READING IN PHILIPPINE

HISTORY

Submitted by: RONNA MAE ESTRADA

HRT1- BATCH1
Submitted to: CHRISTIAN APRIL ESTRERA
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. was a Filipino politician and lawyer who was the 10th
president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, widely considered by academics, economists, and
journalists as a kleptocrat. Wikipedia
Born: 11 September 1917, Sarrat
Died: 28 September 1989, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Presidential term: 30 December 1965 – 25 February 1986
Party: Kilusang Bagong Lipunan
Spouse: Imelda Marcos (m. 1954–1989)
Children: Bongbong Marcos, Imee Marcos, Irene Marcos, Aimee Marcos
Siblings: Pacifico Marcos, Elizabeth Marcos-Keon, Fortuna Marcos-Barba

Marcos gained political success by claiming to have been the "most decorated war hero in the
Philippines,"but many of his claims have been found to be false, with United States Army
documents describing his wartime claims as "fraudulent" and "absurd." After World War II, he
became a lawyer then served in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the
Philippine Senate from 1959 to 1965. He was elected the President of the Philippines in 1965 and
presided over an economy that grew during the beginning of his 20-year rule but would end in the
loss of livelihood, extreme poverty, and a crushing debt crisis.He pursued an aggressive program of
infrastructure development funded by foreign debt, making him popular during his first term,
although it would also trigger an inflationary crisis which would lead 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. The
Constitution was revised, media outlets were silenced,[49] and violence and oppression were used
against the political opposition, Muslims, suspected communists, and ordinary citizens.

He ruled as a dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981 and kept most of his martial law
powers until he was deposed in 1986, branding his rule as"constitutional authoritarianism" under
his New Society Movement. One of the most controversial leaders of the 20th century, Marcos' rule
was infamous for its corruption,extravagance,and brutality.
A Facebook post on the page “Pinoy Rap Radio” questioned the allegations of corruption against
former President Ferdinand Marcos. It claimed that succeeding administrations "could not show
proof" of the money that Marcos stole from the Filipino people.The graphic on the post, dated May
2014, starts a series of questions about Marcos and his wife Imelda with: “If Ferdinand Marcos stole
billions from Filipinos, why do the succeeding presidents after him can not show any proof at all?
How come Imelda won every corruption case that was thrown to her?”

The 4-year-old post has more than 331,000 shares, more than 38,000 comments, and more than
369,000 reactions as of this posting. It has been shared again publicly by some Facebook users in
recent days.
The facts: Imelda did not win every corruption case thrown at her. Apart from losing the recent
criminal case at the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan, she lost in a number of local and overseas cases
involving the loot she and her husband, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, amassed during their
rule from 1965 to 1986.
For instance, on December 21, 1990, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court affirmed a prosecutor's
findings that the Marcoses hid $356 million in Swiss banks through dubious foundations during their
two-decade rule. The money was then held in escrow by the Philippine National Bank in 1999.In
2003, the Supreme Court allowed the forfeiture of the money – which by then had grown to over
$658 million due to interests and other accrued amounts as of January 2002 – in favor of the
Philippine government.

In 1993, Imelda Marcos was convicted of two counts of graft over anomalous contracts involving a
lease between the Light Rail Transit Authority and the Philippine General Hospital Foundation. But
the Supreme Court acquitted her in 1998.In addition, since its inception in 1986 until 2015, the
Presidential Commission on Good Governance (PCGG) recovered more than P170 billion (over $3
billion in current peso-dollar exchange rates) of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.

When Cory Aquino stepped down after six years as the first woman president of the Philippines, she
was widely viewed as having made little impact on her country's deep-rooted social and economic
problems.
The moment of her departure from the presidency was a low point in her brief yet quite remarkable
political career, leaving as she did in an atmosphere of disenchantment and unrealised hopes. Yet
overall, she left a mark on the history of her troubled country, so deep and so lasting that her death
will bring a surge of emotion as the heady days of the short but memorable Aquino era are
reassessed.

As president of the Republic of the Philippines between 1986 and 1992, she led her country's
eventful transition from dictatorship to democracy. In a few turbulent years, she gained a
presidency which she had not wanted, and which came to her at the cost of the death of her
husband. She was thrust into power by his assassination and by the passion of the millions who
took to the streets to sweep away the regime of Ferdinand Marcos. But in office, she could not bring
the Philippines' military fully under control: a number of coups were launched against her, and
indeed she was succeeded by a general. But the Philippines never returned to the type of
dictatorship she displaced, and she won worldwide acclaim for her commitment to democracy.
When Marcos introduced martial law in 1972, Ninoy and others were thrown in prison on trumped-
up charges. In the seven years her husband spent in jail, Aquino came to the forefront, campaigning
against his imprisonment. Cory Aquino said: "I am not a hero. As a housewife, I stood by my
husband and never questioned his decision to stand alone against an arrogant dictatorship. I never
missed a chance to be with my husband when his jailers permitted it. I never chided him for the
troubles he brought on my family and their businesses." heart complaint, Marcos allowed the family
to travel to the US so that Ninoy could have triple-bypass surgery. After successful surgery, they
remained in America, Ninoy taking an academic post at Harvard.

After three years, however, he was persuaded by supporters to return to the Philippines to help lead
the opposition. Everyone knew his life was in danger, but few realised that assassins would strike so
quickly. Just minutes after his plane landed at the heavily guarded Manila International Airport in
August 1983, he was shot dead on the tarmac. Marcos protested his innocence of involvement in
the incident, but few believed him.