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First term of the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos

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Marcos in 1966
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about
Ferdinand Marcos

Presidency

First term
Second term
Martial law
Third and fourth terms

Family

Unexplained wealth

Legacy

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President of the Philippines

Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated to his first term as the 10th president of the Philippines on December 30, 1965. His inauguration marked the beginning of his two-decade long stay in power, even though the 1935 Philippine Constitution had set a limit of only two four-year terms of office. Marcos had won the Philippine presidential election of 1965 against the incumbent president, Diosdado Macapagal.

Before Marcos's Presidency, the Philippines was the second largest economy in Asia, behind only Japan.[1] He pursued an aggressive program of infrastructure development funded by foreign loans,[1] making him very popular throughout almost all of his first term and eventually making him the first and only President of the Third Philippine republic to win a second term, although it would also trigger an inflationary crisis which would lead to social unrest in his second term, and would eventually lead to his declaration of Martial Law in 1972.[2][3]

1965 Election Campaign

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Ferdinand Marcos always had the ambition to be the President of the Philippines. In his campaign for the 1949 elections, he declared that if he would be elected as congressman, he promise to have an Ilocano president in 20 years' time.[4] Marcos slowly ascended into power and then attempted to run as president in 1961, but he lost to Macapagal in the nominations.[5]

At the time of the 1965 elections, Marcos was a member of the Liberal Party (LP), becoming Senate President during Macapagal's term. Marcos found his ambitions to run for president blocked for a second time when Macapagal decided to run for a second term, so Marcos jumped from the LP to the Nacionalista Party (NP), eventually becoming the NP's candidate for president, winning against Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez in the NP nominations for the presidency.[6]

An acknowledged "master of populist imagery", Marcos projected a persona of youth and virility, having himself photographed by rice farmers in their fields.[7] He also cast himself as a war hero, claiming to be the "most decorated war hero of the Philippines" on the strength of 27 supposed war medals and decorations which were later revealed to be mostly propaganda,[8] being inaccurate or untrue.[9][10][11]

Marcos won the election with 51.94% of the vote, Macapagal having garnered 42.88% while Raul Manglapus of the Party for Philippine Progress got 5.17%. About 0.01%. of the votes went to nine other candidates who ran for the post under various independent parties.[12]

Inauguration

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President-elect Marcos (right) is received by outgoing President Diosdado Macapagal (left) at the Malacañang Palace Music Room.
Marcos presidential inauguration in 1965

Marcos was inaugurated on Thursday, December 30, 1965 at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.[13] The inauguration marked the beginning of the first four-year term of Ferdinand Marcos as President and second four-year term of Fernando Lopez as Vice President. The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines César Bengzon.

Prior to the inaugural ceremony, President-elect Marcos met with outgoing President Diosdado Macapagal, whom he defeated in the 1965 election, at the Malacañang Palace. After briefly praying together at the Malacañang chapel, they proceeded to the Quirino Grandstand for the military honors. After which, Macapagal returned to Malacañang. Manila Archbishop Rufino Cardinal Santos led the invocation, followed by the oath taking of Vice President-elect Fernando Lopez and President-elect Marcos administered by Chief Justice César Bengzon. Marcos swore his oath on two closed family Bibles, one owned by his father Mariano and another given by his wife Imelda;[14] one of the Bibles would later be used by his son Ferdinand Jr. in his inauguration in 2022.[15] Marcos then delivered his inaugural speech.[16]

Administration and cabinet

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Main article: List of cabinets of the Philippines § Ferdinand Marcos (1965–1986)

Upon winning the election, Marcos appointed a cabinet composed mostly of technocrats and intellectuals, most notably Executive Secretary Rafael Salas, Education Secretary Onofre Corpuz, Finance Secretary Cesar Virata, and National Economic and Development Authority Director General Gerardo Sicat.[7]

Agricultural and rural development projects

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See also: IR8

In an effort to strengthen the influence of the Office of the President and simultaneously weaken the strong patronage bonds which rural Filipinos had with their local leaders, Marcos created the Presidential Arm on Community Development (PACD), which would initiate development projects at the barrio level without going through the Barrio and Municipal governments.[7]

