Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos was the tenth president of the Philippines, serving from 1965 to 1986 — the last fourteen years as a dictator. A lawyer and wartime guerrilla (though his wartime record was later exposed as largely fabricated), he was elected president in 1965 on a reformist platform and re-elected in 1969. Facing term limits in 1972, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, citing the communist New People's Army insurgency and a manufactured assassination attempt on Defence Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile. He abolished Congress, arrested opposition leaders including Benigno Aquino Jr., and ruled by decree. The Marcos regime became a byword for kleptocracy: by conservative estimates, he and his wife Imelda embezzled between $5 billion and $10 billion from the Philippine state, while Imelda's extravagance — including 3,000 pairs of shoes — became a global symbol of elite excess. The regime was sustained by US support as a bulwark against communism and as host to Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station. The assassination of Benigno Aquino on the tarmac of Manila airport in 1983 galvanised opposition. Snap elections called in February 1986 produced a fraud-riddled Marcos 'victory' that triggered the People Power Revolution — four days of mass peaceful protest — and military defections that ended his rule. He fled to Hawaii, where he died in 1989.
- Lived: 1917 CE – 1989 CE
- Nationality: Filipino
- Roles: dictator, president, head_of_state
