FERDINAND MARCOS: HIS LIFE, LIES, EDUCATION, WAR RECORD, POLITICAL RISE

FERDINAND MARCOS

Marcos as a senator during the 4th Congress

Ferdinand Marcos was the president of the Philippines from 1966 to 1986. He was initially a reformer and anti-colonial independence fighter. But after he became president he became increasingly dictatorial and corrupt and by the time he was thrown out of power he was considered by many to be the greatest kleptocrat of all time. In the presidential election of 1965, as the Nacionalista candidate, Marcos triumphed over the previous president Diosdado Macapagal. He then dominated the political scene for the next two decades, first as an elected president in 1965 and 1969, and then as a virtual dictator after his 1972 proclamation of martial law.

Eric Pace wrote in the New York Times, “Ferdinand E. Marcos was as tough as he was debonair, and he came to rule the Philippines with an iron hand before popular unrest forced him to flee in 1986 after two decades in power. Mr. Marcos was first elected President in 1965 and converted his country's sputtering democratic system into a personal fief, with his luxury-loving wife, Imelda, as virtual co-ruler. He came to control most of the apparatus of power and acquired the right to rule by decree. For most of that time, he had the firm support of the United States.” [Source: Eric Pace, New York Times, September 29, 1989 ]

“A skillful lawyer and orator, Mr. Marcos entered public life in 1949 and served successively as a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, Senator and president of the Senate before he was first elected President in 1965. He was re-elected in 1969, later proclaimed that the governmental machinery was not operating and set about transforming it. He entrenched himself as the Philippines' autocratic ruler during the nine years, from 1972 to 1981, in which he imposed martial law. He held on to sweeping powers afterward, and his regal manner and sumptuous way of life seemed to enhance his authority over his poverty-plagued, largely rural nation. independent in 1946.

Marcos became President after the 1965 elections. He was reelected in 1969 with a record majority. During his first term, Ferdinand Marcos launched major public works projects that improved infrastructure and quality of life while rewarding political allies. His promised land reform was not seriously pursued to avoid angering powerful landowners. He sought strong economic and military support from the United States and kept Philippine involvement in the Second Indochina War limited. In 1967, the Philippines became a founding member of ASEAN. After his reelection in 1969, Marcos soon faced economic decline, rising crime, and growing unrest. A renewed communist insurgency led by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, emerged, while the Moro National Liberation Front began fighting in Muslim regions. Political violence increased, prompting Marcos to suspend habeas corpus and eventually declare martial law in 1972. Martial law lasted until 1981. Although Marcos promoted the idea of a “New Society,” his regime became associated with widespread corruption involving his cronies and his wife, Imelda Marcos. Despite lifting martial law and proclaiming a “New Republic” in 1981, little changed politically, and Marcos easily secured reelection with continued U.S. support.

Early Life and Family of Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Marcos (right) with his family in the 1920s

Ferdinand Edralin Marcos was born on September 11, 1917 in the town of Sarrat in a rice- and tobacco-growing area in Ilocos Norte in northwestern Luzon. a traditionally poor and clannish region. He was first baptized into the Philippine Independent Church but when he was three he was baptized in Roman Catholic Church. His father, Mariano R. Marcos, was a politician and educator. His mother, the former Josefa Edralin, was a teacher from a well-to-do landowning family. [Source: Eric Pace, New York Times, September 29, 1989 ]

Mariano Marcos served as a congressman from Ilocos Norte in the Philippines. He was executed by Filipino guerrillas in 1945 for being a Japanese propagandist and collaborator during World War II. His remains were left hanging on a tree after he was drawn and quartered with the use of carabaos. Josefa Marcos lived until 1988, one year before Ferdinand's death and two years after the Marcos family fled into exile following the 1986 People Power Revolution. [Source: Wikipedia]

Marcos claimed to be a descendant of Antonio Luna, a Filipino general during the Philippine–American War, a claim since debunked by genealogist Mona Magno-Veluz. He also claimed that his ancestor was Limahong, a 16th-century pirate who raided the coasts of the South China Sea. He is a Chinese mestizo descendant.

Marcos's Education

Ferdinand Marcos completed his primary education at Sarrat Elementary School in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte and Shamrock Elementary School in Laoag. The Marcos family moved to Manila in 1925, and Marcos attended and Ermita Elementary School in Manila. He graduated from secondary school in 1934 at the University of the Philippines High School and later enrolled at the University of the Philippines in Manila, where he first earned a liberal arts degree before studying law. [Source: Wikipedia, New York Times]

Marcos studied law at the University of the Philippines, attending the prestigious College of Law. He excelled in both curricular and extra-curricular activities. He graduated cum laude despite the fact that he was incarcerated while reviewing; had he not been in jail for 27 days, he would have graduated magna cum laude.

Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos with their kids at Ortega before they moved to Malacañang in 1965.

