Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr.

(September 11, 1917 September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician and kleptocrat[1][2]
[3]
who was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled as dictator[4] under martial law from 1972 until 1981.[5] While his
regime started an unprecedented number of infrastructure projects and monuments (known colloquially as an "edifice complex'" and
at great taxpayer cost),[6][7][8] it also became infamous for its corruption,[9][10][11][12][13]extravagance[14] and brutality.[15][16][17]
Prior to Marcos's presidency, he served as a member of the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and of
the Philippine Senate from 1959 to 1965, where he was also Senate President from 1963 to 1965. Marcos fought alongside with the
Americans during the Japanese Invasion and participated in the Bataan Death March, and he would later claim during his election
campaigns that he has been "the most decorated war hero in the Philippines", a claim which was later proven to be false. [18][19]
[20]
United States Armydocuments that were uncovered called the claim "fraudulent" and "absurd". [21] However, President Fidel
Ramos backed Marcos' claim that Marcos founded the anti-Japanese guerrilla group Maharlika and has mentioned in his
presidential inaugural biography that his father Narciso Ramos served as one of the leaders of Marcos' guerrilla group.[22]
He was elected President in 1965. The Philippine national debt used to fund development projects grew from $2 billion at the
beginning of his term to $26 billion by the end of 1985[23][24][25][26]. Meanwhile, based on World Bank data, Philippine Annual Gross
Domestic Product grew from $5.27 billion in 1964 to $37.14 billion in 1982, a year prior to the assassination of Ninoy Aquino.
Indeed, between 1972 and 1979, the Philippines enjoyed its best economic development since 1945.[27] Political instability in the
wake of the Aquino assassination, unexpected drop in access to international credit and high interest rates, and difficulty in
managing balance of payments position due to falling export prices [28] [29] subsequently fueled a severe economic recession in 1984
and 1985.[30] By the end of 1985, GDP stood at $30.7 following two years of economic contraction [31] and poverty incidence grew
slightly from 41% at the time Marcos took the Presidency in the 60s to around 44% in 1985.[32][30]
Citing more than 15 bombing incidences and an intensifying armed communist insurgency,[33] Marcos placed the Philippines under
martial law on September 23, 1972,[34][35][36] during which he revamped the constitution, silenced the media,[37] and used violence and
oppression[17] against political opposition.[38] Martial law was ratified by 90.77% of the voters during the Philippine Martial Law
referendum, 1973 though the referendum was marred with controversy.[39][40]The Washington Post revealed in 1989 that the
Communists plotted the 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing to provoke Marcos into cracking down his opponents, allowing them to
increase recruits which were needed to make use of weapons and financial aid coming from China.[41]
A 1976 Amnesty International report had listed 88 government torturers.[16] The same report mentioned "President Ferdinand E.
Marcos, Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, Solicitor General Estelito P. Mendoza, Major General Fidel V.
Ramos (Commanding General of The Philippine Constabulary), Brigadier General Guillermo Santos, Judge Advocate General of
the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other senior officials" with responsibility for the administration of prisoners arrested under
martial law.[42][43]
Public outrage led to the snap elections of 1986and to the People Power Revolution in February 1986, which removed him from
power.[44] To avoid what could have been a military confrontation in Manila between pro- and anti-Marcos troops, Marcos was
advised by President Ronald Reagan through Sen. Paul Laxalt to "cut and cut cleanly",[45] after which Marcos fled to Hawaii.
[46]
Marcos was succeeded by Corazon (Cory) Aquino, widow of the assassinated opposition leader Senator Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino,
Jr. who had flown back to the Philippines to face the dictator.[44][47][48][49]
According to source documents provided by the Presidential Commission on Good Government,[50][51][52] a government agency created
by the Aquino Government which by itself was affected by corruption scandals after it was alleged that officials wanted a cut of
Marcos' assets and were "milking" sequestered assets.[53][54][55], the Marcos family had plundered $510 billion USD.
[14]
The Presidential Commission on Good Governmentalso maintained that the Marcos family enjoyed a decadent lifestyletaking
away billions of dollars[50][52] from the country[56][57] in the course of their US-backed rule between 1965 and 1986. His wife Imelda
Marcos, whose excesses during the couple's kleptocracy[58][59][60] made her infamous in her own right, spawned the term "Imeldific". [15][61]
[62][63]
In 2008, Philippines trial court judge Silvino Pampilo, acquitted Imelda Marcos, then widow of Ferdinand Marcos, of 32 counts of
illegal money transfer[64] after having previously been convicted of graft in 1993.[65]In 2010, she was ordered to repay the Philippine
government almost $280,000 for funds taken by Ferdinand Marcos in 1983.[66] In 2012, a US Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit
upheld a contempt judgement against Imelda and her son Bongbong Marcos for violating an injunction barring them from dissipating
their assets, and awarded $353.6 million to human rights victims.[67] Despite still facing numerous ongoing criminal graft charges,
[68]
as of March 2016, she was still active in Philippine politics along with two of her four children, Imee Marcos and Ferdinand
"Bongbong" Marcos Jr.[52][69]
As of October 2015, Imelda Marcos still faces 10 criminal charges of graft,[70] down from 900 cases in the 1990s, as most of the
cases were dismissed for lack of evidence.[71]