Marcos, Ferdinand Edralin (1917-1989), served as president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. As president, Marcos declared martial law in 1972. He restricted political parties, labor unions, and other groups that opposed the government. In 1973, the Philippines adopted a constitution that gave Marcos broad powers. In 1978, he took the title of prime minister while remaining as president. In January 1981, Marcos ended martial law. In June of that year, he was replaced as prime minister, but he was reelected president in an election widely regarded as rigged. Unrest due to political restrictions and declining economic conditions forced Marcos to hold a presidential election in February 1986. In the election, his political party was accused of widespread election fraud. He was forced to leave the country after protests broke out against him. Corazon Aquino, his main election opponent, became president. Marcos settled in Hawaii.
In 1988, Marcos and his wife, Imelda, were indicted by the United States government. The indictment included charges that they had embezzled money from the Philippines and used it to buy buildings in the United States. But Marcos became seriously ill and, as a result, the charges against him were dropped. He died in exile on Sept. 28, 1989.
In 1990, a jury found Imelda not guilty. In 1991, she returned to the Philippines to face civil and criminal charges there. She ran for president of the Philippines in 1992, but lost. Imelda was convicted of corruption in 1993, but the Philippine Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1998. She still faced a number of corruption charges, but almost all were dismissed for lack of evidence. From 1995 to 1998, she served in the Philippine House of Representatives. She was again elected to the House in 2010 and was reelected in 2013 and 2016. In 2018, she was found guilty of seven counts of graft (corruption), but she appealed the conviction.
The family of Ferdinand and Imelda has also been involved in politics. Their eldest daughter, Imee, and their son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., have each served in the House, in the Senate, and as governor of the Philippine province of Ilocos Norte. In 2022, Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., was elected president of the Philippines.
Ferdinand Edralin Marcos was born in Sarrat on Sept. 11, 1917. While a law student at the University of the Philippines, he was accused, tried, and convicted of murdering a man who had defeated his father in an election for the National Assembly. But the Supreme Court acquitted him. In 1954, Marcos married Imelda Romualdez. Marcos served in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959. He was elected to the Senate in 1959. From 1963 to 1965, Marcos was the president of the Senate.
After his death, Marcos’s body was preserved and placed on display in the city of Batac in northern Luzon. In 2016, his body was buried in the national Heroes’ Cemetery in Manila, the capital. Many Filipinos who had suffered under Marcos’s rule opposed the move.
See also Philippines, History of the.