In the 1939 Bar Examinations, Marcos achieved one of the highest scores, earning 92.35 percent. He was inducted into the Pi Gamma Mu and Phi Kappa Phi international honor societies, later receiving Phi Kappa Phi’s Most Distinguished Member Award. In 1967, Central Philippine University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree.

Marcos's Interests, Personal Life and Character

At the University of the Philippines College of Law, Marcos participated in swimming, boxing, and wrestling, and gained recognition as an orator, debater, and writer for the student newspaper. During this time, he joined Upsilon Sigma Phi, forming connections with future political allies and critics. Marcos was also active in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), serving as a battalion commander and earning a commission as a third lieutenant in the Philippine Constabulary Reserve. He competed on the university’s rifle team and became a national rifle champion.

Marcos lived with his common-law wife, Carmen Ortega, an Ilocana mestiza and 1949 Miss Press Photography winner. She was a teenager when they met and had three children and lived at 204 Ortega Street in San Juan for about two years. In August 1953, the couple's engagement was announced in Manila newspapers. Not much is known about what happened to Ortega and their children. Marcos subsequently converted to Catholicism to marry Imelda Trinidad Romualdez on April 17, 1954, just 11 days after they first met. They had three biological children: Imee, Bongbong, and Irene Marcos. Marcos's fourth child with Ortega was born after his marriage to Imelda. Marcos and Imelda later adopted a daughter, Aimee. Marcos had an affair with American actress Dovie Beams from 1968 to 1970. According to reports by the Sydney Morning Herald, Marcos also had an affair with former Playboy model Evelin Hegyesi around 1970 and fathered a daughter with her named Analisa Josefa. [Source: Wikipedia]

Sterling Seagrave's book “The Marcos Dynasty” mentions that Marcos possessed a phenomenal memory and exhibited this by memorizing complicated texts and reciting them forward and backward, even such as the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, in an interview with the Philippine Star on March 25, 2012, shared her experience as a speech writer to President Marcos: "One time, the Secretary of Justice forgot to tell me that the President had requested him to draft a speech that the President was going to deliver before graduates of the law school. And then, on the day the President was to deliver the speech, he suddenly remembered because Malacañang was asking for the speech, so he said, 'This is an emergency. You just have to produce something.' And I just dictated the speech. He liked long speeches. I think that was 20 or 25 pages. And then, in the evening, I was there, of course. President Marcos recited the speech from memory."

Robert Trent Jones Jr., an American golf course designer, told the New York Times, “"I'd built six courses in the Philippines, and Marcos cheated on every one of them to keep a phony 7 handicap. He used barefoot caddies, who curled their toes around his bad lies and moved the ball into the fairway." [Source: A. Craig Copetas, New York Times, January 15, 2005]

Marcos Charged with Murder

Marcos during World War II

While still a student at the University of the Philippines, Marcos became embroiled in a sensational murder case involving Julio Nalundasan, a political rival of his father, Mariano Marcos. Nalundasan, a lawyer and politician, was shot and killed at his home in Batac on September 21, 1935, one day after defeating Mariano Marcos for a second time in a National Assembly election. [Source: New York Times, Wikipedia]

In December 1938, Ferdinand Marcos, his father Mariano, his relatives Pio Marcos and Quirino Lizardo were charged with conspiring to assassinate Nalundasan. Two witnesses claimed the four had planned the killing, with Ferdinand allegedly firing the fatal shot. Evidence presented at trial included a rifle linked to the University of the Philippines ROTC armory, to which Marcos had access as a member of the university rifle team and a national rifle champion. In 1939, Ferdinand and Lizardo were convicted of murder, while Mariano and Pio were found guilty of contempt. Ferdinand received a prison sentence.

Marcos appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court of the Philippines. In a decision written by Justice Jose P. Laurel, the Court overturned the lower court’s ruling on October 22, 1940, acquitting Marcos and the others of all charges except contempt. After his release, Marcos joined his father’s law practice in Manila and began his career as a trial lawyer.

Questions About Marcos’s World War II Accomplishments

Marcos built much of his early political image on claims of extraordinary heroism during World War II, describing himself as the “most decorated war hero in the Philippines.” Later, United States Army documents described his claims as "fraudulent" and "absurd". During World War II, Marcos served in the Battle of Bataan and then claimed to have led a 9,000-man guerrilla unit called Ang Mahárlika (Tagalog, "The Noble") in northern Luzon. Like many other aspects of his life, Marcos's war record, and the large number of United States and Philippine military medals that he claimed (at one time including the Congressional Medal of Honor), came under embarrassing scrutiny during the last years of his presidency. His stories of wartime gallantry, which were inflated by the media into a personality cult during his years in power, enthralled not only Filipino voters but also American presidents and members of Congress. [Source: Library of Congress]

Pace wrote: “In World War II, he was a much-decorated officer in both the Philippine and United States Armies. The decorations that Mr. Marcos claimed to have earned for military service against the Japanese became a campaign issue four decades later, when Mrs. Aquino denounced what she called his ''false medals.'' The Government's count of his war decorations ranged from 26 to 33. When their validity was challenged by American and Philippine journalists, his Government argued that documentation of his exploits as a wounded army officer and guerrilla leader had been destroyed by fire.”

