Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
During these early years of the Marcos presidency, before the madness of martial law,
First Lady Imelda (see box, p.443) busied herself with social welfare and cultural
projects that complemented Marcos's work in economics and foreign affairs.
Martial law
In 1969 Marcos became the first Filipino president to be re-elected for a
second term.
The country's problems, however, were grave. Poverty, social inequality and rural
stagnation were rife. Marcos was trapped between the entrenched oligarchy, which
controlled Congress, and a rising communist insurgency that traced its roots back to
the Huks (see p.442), fuelled mostly by landless, frustrated peasants led by the
articulate and patriarchal José Marie Sison (b.1939), who lives today in exile in the
Netherlands. The country was roiled by student, labour and peasant unrest, much of it
stoked by communists and their fledgling military wing, the
New People's Army
.
Marcos used the protests, and the spurious excuse of several attempts to liquidate him,
to perpetuate his hold on power. On September 21, 1972, he declared
martial law
,
arresting
Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino
(1932-83) and other opposition leaders. A curfew
was imposed and Congress was suspended. Marcos announced he was pioneering a
Third World approach to democracy through his “New Society” and his new political
party the New Society Movement. His regime became a byword for profligacy,
corruption and repression.
he
Mindanao
problem also festered. After the Jabidah Massacre in 1968, when
Filipino troops executed 28 Muslim recruits who refused to take part in a hopelessly
misconceived invasion of Sabah, Muslims took up arms against the government,
forming the
Moro National Liberation Front
(MNLF; see box, p.403). Marcos made few
real efforts to quell the insurgency in the south, knowing it would give him another
unassailable excuse for martial law. The US became worried that the longer Marcos's
excesses continued the faster the communist insurgency would spread, threatening
their military bases in the islands, which had long been of mutual benefit to both the
US and the Philippines.
The People Power Revolution (EDSA)
By the 1980s it looked as if Marcos would never relinquish power or martial law - with
his American allies seemingly unwilling or unable to influence the dictator, it took a
real ground-roots movement to oust him.
The revolution was sparked by the martyrdom of
Ninoy Aquino
, who by the spring of
1980 had been languishing in jail for seven years. Aquino was released from jail on
condition he went into exile in the US. In 1983 he decided to return and when he
emerged from his plane at Manila airport on August 21, 1983, he was assassinated. he
country was outraged. In a snap election called in panic by Marcos on February 7,
1986, the opposition united behind Aquino's widow,
Corazón Aquino
(1933-2009),
and her running mate Salvador Laurel. On February 25, both Marcos and Aquino
claimed victory and were sworn in at separate ceremonies. Aquino, known by the
people as Cory became a rallying point for change and was backed by the Catholic
Church in the form of
Archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin
(1928-2005), who urged people
to take to the streets; the
People Power Revolution
(also known as the EDSA
Revolution) had begun.
1965
1969
1972
1981
Ferdinand
Marcos becomes
president
Marcos is re-elected
amidst allegations of
electoral fraud
Marcos declares
martial law
Martial law is lifted;
Marcos wins presidential
elections again
