THE FALL OF MARCOS: TWO DECADES AS PHILIPPINE CHIEF;

THE MARCOS YEARS: FROM VOW TO 'MAKE COUNTRY GREAT'

TO THE PUBLIC REVOLT

Ferdinand E. Marcos's departure from the Philippines yesterday put

an end to an era - the tumultuous two decades he spent as the
nation's President.

Mr. Marcos, now an ailing 68 years old, made a name for himself as
a brilliant, strong-willed lawyer, military man and Senator before he
was first elected President in 1965, taking command of the
Philippines' ramshackle but functioning democracy.

''Politics,'' he said early in his career, ''galvanizes into action all the
beautiful hopes that a man can nurture in his heart for his country
and for his nation. Politics is my life.''

Yet as his presidency unfolded, he imposed martial law in 1972 and

managed to retain broad powers after lifting it in 1981, including
the prerogative of governing by decree if he so desired.

Even so, Mr. Marcos's imposing presence, his ringing orator's voice,
his skilled sleight-of-hand with his Government, were not enough to
keep his power from shriveling in recent years. His health and
energy declined, the political opposition mounted and grew bolder,
and a Communist guerrilla movement spread through the
countryside. Economy Undermines Power

His popularity and prestige were partly undermined late in his

tenure by the Philippine economy, which appeared sputtering and
dilapidated when compared with the prosperity of such other Asian
countries as Singapore and Taiwan.

During his years in power, his critics charge, Philippine economic

development, despite some advances, fell far short of achieving the
potential of the country's fertile landscape and its energetic and
swiftly expanding population, now more than 50 million.

One reason for the economic shortfall, the critics contend, is that
his Government failed to plan effectively: it placed too much faith in
large business concerns that proved inefficient, and it left the
country too dependent on the production of basic commodities.
These critics also charge that the economy was sapped and
undercut by corruption on the part of Mr. Marcos and people close
to him.

Even before the Marcos era, Philippine politics were oligarchic and
elitist, largely dominated by families whose influence went back for
generations. Mr. Marcos was himself the son of a provincial political
strongman, and in his own heyday he made power and privilege in
his homeland even more dependent on personal ties. Reports of
Enormous Riches

Many of his associates grew richer and richer, profiting one way or
another from Government and personal ties. He and his wife,
Imelda, grew enormously rich, amassing, by some accounts,
hundreds of millions of dollars worth of real estate and antiques in
the New York area alone.

Yet besides buttressing Mr. Marcos's rule, the Filipino web of

dynastic ties eventually helped bring him down. After the
assassination of the main opposition leader, Benigno S. Aquino Jr.,
in 1983, his widow, Corazon C. Aquino - herself from a politically
powerful family - galvanized and focused the opposition by opposing
Mr. Marcos in the presidential election Feb. 7.

The election was held after Mr. Marcos had suggested that it be
scheduled early this year to give him, he said, a ''fresh mandate.''
That proved to be a politically fatal misstep.

His Government asserted that he outpolled Mrs. Aquino, but it was

widely accused of using fraud and violence to keep her from
winning. During the campaign, as before, Marcos supporters were
accused of bringing about the death of Mrs. Aquino's husband, and
doubts were cast on Mr. Marcos's description of his own guerrilla
heroism in World War II. Son of Former President
Mrs. Aquino's running mate, former Senator Salvador H. Laurel,
was himself heir to a powerful though controversial political
heritage as the son of Jose P. Laurel, who was the Philippines'
puppet President during the Japanese occupation in World War II.
Juan Ponce Enrile, the former Defense Minister who became one of
the two main leaders of the anti-Marcos rebellion that sprung up
last weekend, was a longtime political and business associate of Mr.
Marcos's entourage who had prospered in the coconut business.
It was a purported assassination plot in 1972 against Mr. Enrile,
then already his country's defense chief, that Mr. Marcos used as
his reason for declaring martial law, which was a key step in
enlarging his powers after he had been President for seven years.
Mr. Enrile acknowledged last weekend that the plot had been faked.

Mr. Marcos came to office in 1965 by defeating President Diosdado

Macapagal in an bitterly fought election that was largely swayed by
voters' resentment over high prices, agricultural problems and
criminality in Philippine life. Called Murderer and Thief
He won although President Macapagal called him a murderer - he
had earlier won acquittal in the murder of a political foe of his
father - as well as ''a thief, a swindler, a forger and a threat to the
country.''
As President, Mr. Marcos promised ''with the help of the masses to
make this country great again.'' He energetically set about slashing
the Government payroll, enhancing the rice supply and increasing
the construction of schools, highways, medical centers and the like.
He liked to speak of what he called the enterprising, diligent ''new
Filipino.''
''In all this part of the world,'' he said in those days, ''where will
democratic ways work if they fail here?'' Exhorting his followers, he
once said, ''Our nation can be great only according to the scale of
our own labors, our dedication, our self-abnegation.''