Marcos also took credit for the dramatic increase in rice production caused by the 1968 introduction of a new "miracle rice" variety, IR8, by the International Rice Research Institute in Los Baños, Laguna - although the IRRI program that developed the variety had started as early as 1962, during the Macapagal administration, and was the product of an International consortium, not the Philippine government.[17]

Formation of Industrial Monopolies

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Main articles: Monopolies in the Philippines (1965–1986) and Cronies of Ferdinand Marcos

During this first term, Marcos also began systematically cultivating a group entrepreneurs and industrialists loyal to him, rather than the Philippines' ruling class of landowners, making these cronies richer and more powerful through what would later be called "behest loans", which funnelled foreign assistance and "soft loans" to their businesses on the pretense of spurring industrial development.[7]

Expansion of the Philippine Military

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One of Marcos's earliest initiatives upon becoming president was to significantly expand the Philippine Military. In an unprecedented move, Marcos chose to concurrently serve as his own Defense Secretary, allowing him to have a direct hand in running the Military.[7] He also significantly increased the budget of the armed forces, tapping them in civil projects such as the construction of schools. Generals loyal to Marcos were allowed to stay in their positions past their retirement age, or were rewarded with civilian government posts, leading Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. to accuse Marcos in 1968 of trying to establish "a garrison state."[18]

Sending troops to the Vietnam War

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Under intense pressure from the administration of Lyndon B. Johnson,[19] Marcos reversed his pre-presidency position of not sending Philippine forces to Vietnam War,[20] and consented to a limited involvement,[21] asking Congress to approve sending a combat engineer unit. Despite opposition to the new plan, the Marcos government gained Congressional approval and Philippine troops were sent from the middle of 1966 as the Philippines Civic Action Group (PHILCAG). PHILCAG reached a strength of some 1,600 troops in 1968 and between 1966 and 1970 over 10,000 Filipino soldiers served in South Vietnam, mainly being involved in civilian infrastructure projects.[22]

Loans for Infrastructure Development

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Main article: Edifice complex

With an eye towards becoming the first president of the third republic to be reelected to a second term, the Marcos administration began taking up massive foreign loans to fund "rice, roads, and schoolbuildings" - the lynchpin slogan of his reelection campaign. The Omnibus Tax Law of 1969 was passed too late by congress to be useful to Marcos's publicity efforts, and at any rate, did not succeed in raising significant new funds. So it was foreign loans that funded the 70% increase in infrastructure spending from 1966 to 1970 (compared to the Macapagal administration's spending from 1961 to 1965) which included the North Luzon Expressway and the Maharlika Highway, and the construction of 58, 745 pre-fabricated and 38,705 regular schoolbuildings. The first Marcos administration's budget deficit was thus 72% higher than the Philippine government's annual deficit from 1961 to 1965.[7]

This began a pattern of loan-funded spending which the Marcos administration would continue until the Marcoses were deposed in 1986, resulting in economic instability still being felt today, and of debts that experts say the Philippines will have to keep paying well into 2025. The grandest infrastructure projects of Marcos's first term, especially the Cultural Center of the Philippines complex, also marked the beginning of what critics would call Ferdinand Marcos and First Lady Imelda Marcos's Edifice complex, with grand public infrastructures projects prioritized for public funding because of their propaganda value.

Jabidah exposé and Muslim reactions

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Main articles: Jabidah massacre and Moro conflict

In March 1968 a Muslim man named Jibin Arula was fished out of the waters of Manila Bay, having been shot. He was brought to then-Cavite Governor Delfin N. Montano, to whom he recounted the story of the Jabidah Massacre, saying that numerous Moro army recruits had been executed en-masse by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on March 18, 1968.[23] This became the subject of a senate exposé by opposition Senator Benigno Aquino Jr.[24][25]

Although the lack of living witnesses other than Arula severely hampered the probes on the incident, it became a major flashpoint that ignited the Moro insurgency in the Philippines.[26] Despite undergoing numerous trials and hearings, none of the officers implicated in the massacre were ever convicted, leading many Filipino Muslims to believe that the "Christian" government in Manila had little regard for them.[27][28] This created a furor within the Muslim community in the Philippines, especially among the educated youth,[29] and among Muslim intellectuals, who had no discernible interest in politics prior to the incident.[26] Educated or not, the story of the Jabidah massacre led many Filipino Muslims to believe that all opportunities for integration and accommodation with the Christians were lost and further marginalised.[30]

