Cronies of Ferdinand Marcos


Certain associates of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, historically referred to using the catchphrase "Marcos cronies", benefited from their friendship with Marcos – whether in terms of legal assistance, political favors, or facilitation of business monopolies, during his administration. Marcos critics, and the local and international press began referring to these individuals as "cronies" during the latter days of the Marcos dictatorship, and the Philippine government – especially the Presidential Commission on Good Government – continued using the term after the ouster of Marcos in 1986.
These "cronies" were awarded government commissions, projects, and funds, many of which were later investigated for corruption, misuse of funds, and disregard of the Constitution of the Philippines. Marcos' cronies were given strategic positions both in the government and in private sectors in order for the Marcoses to seize control of the major industries of the country.

Individuals regarded as cronies

Juan Ponce Enrile

Enrile served the Marcos Administration under many positions. He was Commissioner of Customs in 1965, and rose to become Defense Minister in 1970. He resigned a year later to run unsuccessfully for the Senate, but was quickly reinstated in 1972. The Marcos administration also fabricated an ambush of Enrile's car, claiming it was perpetrated by militants. This staged act served as justification for the declaration of martial law. Enrile later revealed in a 1985 interview that the attack on his car had been faked. He later turned on Marcos when he, along with then-Vice Chief of Staff of the AFP and Chief of the Philippine Constabulary Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos and a battalion of soldiers and officers under the Reform the Armed Forces Movement lead by Gregorio Honasan, Victor Batac, and Eduardo Kapunan withdraw their support, triggering the 1986 People Power Revolution.
For the majority of the martial law period, Enrile was in charge of all the armed forces, which were responsible for many human rights abuses and summary executions. Enrile was also involved with many cases of corruption, namely:
  • involvement in the smuggle of goods during his appointment at the Bureau of Customs, particularly several shiploads of imported rice in La Union.
  • with Marcos, gave concessions to politically favored logging companies, such as to Juan Tuvera, the presidential assistant, and a nephew of Isabela governor Faustino Dy, a close Marcos associate. Publicly, Enrile made pronouncements against illegal logging, yet allowed logging concessions to their associates. Alfonso Lim, another close associate of the Marcoses, was allowed seven logging concessions with a total area of 600,000 hectares, a number far from the 100,000-hectare constitutional limit to any one family. Enrile also owns San Jose Lumber, which is a 95,777-hectare logging concession.
  • involvement with the Coconut Levy Fund scam, which was originally a tax plan for coconut farmers which will give them opportunities to invest stocks and buy industry-related businesses for their benefit. However, Enrile, with Danding Cojuangco, allegedly used the earnings of the Fund for his own personal and business affairs. Cojuangco allegedly used the levy earnings to purchase San Miguel Corporation, the biggest food and beverage conglomerate in the Philippines. The Philippine Commission on Good Government stated that nearly P9.8 billion was collected from farmers from 1971-1983. Current coconut levy assets amount to P93 billion.

    Antonio Floirendo Sr.

Banana magnate Floirendo began his business career in Davao City in the 1940s, when he found it favorable to cultivate relationships with running politicians. He contributed to Marcos' 1965 and 1969 presidential campaign funds, and it was in his Davao estate where Marcos launched his 1969 presidential campaign in southern Philippines.
Under the Marcos administration, Floirendo's company Tagum Agricultural Development Company, Inc. leased 6,000 hectares of prime, fertile, government land and employed prison labor from the neighboring prisons. This project was formerly halted during the Macapagal Administration. It violated the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines and Philippine corporate law, which permitted only up to 1,024 land acquisition. Sen. Lorendo Tañada chaired a Blue Ribbon Committee investigation into the matter, which caused Floirendo to retreat the plan to wait for a more favorable political climate. His plan finally came into fruition after Marcos' second term.
Floirendo also served as a front for the Marcoses in purchasing international properties. With former First Lady Imelda Marcos, he purchased three condominium apartments in Olympic Tower in New York City. He purchased two expensive units at the St. James Towers in Manhattan. He purchased a $1.35 million mansion in Makiki Heights in Hawaii. The mansion, known as the Helen Knudsen estate, sits directly across the Tantoco house where the Marcoses lived in exile. He purchased the $4.5 million Lindenmere estate in Long Island New York, and a $2.5 million Beverly Hills property.
Floirendo escaped the Philippines a day before Ferdinand Marcos was exiled to Hawaii. In 1987, Floirendo turned over PHP 70 million in cash to the Presidential Commission on Good Government, as well as titles for the Lindenmere Estate, the Olympic Towers apartments, and the Makiki Heights Drive property. He admitted transferring amounts of $600,000, $2 million, and $4 million to George Hamilton, an American actor involved in the Marcos' business ties and federal fraud and racketeering cases. They were supposedly loans from Imelda Marcos, who he alleges to have ordered him these transfers. He also admitted that the Marcos-tied corporations of Ancor, Calno, Kuodo and Camelton belonged to him.

Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr.

Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr. kept close, familial ties with the Marcoses. Aside from business and political dealings, Cojuanco and Marcos are godfathers to each other's children — Cojuangco to Marcos' junior, nicknamed Bongbong, and Marcos to Cojuangco's son which he named 'Marcos'.
Cojuangco and Juan Ponce Enrile were involved in the Coco Levy Fund Scam, which taxed small farmers with the promise of shares in the coconut investment company. However, farmers benefitted nothing from this levy, as the middle-men did not return receipts that proved they paid the coconut levy and were entitled to equity in the company.
Due to the sudden surge of the price of coconuts in the world market, this fund became extremely profitable, amounting to as much as $785 million total profits. These funds were channeled to the private financial interests of Marcos and cronies and was consolidated in the United Coconut Planters Bank.
With the backing of the Marcos government and the wealth from the levy fund, Cojuangco was able to completely vertically integrate the coconut trade industry by controlling the financing through UCPB and by buying out Unicom, which was the entity in charge of manufacturing and trading of coconut and coconut by-products. Cojuangco's wealth increased rapidly, and by the peak of martial law, the value of all the assets he controlled was $1.5 billion, or 25% of the GNP.
Cojuangco then used the windfalls from the coconut levy fund and United Coconut Planters Bank to finance his purchase of the enormously profitable San Miguel Corporation. The Marcos government gave favors to San Miguel Corporation. For example, when taxes for liquor and cigarettes were raised in January 1986, excise taxes on beer nevertheless decreased, beer being one of the main products of SMC. The tax cut gave SMC $40 million worth of savings that year.
A 2012 Supreme Court decision ordered the return of ₱71 billion in coconut levy funds to coconut farmers.

Roberto Benedicto

Roberto Benedicto was Marcos' former classmate and fraternity brother at the UP Law School. When Marcos was president, Benedicto became part of his small circle in Malacañan, one of the few with full access even to private quarters.
Under the Marcos administration, he served as Ambassador to Japan and Chief of the Philippine National Bank, which was the largest state-owned bank at the time. He permitted huge loans for business of other cronies and associates. He used PNB to grant loans for his shipping company, Northern Lines, and his sugar business. His election as Japanese Ambassador allowed him to develop high-level contacts in Japan. Working with President Marcos, they ratified the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation between Japan and the Philippines, which gave Japan a "most-favored nation" status. This agreement gave Japan undue advantage in using the country's natural resources, which was the primary reason the Philippine Senate did not ratify the treaty for 13 years. Benedicto, understanding the business interests of the Japanese, arranged lucrative joint-venture operations between Japanese corporations and his own. His role as Ambassador also gave him control of the $550 million Japanese war reparations money.
At the prime of his career, Benedicto's empire consisted of 85 corporations, 106 sugar farms, 14 haciendas, other agricultural lands, 17 radio stations, 16 television stations, 2 telecommunications networks, 7 buildings, 10 vessels and 5 aircraft. He also owned 14 hectares of real estate in Bacolod City, 13.5 billion shares in Oriental Petroleum, and membership shares in golf and country clubs estimated at $491,000. Overseas, he owned a sugar mill in Venezuela, a trading company in Madrid, bank deposits, mansions, and limousines in California. Marcos' executive secretary estimated that in 1983, Benedicto's net worth was $800 million.

Lucio Tan

styles himself as a rags-to-riches self-made millionaire who worked his way up from sweeping and mopping floors to becoming one of the most influential people in Philippine history. However, a closer inspection at his history will reveal deep connections and cronyism to President Ferdinand Marcos, who was able to launch Tan's immense wealth through sky-high tariff rates on imported cigarettes, under-the-table tax breaks, and government exemptions, all of which allowed Lucio Tan to have a "virtual monopoly for over 40 years in the Philippine Market".
Fortune Tobacco Corp, founded in 1966, is the epicenter of Lucio Tan's fortune. While it is unclear how much of the market FTC cornered in 1980, estimates range from 60% to 77%. This outright dominance of the cigarette trade in just 14 short years can be attributed to the massive tariffs on imported cigarettes that Tan enjoyed. The nominal rate of protection for cigarettes was at 182% while the Effective Rate of Protection was at a colossal rate of 18,758%. This, coupled with the fact that, according to Manapat, during the Martial Law years Lucio Tan regularly evaded taxes, as much as $50 million per year. In addition to this, Fortune Tobacco Corp lawyers were the brains behind the tax laws concerning cigarettes that allowed Tan to completely dominate the cigarette industry.
Lucio Tan's virtual monopoly on cigarettes afforded him all the advantages in the world, to the detriment of the consumers and buyers and therefore, made the cigarette industry a supplier-driven industry.