Today in History- December 30th
MARCOS INAUGURATED:
December 30, 1965
Former Philippines Senate president Ferdinand Marcos is inaugurated president of
the Southeast Asian archipelago nation. Marcos' regime would span 20 years and
become increasingly authoritarian and corrupt.Ferdinand Marcos was a law student
in the late 1930s, when he was tried for the assassination of a political
opponent of his politician father. Convicted in 1939, he personally appealed the
case before the Philippine Supreme Court and won an acquittal. During the
Japanese occupation in World War II, he allegedly served as leader of the
Filipino resistance movement, but U.S. government records indicate he played
little role in anti-Japanese activities.In 1949, he was elected to the
Philippines House of Representatives, thanks in large part to his fabricated
wartime record. In 1959, he moved up to the Senate and from 1963 to 1965 served
as Senate president. In 1965, he broke with the Liberal Party after failing to
win his party's presidential nomination and ran as the candidate of the
Nationalist Party. After a bitter and decisive campaign, he was elected
president. In 1969, he was reelected.Marcos' second term was marked by
increasing civil strife and violence by leftist insurgents. In 1972, following a
series of bombings in Manila, he warned of an imminent communist takeover and
declared martial law. In 1973, he assumed dictatorship powers under a new
constitution. Marcos used the military to suppress subversive elements but also
arrested and jailed his mainstream political opponents. His anti-communist
activities won him enthusiastic support from the U.S. government, but his regime
was marked by misuse of foreign aid, repression, and political murders. His
beauty-queen wife, Imelda Marcos, was appointed to important political posts and
lived a famously extravagant lifestyle that included a massive wardrobe
featuring thousands of pairs of shoes. In 1981, Marcos was dubiously reelected
president. In rural areas, insurgency by communists and Muslim separatists grew.
In 1983, Marcos' old political opponent Benigno Aquino, Jr., returned from exile
and was assassinated by military agents of Marcos as soon as he stepped off the
plane. The political murder touched off widespread anti-Marcos protests, and in
1986 he agreed to hold a new presidential election.Aquino's widow, Corazon
Aquino, ran against Marcos, and on February 7, 1986, the election was held.
Marcos was declared victorious, but independent observers charged the regime
with widespread electoral fraud. Aquino's followers proclaimed her president,
and much of the military defected to her side as massive anti-Marcos
demonstrations were held. On February 25, Marcos, his wife, and their entourage
were airlifted from the presidential palace in Manila by U.S. helicopters and
fled to Hawaii.After substantial evidence of Marcos' corruption emerged,
including the looting of billions of dollars from the Philippine economy, Marcos
and his wife were indicted by the U.S. government on embezzlement charges. After
Ferdinand Marcos' death in 1989, Imelda was cleared of the charges, and she was
allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991, where she unsuccessfully ran for
the presidency the following year. In 1993, Imelda Marcos was convicted of
corruption by a Philippine court, but she avoided serving her 12-year prison
sentence. In 1995, she was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1998, she
unsuccessfully ran for president again and subsequently retired from political
life.
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LITERARY
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VIETNAM WAR
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WALL STREET
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