This eventually led to the formation of the Mindanao Independence Movement in 1968, the Bangsamoro Liberation Organization (BMLO) in 1969, and the consolidation of these various forces into the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in October 1972.[31]

Re-election Campaign, 1969

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Main article: Ferdinand Marcos presidential campaign, 1969

When the time came for the Philippine Presidential election of 1969, it was taken for granted that Ferdinand Marcos and Fernando Lopez would be unanimously nominated as the respective presidential and vice presidential candidates of the Nacionalista party. Nevertheless, the party's ruling junta met in Makati a week earlier before the July 1969 Nacionalista Party National Convention at the Manila Pavilion, in order to assure that the nomination would be unanimous. The duo went against the Liberal Party's candidates, Sergio Osmena, Jr and Genaro Magsaysay.

With his popularity already beefed up by debt-funded spending, Marcos's popularity made it very likely that he would win the election, but he decided, as National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin reported in the Philippines Free Press, "leave nothing to chance." Time and Newsweek would eventually call the 1969 election the "dirtiest, most violent and most corrupt" in Philippine modern history, with the term "Three Gs", meaning "guns, goons, and gold"[32][33] coined[34] to describe administration's election tactics of vote-buying, terrorism and ballot snatching.[35]

Marcos used the military and the government bureaucracy for his campaign,[7] and also went on a campaign spending spree, initiating US$50 million worth in infrastructure projects meant to impress the electorate.[36]

The most infamous incidents of violence took place in Batanes, where Philippine Constabulary officers, paramilitary groups and hired guns essentially took over the island, and motorcycle-riding thugs rode around terrorizing voters and Comelec officials, and beating up opposition leaders.[7]

Rapid campaign spending was so massive that it would be responsible for the Balance of Payments Crisis of 1970. Marcos was reported to have spent PhP 100 for every PhP 1 that Osmena spent, using up PhP 24 Million in Cebu alone.[35] By the following year, however, the government would be unable to pay its debts, and would decide to enter into a debt rescheduling arrangement plan with the International Monetary Fund. The stabilization plan involved in the agreement included numerous macroeconomic interventions, such as significantly devaluating the Philippine Peso. However, the inflationary effect these interventions had on the local economy brought about the social unrest which motivated the proclamation of Martial Law in 1972.[2][3][37]

The 1969 elections were held on November 11, and Marcos won an unprecedented second full term as President of the Philippines. His running mate, incumbent Vice President Fernando Lopez was also elected to a third full term as Vice President of the Philippines.