In 1986, research by historian Alfred W. McCoy into United States Army records showed most of Marcos's medals to be fraudulent. According to Dr. Ricardo Jose, former chairman of the Department of History of the University of the Philippines, Marcos's claims in his self-commissioned autobiography Marcos of the Philippines that Gen. Douglas MacArthur pinned on him the Distinguished Service Cross medal for delaying Japanese at Bataan for 3 months was highly improbable. In fact, his father Mariano Marcos was a known Japanese collaborator who was executed by Filipino guerillas in April 1945, and the younger Marcos was accused by some guerillas of being a collaborator as well. [Source: Wikipedia]

Scrutiny of Marco’s World War II Record

While studying at the University of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos was called to active duty with the U.S. Armed Forces in the Far East after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Assigned to the G-2 (Intelligence) section of General Mateo Capinpin’s 21st Infantry Division in Bataan, he served as a third lieutenant during the 1941–42 campaign. Marcos claimed he single-handedly stopped the advance of the Japanese on April 2. Official battle reports from April 2, 1942, however, do not mention Marcos playing a decisive role in halting Japanese advances, and fellow officers later disputed claims that he had commanded front-line units. After the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942, he was among the thousands of Filipino and American troops who surrendered and endured the Bataan Death March.

Marcos later stated that he was released from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on August 4, 1942. This claim became controversial when Japanese records indicated that prisoners freed at that time were typically those in poor health or those whose families had cooperated with Japanese authorities. His name did not appear on published lists of seriously ill prisoners. Subsequent reports suggested that his father, Mariano Marcos, had worked as a propagandist for the Japanese during the occupation and was later executed by anti-Japanese guerrillas in 1945 for alleged collaboration.

Following his release, Marcos claimed that he organized and led a guerrilla force in northern Luzon called Ang Mahárlika, which he said numbered about 9,000 men. U.S. military investigations conducted during and after the war cast serious doubt on these assertions, finding many of his claims unsupported or inaccurate. Requests he later made for recognition of thousands of supposed guerrilla fighters under his command, as well as for back pay and reparations, were investigated by U.S. authorities and reportedly deemed fraudulent.

Ferdinand Marcos’s Political Career

In 1946 and 1947, Mr. Marcos was special assistant to President Manuel Roxas. He was a member of the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and of the Senate from 1959 to 1966, serving as president of the Senate from 1963 to 1965. His 1954 marriage to former beauty queen Imelda Romualdez provided him with a photogenic partner and skilled campaigner. She also had family connections with the powerful Romualdez political dynasty of Leyte in the Visayas. *

Marcos reportedly made his first million as a first-term congressman in 1949 and 1950 selling import licenses. He bought a Cadillac to celebrate his new status. Before then there was no outward indication of any wealth. When Marcos courted Imelda in 1954 the story goes that he brought her to a bank vault and showed her stacks of hundred-dollar bills but no gold bars. He didn't open his first bank account abroad until 1967. [Source: Charlie Avila's Marcos Chronology Report, bibliotecapleyades.net]

When the Philippines was granted independence on July 4, 1946 by the American government, the Philippine Congress was established. Marcos ran and was three times elected as representative of the 2nd district of Ilocos Norte, 1949–1959. He was named chairman of the House Committee on Commerce and Industry and member of the Defense Committee headed by Ramon Magsaysay. He was chairman, House Neophytes Bloc in which (President) Diosdado Macapagal, (Vice President) Emmanuel Pelaez and (Manila Mayor) Arsenio J. Lacson were members. He was also a member of the House Committee on Industry; LP spokesman on economic matters; member, Special Committee on Import and Price Controls and on Reparations; House Committees on Ways and Means, Banks Currency, War Veterans, Civil Service, Corporations and Economic Planning; and the House Electoral Tribunal. [Source: Wikipedia +]

Marcos won his senate seat in the elections in 1959 and became the Senate minority floor leader in 1960. He became the executive vice president of the Liberal Party in and served as the party president from 1961–1964; Senate President, 1963–1965. During his term as Senate President, former Defense Secretary Eulogio B. Balao was also closely working with Marcos. Marcos led a controversial political career both before and after his term as Senate President. He became Senator after he served as member of the House of Representatives for three terms, then later as Minority Floor Leader before gaining the Senate Presidency. He introduced a number of significant bills, many of which found their way into the Republic statute books. +

Marcos ran for president in 1965 on a popular campaign as being a bemedalled anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter during World War II. By the mid 60's Marcos touted himself to be the most decorated guerilla leader of World War II, having been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart among his many medals. +

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Library of Congress, Philippines Department of Tourism, Philippines government websites, Encyclopedia.com, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wikipedia, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings, 1993, UNESCO, National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) the official government agency for culture in the Philippines), Lonely Planet Guides, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, The Conversation, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Google AI, and various websites, books and other publications.

Last updated February 2026