third term in the 1981 presidential election and referendum, Marcos's popularity suffered due to the economic collapse that began in 1983 and the public outrage over the assassination of public opposition leader Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. that year. This discontent, the resulting resurgence of the opposition in the 1984 parliamentary election, and the discovery of documents exposing his financial accounts and false war records led Marcos to call a snap election in 1986. Allegations of mass electoral fraud, political turmoil, and human rights abuses led to the People Power Revolution of February 1986, which ultimately removed him from power. To avoid what could have been a military confrontation in Manila between pro- and anti-Marcos troops, Marcos was advised by US president Ronald Reagan through Senator Paul Laxalt to "cut and cut cleanly". Marcos then fled with his family to Hawaii, where he died in 1989. He was succeeded as president by Aquino's widow, Corazon "Cory" Aquino. Many people who rose to power during the Marcos era remained in power after his exile, including Fidel Ramos, a general who would later become the 12th president of the Philippines.
According to source documents provided by the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the Marcos family stole US$5 billion–$10 billion from the Central Bank of the Philippines. The PCGG also maintained that the Marcos family enjoyed a decadent lifestyle, taking billions of dollars from the Philippines between 1965 and 1986. Marcos is widely regarded as among the most controversial figures in the Philippines, with its governmental rule – widely characterized as a kleptocracy – being widely condemned, and his far-right dictatorial regime being infamous for corruption, extravagance, and brutality. His wife, Imelda Marcos, was made infamous in her own right by excesses that characterized her and her husband's "conjugal dictatorship", and constitutes the source of the term. Two of their children, Imee and Bongbong, became active in Philippine politics, with Bongbong being elected president in 2022, and with both of them shifting their political stances towards the centre to distance themselves from their father's views.
Early life
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos was born on September 11, 1917, in the town of Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, to Mariano Marcos and Josefa Edralin. Mariano Marcos was a lawyer and congressman from Ilocos Norte, Philippines. He was executed by Filipino guerillas in 1945 as a Japanese propagandist and collaborator during World War II. Drawn and quartered with the use of carabaos, his remains were left hanging on a tree. Josefa Marcos was a schoolteacher who outlived her husband – dying in 1988, two years after the Marcos family left her in Malacañang Palace, they fled into exile after the 1986 People Power Revolution, one year before her son Ferdinand's death.Marcos claimed that he was a descendant of Antonio Luna, a Filipino general during the Philippine–American War, a claim since debunked by genealogist Mona Magno-Veluz. He also claimed that his ancestor was a 16th-century pirate, Limahong, who used to raid the coasts of the South China Sea. He is a Chinese mestizo descendant.
Education
Marcos attended his primary education at Sarrat Elementary School, Shamrock Elementary School, and Ermita Elementary School from 1923 to 1929. He attended his secondary education at University of the Philippines High School. He attended his tertiary education at at University of the Philippines in Manila and finished studying liberal arts prior to taking law.Marcos studied law at the University of the Philippines in Manila, attending the College of Law. He excelled in both curricular and extra-curricular activities, joining the university's swimming, boxing, and wrestling teams. He was an accomplished orator, debater, and writer for the student newspaper. While attending the UP College of Law, he joined Upsilon Sigma Phi, where he met his future colleagues in government and some of his staunchest critics.
Marcos attended the Reserve Officers' Training Corps He served as an ROTC battalion commander and was commissioned as a third lieutenant in the Philippine Constabulary Reserve. He was a member of the rifle team and a national rifle champion.
When he sat for the 1939 Bar Examinations, he was a top scorer with a score of 92.35%. He graduated cum laude and was in the top ten of his class: future chief justice Felix Makasiar was their class salutatorian. He was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu and the Phi Kappa Phi international honor societies, the latter giving him its Most Distinguished Member Award 37 years later.
File:Ferdinand_Marcos_receiving_his_Doctor_of_Laws_degree_-_Central_Philippine_University.jpg|thumb|right|Ferdinand Marcos being conferred with a Doctor Laws, honoris causa degree during the investiture of the first Filipino president of Central Philippine University, Rex D. Drilon, on April 21, 1967
Marcos received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1967 from Central Philippine University.
Julio Nalundasan assassination
was a Filipino lawyer/politician and a political rival of Mariano Marcos's. He was killed with a single rifle shot at his home in Batac on September 21, 1935, the day after he had defeated Marcos a second time for a seat in the National Assembly.In December 1938, Ferdinand Marcos, his father Mariano, and his uncles, Pio Marcos and Quirino Lizardo were both accused of murder. According to two witnesses, the four had conspired to assassinate Nalundasan.
Ferdinand was a member of the University of the Philippines rifle team and a national rifle champion. Marcos's rifle was in its gun rack in the ROTC armory; that of team captain Teodoro M. Kalaw Jr. was missing.
The National Bureau of Investigation obtained evidence that Kalaw's rifle was the murder weapon. Ferdinand had access to the armory. Ferdinand and Lizardo were then convicted of the murder. Ferdinand was sentenced to 10 to 17 years in prison.
Marcos appealed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines. Justice Jose P. Laurel, who wrote the majority decision, had almost killed a rival during a youthful brawl. He was convicted by a trial court of frustrated murder, but was acquitted after his own appeal to the Supreme Court. Laurel pleaded for his colleagues to acquit. The Supreme Court overturned the lower court's decision on October 22, 1940, acquitting both men of all charges except contempt.
World War II (1939–1945)
Post-WWII (1949–1965)
After World War II, the American government became preoccupied with the Marshall Plan, attempting to revive Western European economies, losing focus on the Philippines, which gained independence on July 4, 1946. Marcos was one of eleven lawyers to act as a special prosecutor tasked to try by "process of law and justice" all those accused of collaboration with the Japanese. Eventually, Marcos ran for his father's old post as representative of the 2nd district of Ilocos Norte and won three consecutive terms, serving in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959.Marcos joined the "Liberal Wing" that split from the Nacionalista Party, which became the Liberal Party. He later became the Liberal Party's economic spokesman, and chaired the House Neophytes Bloc which included future president Diosdado Macapagal, future vice president Emmanuel Pelaez and future Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson.
Marcos then became chairman of the House Committee on Commerce and Industry and member of the House Committees on Defense, Ways and Means; Industry; Banks Currency; War Veterans; Civil Service; and on Corporations and Economic Planning. He was also a member of the Special Committee on Import and Price Controls and the Special Committee on Reparations, and of the House Electoral Tribunal.
After serving in the House for three terms, Marcos won a Senate seat in 1959 and became Senate minority floor leader in 1960. He became executive vice president of the Liberal Party and served as party president from 1961 to 1964.
From 1963 to 1965, he was Senate President. He introduced significant bills, many of which were enacted.