Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the country under martial law from 1972 to 1981, granting himself expanded powers under the 1973 Constitution. Marcos described his philosophy as "constitutional authoritarianism". He was deposed in 1986 by the People Power Revolution and was succeeded as president by Corazon Aquino.

Marcos gained political success by exaggerating his actions in World War II, claiming to have been the "most decorated war hero in the Philippines". — United States Army documents described his claims as "fraudulent" and "absurd". After the war, he became a lawyer. He served in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the Philippine Senate from 1959 to 1965. He was elected president in 1965. He presided over an economy that grew during the beginning of his 20-year rule, but ended in the loss of livelihood and extreme poverty for almost half the Philippine population, combined with a debt crisis. He pursued infrastructure development funded by foreign debt, making him popular during his first term, although the aid triggered an inflation crisis that led to social unrest in his second term. Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law on September 23, 1972, shortly before the end of his second term. Martial law was ratified in 1973 through a fraudulent referendum. He ruled the country under martial law from 1972 to 1981. During this period, the constitution was revised and media outlets were silenced. Marcos also oversaw a violent crackdown against the political opposition, Muslims, suspected communists, and ordinary citizens.

After his election to a third term in the 1981 presidential election and referendum, Marcos's popularity suffered due to the economic collapse that began in 1983 and the public outrage over the assassination of public opposition leader Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. that year. This discontent, the resulting resurgence of the opposition in the 1984 parliamentary election, and the discovery of documents exposing his financial accounts and false war records led Marcos to call a snap election in 1986. Allegations of mass electoral fraud, political turmoil, and human rights abuses led to the People Power Revolution of February 1986, which ultimately removed him from power. To avoid what could have been a military confrontation in Manila between pro- and anti-Marcos troops, Marcos was advised by US President Ronald Reagan through Senator Paul Laxalt to "cut and cut cleanly". Marcos then fled with his family to Hawaii. He was succeeded as president by Aquino's widow, Corazon "Cory" Aquino. Many people who rose to power during the Marcos era remained in power after his exile, including Fidel Ramos, a general who became president.

According to source documents provided by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the Marcos family stole US$5 billion–$10 billion from the Central Bank of the Philippines. The PCGG also maintained that the Marcos family enjoyed a decadent lifestyle, taking billions of dollars from the Philippines between 1965 and 1986. Upon his legacy, Marcos is widely regarded as among the most controversial figures in the Philippines, with its governmental rule formed an kleptocracy under Marcos's dictatorial regime was widely condemned, and his regime was infamous for corruption, extravagance, and brutality. His wife, Imelda Marcos, made infamous in her own right by excesses that characterized her and her husband's "conjugal dictatorship", is the source of the term Imeldific. Two of their children, Imee and Bongbong, became active in Philippine politics, with Bongbong being elected president in 2022. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos held the Guinness World Records for the largest-ever theft from a government for decades, although Guinness took the record down from their website while it underwent periodic review a few weeks before the 2022 presidential election.