In the presidential election of 1969 -after which, as after numerous

elections down the years, there were various charges of cheating -
Mr. Marcos won 60 percent of the vote. He thereby became the first
President of the Philippines to win re-election since the country
gained its independence from the United States in 1946. Protests
and Insurgencies
Yet as his second term went on, he was beset by problems.
Agricultural issues festered; the sprawling capital, Manila, was
racked by student protests; Moslem rebels and other insurgents
prowled parts of the countryside.
Then, in late 1972, Mr. Marcos, after asserting that the Government
was not functioning properly, and after the purported attempt on
Mr. Enrile's life, declared martial law throughout the country.
Numbers of his political rivals and critics - including young people
and journalists - were arrested. Properties of his opponents,
including newspapers, television stations and business concerns,
were seized.
He also moved in other ways to build up his power, and in doing so
he later said he had been ''guided by God.'' He suspended the
Philippine Congress, built up the military establishment - a key
prop for his rule - and designated himself Prime Minister under a
new Constitution. Arrests continued in the succeeding years.

So effective were these measures that, in the later 1970's, when he

and his wife sat in public on matching high-backed gold throne
chairs, the chairs were widely seen as a symbol of the martial-law
Government. Charges of Vote Fraud
He repeatedly won high percentages of the vote in referendums he
called during martial law, but many Filipinos believed that the
number of votes cast for him had been fraudulently exaggerated.
On the internal-security front, he quelled the street demonstrations
and did away with numerous gangs and private armies by seizing
their weapons. In the economic sphere, he went forward with
public-works construction in addition to land redistribution, and
logged some other gains.
But critics reported that the business interests of members of the
Marcos circle flowered during martial law. A Marcos golf partner,
Herminio Disini, who was related by marriage to Mrs. Marcos,
advanced in five years from a tobacco-company post to the
proprietorship of a conglomerate with assets worth more than $500
million.

In 1981, the year that Mr. Marcos ended martial law, he also
stepped down as Prime Minister and won re-election as President
for the second time in a vote that was boycotted by his leading
political foes. The next Presidential election was scheduled to come
in 1987, until Mr. Marcos moved to have it this year instead. In
1981, he also made himself the head of his political party, the New
Society Movement, succeeding his wife. An Exile Is Killed
Nonetheless, as the 1980's went on, Mr. Marcos's rule was
increasingly buffeted by accusations and opposition. A turning
point came in 1983 with the slaying of Mr. Aquino - by a bullet to
the head - as he came back to Manila after spending years of self-
exile in the United States.
The killing, widely ascribed to the Marcos camp, touched off anti-
Marcos rioting that in turn shook the economy, alarming business
executives. In 1984, the opposition achieved gains in elections to
the National Assembly. Another potent factor working against Mr.
Marcos was opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, led by the
influential Jaime Cardinal Sin.
All the while, the Marcos Government's weaknesses were
underscored by the growth of the Communist insurgent movement,
which fed on mounting popular discontent - although leftist leaders
boycotted the presidential election earlier this month.
The Communist New People's Army is said to have as many as
30,000 members according to some estimates, far more people,
spread far more widely across the country, than it had when Mr.
Marcos took office. As President, Mr. Marcos argued that his rule
was necessary to confront the Communist insurgents, but his
critics abroad as well as at home came to contend that, to prevent
further Communist inroads, his tenure must be brought to an end.
Verdict in Aquino Slaying
Mr. Marcos's grip on his country was already too much weakened
by December 1985 to benefit from a court verdict in that month
that, after a protracted trial, found a score of defendants, mainly
military men, not guilty in Mr. Aquino's slaying. The verdict struck
many Filipinos as unjust and fueled popular discontent.
Late in 1985 the presidential campaign gave a forum for ringing
denunciations of Mr. Marcos's Government, with Mrs. Aquino
promising her supporters that she would gain justice for all of the
people she called the Government's victims, including her husband.
Then, after Mr. Marcos claimed victory in the election Feb. 7, his
grip was broken at last by a wave of outrage and disapproval that
had repercussions that swiftly brought him down.

Before long, the Reagan Administration accused Mr. Marcos of

fraud and called for his departure - despite the fact that the United
States had earlier showered him with support and compliments,
including praise by Vice President Bush at Mr. Marcos's last
inauguration in June 1981 for his ''adherence to democratic
principles.''
Meanwhile, Mr. Enrile and Lieut. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, the former
deputy Chief of Staff of the armed services, had mounted their
rebellion, which sent hundreds of thousands of ordinary Filipinos
surging into Manila's boulevards to support the rebels and
underscore demands that the Marcos era, at long last, must end.