Description

THE martial law era in the Republic of the Philippines is over. President Ferdinand E. Marcos resigned and fled the Philippines on 26 February 1986 after it became apparent that he could no longer maintain power in the face of an irreversible and growing demand among all segments of the Philippine polity that his leading political opponent, Corazon Aquino, be installed as the legitimate winner of the 7
February 1986 presidential election.

Why was Marcos—a brilliant politician by all accounts—unable to continue to maintain his power as he had done successfully for years? When one analyzes the circumstances of the people of the Philippines and traces Marcos's responses to the changing forces within his country, the reasons for the Marcos regime's downfall became increasingly apparent: Marcos—famed for his adeptness at the "art of the politically possible"—lost political power because he and his close associates by 1977-78 had drifted
intellectually into a groupthink mentality characterized by an illusion of invulnerability, which, in turn, caused top martial law administrators to lose their ability to assess accurately and realistically the impact of the regime's policies on the Philippines and the United States.