In 1965, 

Ferdinand Marcos won the presidential election and became the 10th President of the

Philippines. His first term was marked with increased industrialization and the creation of solid
infrastructures nationwide, such as the North Luzon Expressway and the Maharlika Highway.
Marcos did this by appointing a cabinet composed mostly of technocrats and intellectuals, by
increasing funding to the Armed Forces and mobilizing them to help in construction. Marcos also
established schools and learning institutions nationwide, more than the combined total of those
established by his predecessors.[citation needed]
In 1968, Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. warned that Marcos was on the road to establishing "a
garrison state" by "ballooning the armed forces budget", saddling the defense establishment with
"overstaying generals" and "militarizing our civilian government offices". These were prescient
comments in the light of events that would happen in the following decade. [3] Marcos also sent
10,450 Filipino soldiers to Vietnam during his term, under the PHILCAG (Philippine Civic Action
Group). Fidel Ramos, who was later to become the 12th President of the Philippines in 1992, was a
part of this expeditionary force.

Second term
In 1969, Marcos ran for a second term (allowable under the 1935 constitution then in effect [4]), and
won against 11 other candidates.
Marcos' second term was marked by economic turmoil brought about by factors both external and
internal, a restless student body who demanded educational reforms, a rising crime rate, and a
growing Communist insurgency, among other things.

Ferdinand Marcos, president from 1965–1986.

At one point, student activists took over the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines and
declared it a free commune, which lasted for a while before the government dissolved it. Violent
protesting continued over the next few years until the declaration of martial law in 1972. The event
was popularly known as the First Quarter Storm.
During the First Quarter Storm in 1970, the line between leftist activists and communists became
increasingly blurred, as a significant number of Kabataang Makabayan ('KM') advanced activists
joined the party of the Communist Party also founded by Jose Maria Sison.[5] KM members protested
in front of Congress, throwing a coffin, a stuffed alligator, and stones at Ferdinand and Imelda
Marcos after his State of the Nation Address. On the presidential palace, activists rammed the gate
with a fire truck and once the gate broke and gave way, the activists charged into the Palace
grounds tossing rocks, pillboxes and Molotov cocktails. In front of the US embassy, protesters
vandalized, burned, and damaged the embassy lobby resulting in a strong protest from the U.S.
Ambassador.[5][6][7] The KM protests ranged from 50,000 to 100,000 in number per weekly mass
action.[5] In the aftermath of the January 1970 riots, at least two activists were confirmed dead and
several were injured by the police. The mayor of Manila at the time, Antonio Villegas, commended
the Manila Police District for their "exemplary behavior and courage" and protecting the First Couple
long after they have left. The death of the activists was seized by the Lopez controlled Manila Times
and Manila Chronicle, blaming Marcos and added fire to the weekly protests. [8] Students declared a
week-long boycott of classes and instead met to organize protest rallies. [6]
Rumors of a coup d'état were also brewing. A report of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations
Committee said that shortly after the 1969 Philippine presidential election, a group composed mostly
of retired colonels and generals organized a revolutionary junta to first discredit President Marcos
and then kill him. As described in a document given to the committee by Philippine Government
official, key figures in the plot were Vice President Fernando Lopez and Sergio Osmeña Jr., whom
Marcos defeated in the 1969 election. [9] Marcos even went to the U.S. embassy to dispel rumors that
the U.S. embassy is supporting a coup d'état which the opposition liberal party was spreading.
[8]
 While the report obtained by the NY Times speculated saying that story could be used by Marcos
to justify Martial Law, as early as December 1969 in a message from the U.S. Ambassador to the
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, the U.S. Ambassador said that most of the talk about revolution
and even assassination has been coming from the defeated opposition, of which Adevoso (of the
Liberal Party) is a leading activist. He also said that the information he has on the assassination
plans are 'hard' or well-sourced and he has to make sure that it reached President Marcos. [10][11]
In light of the crisis, Marcos wrote an entry in his diary in January 1970: [8] "I have several options.
One of them is to abort the subversive plan now by the sudden arrest of the plotters. But this would
not be accepted by the people. Nor could we get the Huks (Communists), their legal cadres and
support. Nor the MIM (Maoist International Movement) and other subversive [or front] organizations,
nor those underground. We could allow the situation to develop naturally then after massive
terrorism, wanton killings and an attempt at my assassination and a coup d’etat, then declare martial
law or suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus – and arrest all including the legal cadres.
Right now I am inclined towards the latter."

