Exile, Death and Burial

With his health failing and support for his regime fading fast, on February 25, 1986, Ferdinand
Marcos and much of his family were airlifted from the Manila presidential palace, going into
exile in Hawaii. Evidence was later uncovered showing that Marcos and his associates had
stolen billions from the Philippine economy. 

Focusing on racketeering charges, a federal grand jury then indicted both of the Marcoses, but
Ferdinand died in Honolulu in 1989 from cardiac arrest after suffering from an array of ailments.
Imelda was acquitted of all charges and returned to the Philippines the following year, though
she went on to face other legal challenges. She would later run unsuccessfully for president and
win congressional elections, with two of her three children, Imee and Ferdinand Jr., also serving
as governmental officials.

Since 1993 Marcos' corpse had been embalmed in a glass casket in his home province of Ilocos
Norte. In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Marcos' body to be buried at the National
Heroes' Cemetery in Manila, with protests erupting in opposition to such a move considering
Marcos' human rights abuses. Nonetheless, in November the remains of Marcos were interred at
the new site in a hero's burial.  

Background and Early Life

Ferdinand Marcos was born on September 11, 1917, in the municipality of Sarrat, part of the
Ilocos Norte province. He went to school in Manila and later attended law school at the
University of the Philippines. His father, Mariano Marcos, was a Filipino politician, and on
September 20, 1935, after Julio Nalundasan defeated Mariano for a seat in the National
Assembly (for the second time), Nalundasan was shot and killed in his home. Ferdinand,
Mariano and other family members were eventually tried for the assassination, and Ferdinand
was found guilty of murder.

Appealing the verdict, Ferdinand argued on his own behalf to his country's supreme court and
won acquittal in 1940. Remarkably, while Marcos was preparing his case in jail, he was studying
for the bar exam and became a trial lawyer in Manila subsequent to the acquittal. (It has been
reported that Marcos' freedom was abetted by Judge Ferdinand Chua, who was also believed by
some to be Marcos' actual biological father.)