References

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  1. ^ a b Galang, Ping (February 21, 2011). "The economic decline that led to Marcos' fall". GMANetwork.com. Archived from the original on May 29, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  2. ^ a b Balbosa, Joven Zamoras (1992). "IMF Stabilization Program and Economic Growth: The Case of the Philippines". Journal of Philippine Development. XIX (35).
  3. ^ a b Cororaton, Cesar B. "Exchange Rate Movements in the Philippines". DPIDS Discussion Paper Series 97-05: 3, 19.
  4. ^ Pacete, Ver F. (September 20, 2018). "Pacete: Marcos and his Martial Law". Sunstar. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  5. ^ Benigno, Teodoro C. "Doy on Macoy / Yorac in this corner!". Philstar.com. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
  6. ^ Pe, Roger (July 3, 2016). "Turncoatism in PH". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Magno, Alexander R., ed. (1998). "Democracy at the Crossroads". Kasaysayan, The Story of the Filipino People Volume 9:A Nation Reborn. Hong Kong: Asia Publishing Company Limited.
  8. ^ Primitivo, Mijares (2017). The conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos: revised and annotated (Revised ed.). Quezon City. pp. 246–254. ISBN 978-971-550-781-3. OCLC 988749288.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Bondoc, Jarius (April 28, 2011). "Marcos medals: Only 2 of 33 given in battle". Global Balita. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  10. ^ Reaves, Joseph A. (September 29, 1989). "Marcos Was More Than Just Another Deposed Dictator". Chicago Tribune.
  11. ^ "US Department of Defense official database of Distinguished Service Cross recipients".
  12. ^ "Results of the Past Presidential & Vice-Presidential Elections". The Philippine Presidency Project. Archived from the original on August 24, 2007.
  13. ^ Inaugural Address of President Marcos, December 30, 1965 (Speech). Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. December 30, 1965. Retrieved June 2, 2023.
  14. ^ Baclig, Cristina Eloisa (June 21, 2022). "Presidential inaugurations: Traditions, rituals, trivia". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  15. ^ Bajo, Anna Felicia (July 1, 2022). "Bible in Bongbong's inauguration same one used by Marcos Sr. in 1965". GMA News Online. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  16. ^ "Journal". 42 (1). American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines. January 1966. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  17. ^ "IR8: Rice that Changed the World". IRRI.org. International Rice Research Institute. November 2016. Retrieved October 19, 2017.
  18. ^ "PHL marks 29th anniversary of Aquino's assassination on Tuesday". Office of the President of the Philippines. August 20, 2012. Archived from the original on February 8, 2016.
  19. ^ McMahon, Robert J.; Mcmahon, Robert (1999). The Limits of Empire: The United States and Southeast Asia Since World War II. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-10881-2.
  20. ^ Tan, Michael L. (June 3, 2005). "PH-Vietnam ties". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved May 28, 2018.
  21. ^ Agoncillo, Teodoro (1990) [1960]. History of the Filipino People (8th ed.). Quezon City: Garotech Publishing Inc. pp. 508–510. ISBN 971-10-2415-2.
  22. ^ Larsen, Stanley Robert; Collins, James Lawton Jr. (2005) [1985]. "Chapter III: The Philippines". Allied Participation in Vietnam (PDF). U.S. Department of the Army. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013.
  23. ^ Marites Dañguilan Vitug; Glenda M. Gloria (March 18, 2013). "Jabidah and Merdeka: The inside story". Rappler. Archived from the original on September 13, 2015. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
  24. ^ Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. (March 28, 1968). "Jabidah! Special Forces of Evil?". Delivered at the Legislative Building, Manila, on 28 March 1968. Government of the Philippines.
  25. ^ Nasser A. Marohomsalic (2001). Aristocrats of the Malay Race: A Historic of the Bangsa Moro in the Philippines. N.A. Marohomsalic.
  26. ^ a b T. J. S. George (1980). Revolt in Mindanao: The Rise of Islam in Philippine Politics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-580429-4.
  27. ^ William Larousse (2001). A Local Church Living for Dialogue: Muslim-Christian Relations in Mindanao-Sulu, Philippines: 1965–2000. Gregorian Biblical BookShop. ISBN 978-88-7652-879-8.
  28. ^ Cesar Adib Majul (October 1985). The contemporary Muslim movement in the Philippines. Mizan Press. ISBN 978-0-933782-16-7.
  29. ^ Macapado Abaton Muslim; Philippines. Office of the President; Mindanao State University. College of Public Affairs (1994). The Moro armed struggle in the Philippines: the nonviolent autonomy alternative. Office of the President and College of Public Affairs, Mindanao State University. ISBN 978-971-11-1130-4.
  30. ^ Paul J. Smith (March 26, 2015). Terrorism and Violence in Southeast Asia: Transnational Challenges to States and Regional Stability: Transnational Challenges to States and Regional Stability. Taylor & Francis. pp. 5–. ISBN 978-1-317-45886-9.
  31. ^ Yegar, Moshe (2002). Between Integration and Secession: The Muslim Communities of the Southern Philippines, Southern Thailand and Western Burma/Myanmar. Lexington Books. pp. 267–268.
  32. ^ Parsa, Misagh (August 17, 2000). States, Ideologies, and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-77430-7.
  33. ^ Patrick Patino & Djorina Velasco (2004). "Election Violence in the Philippines" (PDF). FES Philippine Office.
  34. ^ "Editorial: Protecting the vote". Sunstar. February 29, 2016. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  35. ^ a b Conrado., De Quiros (1997). Dead aim: how Marcos ambushed Philippine democracy. Foundation for Worldwide People Power (Manila, Philippines). Pasig: Foundation for Worldwide People's Power. ISBN 971-91670-3-3. OCLC 39051509.
  36. ^ Burton, Sandra (1989). Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, the Aquinos, and the Unfinished Revolution. Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-51398-9.
  37. ^ Dohner, Robert; Intal, Ponciano (1989). "Debt Crisis and Adjustment in the Philippines". In Sachs, Jeffrey D. (ed.). Developing country debt and the world economy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-73338-6. OCLC 18351577.
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