Plans in Perpetuity

During the 1965 election campaign of Marcos, to oust the former president
Diosdado P. Macapagal from the Malacanang, the slogan was known to be "Lis d’yan…
nakakahiya." (Get out…shame on you!) Now, as a president and a dictator, his unexpressed
motto was "Patayin mo muna ako.” (You will have to kill me first before I yield.) Expressing
that he will not yield his dictatorship, his power unless he is killed. In relevance to that, the
former Senator Jovito Salonga, a victim of the Plaza Miranda bombing, foretold to his co-
POSS team members (Salipada K. Pendatun, John H. Osmena, and Melanio T. Singson) that
Marcos will not leave the Malacanang, and will not relinquish his presidency. It is said that
Salonga had long observed it since the pre-election poll in 1971 and was definitely sure
about it when the 1973 elections came. 

From the very beginning, Marcos has planned and prepared to rule over the country
for the rest of his life at whatever cost it may need. Marcos' lifetime dictatorship, filled with
plunder, planned moral, political, and economic bankruptcy started on September 21, 1972,
the beginning of Martial law and the establishment of the so-called New Society. Marcos
was a smart politician, he did not act on impulses and always moved with a perfect and
advanced plan. The Martial law was just a part of the bigger plan to legally put himself, his
wife, Imelda, and his son, Ferdinand Jr. in power. Along with the plan of Martial law was the
need to control the Supreme court - to legalize his proclamation of indefinite Martial law,
indeed a very stunning evil work of the devil, according to Mijares. This plan devised by
Marcos was said to be in assisted by the Presidential Assistant De Vega, a graduate of
Political Science and a doctorate degree holder at the University of Hyderabad. The plan as
devised was included in Article XVII also known as the Transitory Provisions of the New
Constitution. According to Mijares, this was made solely for the creation of an Interim
National Assembly, (Interim Batasang Pambansa) a legislature that functioned as a
legislative advisory council to the President on legislative matters. 

From the very beginning, Marcos has planned and prepared to rule over the country
for the rest of his life at whatever cost it may need. Marcos' lifetime dictatorship, filled with
plunder, planned moral, political, and economic bankruptcy. The Martial law was just a part
of the bigger plan to legally put himself, his wife, Imelda, and his son, Ferdinand Jr. in power.

The creation of the Interim is to “prepare the country for an orderly shift from the
presidential to the parliamentary form of government.” Aside from some of the most
"radical" Convention Delegates like Jose Mari Velez, Enrique Voltaire Garcia III, Napoleon
Rama, Francisco “Soc'' Rodrigo, Ernesto Rondon, Jose Nolledo, Jose Calderon, Teopisto
Guingona, and Sedfrey Ordonez, others are already sufficiently tamed with bribes such as
money and appointments in some of the new offices under the New Constitution. It is also
said that many people that are hostile to the then-president Marcos were arrested in
January 1973. All of them are proven to have no charges but still, they were kept inside the
prison. But there are common things from these people aside from their unfavorability to
Marcos, but they also rejected the Martial Law constitution in December 1972. 

On November 30, 1972, The New Constitution was enacted by the convention and so
the no-good delegates consisting of congressmen, senators, mayors, and governors of the
1969 and 1971 elections, had campaigned for the ratification of the Martial law. It was then
Marcos told them that everything is ready to call the plebiscite on the new Charter. It was
obvious that more than anyone, that it was Marcos, and the military that were more than
interested for the New Constitution to be approved. It was mainly because the New
constitution is a way to legitimize martial law’s proclamations, decrees, general orders, and
letters of instructions. Still, due to the closure of the congress, many senators and
congressmen were still sulking.