Ferdinand Edralin Marcos

Ferdinand E. Marcos was born in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte on September 11, 1917 to Mariano Marcos and Josefa Edralin. He was the 10th president of the Philippines and held office from 1966 to 1986. He established an authoritarian regime in the Philippines that came under criticism for corruption and for its suppression of democratic processes. Besides being president, he also became the first prime minister in Philippine history.

Marcos studied law at the University of the Philippines and while still a student he was tried for the assasination in 1933 of Assymblyman Julio Nalundasan, a political opponent of his father. He was found guilty in November 1939 but argued his case on appeal to the Philippine Supreme Court and won acquittal a year later. After graduation, he took the bar examinations and became its topnotcher.

During World War II Marcos served as an officer with the Philippine armed forces. Captured by the Japanese, he survived the Death March from Bataan to central Luzon and then escaped. Marcos' subsequent claims of being an important leader in the Filipino guerrilla resistance movement were a central factor in his later political success, but U.S. government archives revealed that he actually played little or no part in anti-Japanese activities during the war.

From 1946 to 1947 Marcos was a technical assistant to President Manuel Roxas. He became a member of the House of Representatives (1949-59) and of the Senate (1963-65). Marcos also assumed the position of president of the Philippine senate He married Imelda Romualdez in 1954 who successfully helped him later in his campaigned for the presidency. In 1965 Marcos broke off from the Liberal Party after failing to get his party's nomination for president. He then ran as the Nationalista Party's candidate for president against Diosdado Macapagal who was the chosen candidate of the Liberal Party.

The presidential campaign was expensive and bitter, however, Marcos won and was inaugurated as president on Dec. 30, 1965. In 1969 he was reelected and became the first Philippine president to serve a second term. During his first term he had made progress in agriculture, industry, and education. Yet his administration was troubled by increasing student demonstrations and violent urban-guerrilla activities. Initially, he had a good record as president and the Filipinos expected him to be one of the best. However, conditions changed in later years and his popularity with the people started diminishing.

On Sept. 21, 1972, Marcos imposed martial law. Holding that communist and subversive forces precipitated the crisis, he acted swiftly and jailed politicians in the opposition and made the armed forces an arm of the regime. As both president and prime minister under the new but suspended Constitution, he ruled by decree. The press was censored, the airlines and major utilities came under government control and the writ of habeas corpus was suspended. This apparently led to the beginning of his dictatorial rule of the country.

Only nominal authority remained with the Supreme Court. The Catholic Church, U.S. Embassy officials, and Amnesty International charged the government with violations of human rights, including torture and murder by some of the military and police. Marcos was opposed by political leaders and was also widely criticized. The New People's Army and Muslim separatists undertook guerrilla activities intended to bring down his regime.

Marcos announced the end of martial law in January 1981 but still ruled in an authoritarian fashion thereafter under various constitutional formats. The Marcos administration were marred by rampant government corruption, economic stagnation, the steady widening of economic inequalities between the rich and the poor, and the continued growth of a communist guerrilla insurgency.

By 1983 Marcos' health was beginning to fail and opposition to his rule was growing. To reassert his mandate, Marcos called for a presidential "snap" elections which was held in 1986. A formidable political opponent, Corazon Aquino, emerged to become the presidential candidate of the opposition. It was widely asserted that Marcos managed to defeat Aquino and retain the presidency in the election of Feb. 7, 1986, only through massive voting fraud on the part of his supporters.

Deeply discredited at home and abroad by his dubious electoral victory, Marcos held fast to his presidency as the military split between supporters of his and of Aquino's legitimate right to the presidency. There was a tense standoff between the two sides. During the "People's Revolution" in Feb. 25, 1986, Marcos was toppled as president and fled in exile to Hawaii at the urging of the U.S. government. He later died in Hawaii in Sept. 28, 1989. Evidence subsequently came about that during his years in power, Marcos, his family, and his close associates had looted the Philippines' economy of billions of dollars through embezzlements and other corrupt practices. Marcos and his wife were subsequently indicted by the U.S. government on racketeering charges.