Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr.

(September 11,
1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician
and kleptocrat[1][2][3][4][5] who was President of the
Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled as
a dictator[6] under martial law from 1972 until 1981 .[7] His
regime was infamous for its
corruption,[8][9][10] extravagance,[11][12][13] and brutality.[14][15][16]
Marcos claimed an active part in World War II, including
fighting alongside the Americans in the Bataan Death
March and being the "most decorated war hero in the
Philippines".[17] A number of his claims were found to be
false[18][19][20][21][22] and United States Armydocuments
described Marcos's wartime claims as "fraudulent" and
"absurd".[23]
Marcos started as an attorney, then served in the Philippine
House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and
the Philippine Senatefrom 1959 to 1965. He was elected
President in 1965, and presided over a growing economy
during the beginning and intermediate portion of his 20-year
rule,[24] but ended in loss of livelihood, extreme poverty, and
a crushing debt crisis.[25][26][27] Marcos placed the Philippines
under martial law on September 23, 1972,[28][29][30] during
which he revamped the constitution, silenced the
media,[31] and used violence and oppression[16] against the
political opposition,[32] Muslims, communist rebels,[33] and
ordinary citizens.[34] Martial law was ratified by 90.77% of the
voters during the Philippine Martial Law referendum,
1973 though the referendum was marred with
controversy.[35][36]
Public outrage led to the snap elections of 1986. Allegations
of mass cheating, political turmoil, and excesses of human
rights abuses led to the People Power Revolution in February
1986, which removed him from power.[37] To avoid what could
have been a military confrontation in Manila between pro-
and anti-Marcos troops, Marcos was advised by
President Ronald Reagan through Sen. Paul Laxalt to "cut
and cut cleanly",[38] after which Marcos fled to
Hawaii.[39] Marcos was succeeded by Corazon "Cory" Aquino,
widow of the assassinated opposition leader Senator
Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. who had flown back to the
Philippines to face Marcos.[37][40][41][42]
According to source documents provided by the Presidential
Commission on Good Government,[43][44][45] the Marcos family
had stolen $5–10 billion USD.[46] The PCGG also maintained
that the Marcos family enjoyed a decadent lifestyle—taking
away billions of dollars[43][45] from the country[47][48] between
1965 and 1986. His wife Imelda Marcos, whose excesses
during the couple's conjugal dictatorship[49][50][51] made her
infamous in her own right, spawned the term
"Imeldific".[14][52][53][54] Two of their children, Imee
Marcosand Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. are still active
in Philippine politics.

Death and Burial

With his health failing and support for his regime fading fast,
on February 25, 1986, Ferdinand Marcos and much of his
family were airlifted from the Manila presidential palace,
going into exile in Hawaii. Evidence was later uncovered
showing that Marcos and his associates had stolen billions
from the Philippine economy.

Focusing on racketeering charges, a federal grand jury then

indicted both of the Marcoses, but Ferdinand died in
Honolulu in 1989 from cardiac arrest after suffering from an
array of ailments. Imelda was acquitted of all charges and
returned to the Philippines the following year, though she
went on to face other legal challenges. She would later run
unsuccessfully for president and win congressional
elections, with two of her three children, Imee and Ferdinand
Jr., also serving as governmental officials.

Since 1993, Marcos' corpse had been embalmed in a glass

casket in his home province of Ilocos Norte. In
2016, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered Marcos' body to be
buried at the National Heroes' Cemetery in Manila, with
protests erupting in opposition to such a move considering
Marcos' human rights abuses. Nonetheless, in November the
remains of Marcos were interred at the new site in a hero's
burial.