Plaza Miranda bombing

Main article: Plaza Miranda bombing
On August 21, 1971, the Liberal Party held a campaign rally at the Plaza Miranda to proclaim their
Senatorial bets and their candidate for the Mayoralty of Manila. Two grenades were reportedly
tossed on stage, injuring almost everybody present. As a result, Marcos suspended the writ of
habeas corpus to arrest those behind the attack. He rounded up a list of supposed suspects,
Escabas, and other undesirables to eliminate rivals in the Liberal Party.
Marcos accused the communist movement as the perpetrators of the bombing, and responded by
suspending the writ of habeas corpus.[12] [13][14] Declassified documents from the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency also implicate Marcos in at least one of the deadly series of bombings in 1971. [15]

Martial law (1972–1981)

Main article: Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos
On September 23, 1972, then-Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile was ambushed while en route
home. This assassination attempt [16][17][18] together with the general citizen disquiet, were used by
Marcos as reasons to issue Presidential Proclamation No. 1081, proclaiming a state of martial law in
the Philippines on September 21.[19] The assassination attempt was widely believed to have been
staged; Enrile himself admitted to the assassination attempt to have been staged but he would later
retract his claim.[20][21][22] Rigoberto Tiglao, former press secretary and a former communist
incarcerated during the martial law,[23] argued that the liberal and communist parties provoked martial
law imposition.[24] Facing further criticism, Marcos claimed that his declaration of Martial Law was
supported by esteemed Philippine statesman Senator Lorenzo Tañada, who at the time was abroad
representing the Philippines at international parliamentary conferences. Upon hearing the claim,
Senator Tañada debunked it and clarified that he gave no such support for the declaration. [25] Enrile
said that "The most significant event that made President Marcos decide to declare martial law was
the MV Karagatan incident on July 1972. It was the turning point. The MV Karagatan involved the
infiltration of high powered rifles, ammunition, 40-millimeter rocket launchers, rocket projectiles,
communications equipment, and other assorted war materials by the CPP-NPA-NDF on the Pacific
side of Isabela in Cagayan Valley." The weapons were shipped from Communist China which at that
time was exporting the communist revolution and supported the NPA's goal to overthrow the
government.[26]
Marcos, who thereafter ruled by decree, curtailed press freedom and other civil liberties,
abolished Congress, controlled media establishments, and ordered the arrest of opposition leaders
and militant activists, including his staunchest critics Senators Benigno Aquino Jr. and Jose W.
Diokno, virtually turning the Philippines into a totalitarian dictatorship with Marcos as its Supreme
Leader. Initially, the declaration of martial law was well received, given the social turmoil of the
period. Crime rates decreased significantly after a curfew was implemented. Political opponents
were allowed to go into exile. As martial law went on for the next nine years, the excesses
committed by the military increased. In total, there were 3,257 extrajudicial killings, 35,000 individual
tortures, and 70,000 were incarcerated. It is also reported that 737 Filipinos disappeared between
1975 and 1985.[27]
I am president. I am the most powerful man in the Philippines. All that I have dreamt of I have. More
accurately, I have all the material things I want of life — a wife who is loving and is a partner in the
things I do, bright children who will carry my name, a life well lived — all. But I feel a discontent.

— Ferdinand Marcos[28]
Though it was claimed that Martial law was no military take-over of the government, the immediate
reaction of some sectors of the nation was of astonishment and dismay, for even though it was
claimed that the gravity of the disorder, lawlessness, social injustice, youth and student activism, and
other disturbing movements had reached a point of peril, they felt that martial law over the whole
country was not yet warranted. Worse, political motivations were ascribed to be behind the
proclamation, since the then constitutionally non-extendable term of President Marcos was about to
expire. This suspicion became more credible when opposition leaders and outspoken anti-
government media people were immediately placed under indefinite detention in military camps and
other unusual restrictions were imposed on travel, communication, freedom of speech and the press,
etc. In a word, the martial law regime was anathema to no small portion of the populace. [29]
It was in the light of the above circumstances and as a means of solving the dilemma
aforementioned that the concept embodied in Amendment No. 6 [clarification needed] was born in the
Constitution of 1973. In brief, the central idea that emerged was that martial law might be earlier
lifted, but to safeguard the Philippines and its people against any abrupt dangerous situation which
would warrant the some exercise of totalitarian powers, the latter must be constitutionally allowed,
thereby eliminating the need to proclaim martial law and its concomitants, principally the assertion by
the military of prerogatives that made them appear superior to the civilian authorities below the
President. In other words, the problem was what may be needed for national survival or the
restoration of normalcy in the face of a crisis or an emergency should be reconciled with the popular
mentality and attitude of the people against martial law. [30]
In a speech before his fellow alumni of the University of the Philippines College of Law, President
Marcos declared his intention to lift martial law by the end of January 1981. [31]
The reassuring words for the skeptic came on the occasion of the University of the Philippines law
alumni reunion on December 12, 1980 when the President declared: "We must erase once and for
all from the public mind any doubts as to our resolve to bring martial law to an end and to minister to
an orderly transition to parliamentary government." The apparent forthright irrevocable commitment
was cast at the 45th anniversary celebration of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on December
22, 1980 when the President proclaimed: "A few days ago, following extensive consultations with a
broad representation of various sectors of the nation and in keeping with the pledge made a year
ago during the seventh anniversary of the New Society, I came to the firm decision that martial law
should be lifted before the end of January, 1981, and that only in a few areas where grave problems
of public order and national security continue to exist will martial law continue to remain in force." [32]
After the lifting of martial law, power remained concentrated with Marcos. [33] One scholar noted how
Marcos retained "all martial law decrees, orders, and law-making powers," including powers that
allowed him to jail political opponents. [33]

Human rights abuses