Political Developments: 1960s through the 1980s

In November 1965, Ferdinand Marcos was elected president, and in 1969, he became the first
elected president to win re-election in the Philippines. In September 1972, he imposed martial
law, citing growing lawlessness and open rebellion by the communist rebels. As a matter of fact,
Marcos did this largely in order to perpetuate his regime. During the martial law period,
democratic institutions were suppressed and the Marcos government became a dictatorship.
Martial law ended in 1981, and Marcos was re-elected as president to a six-year term.
Though a democratic country since independence, the Philippines' politics and economy had
been dominated by a small landholding elite that was against social change. The Marcos
dictatorship further hindered the country's political and economic development. During the
1970s and 1980s, while most other Southeast Asian countries were flourishing economically, the
economy of the Philippines was undergoing stagnation with extreme poverty in some regions.
On Aug. 21, 1983, the opposition leader Benigno Aquino was assassinated upon his return to the
Philippines after three years of exile in the United States. Most of the Philippine people thought
President Marcos was responsible for the murder, which intensified popular dissatisfaction with
the Marcos regime.
The chaos culminated in a snap presidential election in February 1986. Corazon Aquino, the slain
opposition leader's widow, became the presidential candidate of a coalition of opposition parties.
Although the election results still listed Marcos as official winner, the overwhelming popular
opposition had driven him from power. Marcos was forced to leave the Philippines under the
pressure of a peaceful civilian-military uprising, and Corazon Aquino assumed power as
president Feb. 25, 1986. Upon taking office, President Corazon Aquino was facing various
obstacles such as communist insurgency and economic mismanagement. 1
Nacionalista Party leader Ferdinand Marcos dominated the political scene of the Philippines for
two decades after his election to the presidency in 1965. During his first term, Marcos initiated
ambitious public works projects that improved the general quality of life while providing
generous pork-barrel benefits to his friends. Marcos perceived that his promised land reform
program would alienate the politically all-powerful landowner elite, and thus it was never
forcefully implemented. He lobbied strenuously for economic and military aid from the United
States while resisting significant involvement in the Second Indochina War (195475).
In 1967 the Philippines became a founding member of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN). Marcos became the first president to be reelected (in 1969), but early in his
second term economic growth slowed, optimism faded, and the crime rate increased. In addition,
a new communist insurgency, this timestarting in 1968led by the new Communist Party of
the Philippines-Marxist-Leninist and its military arm, the New Peoples Army, was on the rise. In
1969 the Moro National Liberation Front was founded and conducted an insurgency in Muslim
1

EBSCO Host. (2012). Philippines Country Review. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from EBSCO Host,
http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=564edb67-40c8-42a2b416405aa70ebf60%40sessionmgr120&vid=0&hid=126

areas. Political violence blamed on leftists, but probably initiated by government agents
provocateurs, led Marcos to suspend habeas corpus as a prelude to martial law. 2

admin, 2009. (2016, March 24). The era of Ferdinand Marcos - history of the Philippines. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from

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