Born: September 11, 1917

Sarrat, Philippines
Died: September 28, 1989
Honolulu, Hawaii
Filipino president and politician
Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos began his career in politics with the murder
of Julio Nalundasan in 1935, and ended it after the murder of Benigno Aquino Jr.
in 1983. Some believe his entire life was based on fraud, deceit, and theft, and
his time as president has come to represent one of the prime examples of a
corrupt government.

1Youth and family

Ferdinand Edralin Marcos was born on September 11, 1917, in Sarrat, a village in
the Ilocos North region of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. His parents,
Josefa Edralin and Mariano Marcos, were both teachers from important families.
In 1925 Mariano Marcos became a congressman, surrounding the young
Ferdinand in a political atmosphere at an early age. Mariano also had a strong
influence on what was to become Ferdinand's competitive, win-at-all-costs
nature. Mariano and Josefa pushed Ferdinand to excel at everything, not only his
studies at school, but also at activities such as wrestling, boxing, hunting, survival
skills, and marks-manship (skill with a gun or rifle). In college, Marcos's main
interest was the .22-caliber college pistol team.
Marcos's real father was not Mariano but a wealthy Chinese man named
Ferdinand Chua. (Marcos would claim that Chua was his "godfather.") Chua was a
well-connected judge who was responsible for much of Marcos's unusual good
luck as a young man. Among other things, Chua paid for young Marcos's
schooling and later managed to influence the Philippine Supreme Court to
overturn the young Marcos's conviction for murder.
On September 20, 1935, Julio Nalundasan was at home celebrating his
congressional election victory over Mariano Marcos when he was shot and killed
with a .22-caliber bullet fired by the eighteen-year-old Ferdinand Marcos. Three
years later, Ferdinand was arrested for Nalundasan's murder. A year later, after
having graduated from law school, he was found guilty of the crime. While in jail
Marcos spent six months writing his own appeal for a new trial. When the
Supreme Court finally took up Marcos's appeal in 1940, the judge in charge
(apparently influenced by Judge Chua) threw out the case. Marcos was a free
man. The next day, he returned to the Supreme Court and took the oath to
become a lawyer.

Marcos did well in school, as he had an extraordinary memory which allowed him
to quickly memorize complicated texts and recite them forwards or backwards. In
college, Marcos' principal interest was the .22-caliber college pistol team. On
September 20, 1935, Julio Nalundasan was at home celebrating that day's
Congressional election victory over Mariano Marcos when he was shot and killed
with a .22-caliber bullet fired by the 18-year-old Marcos. Three years later, the
honors student who was in his senior year of law school, was arrested for
Nalundasan's murder. A year later, now a law school graduate, he was found
guilty "beyond any reasonable doubt." Jailed, Marcos spent six months writing his
own 830-page appeal. He also took the Philippine bar exam and passed with
scores so high he was accused of cheating. Upon an oral re-examination by the
Supreme Court, Marcos scored even higher with his remarkable memory. When
the Supreme Court finally took up Marcos's appeal in 1940, the judge in charge
(allegedly influenced by Judge Chua) was disposed to simply throw the case out.
Marcos was a free man. The next day, he returned to the Supreme Court where
he was administered his oath as a lawyer.
Marcos emerged from World War II with the reputation of being the greatest Filipino

resistance leader of the war and the most decorated soldier in the U.S. Armed forces.

(Marcos served in the U.S. Army at the beginning and the end of the war as a "third

lieutenant" on clerical duty, for a time in 1944 he was a U.S. prisoner of war under a death

sentence) The Army investigated these claims after the war and found them to be false and

"criminal." In fact, Marcos seems to have spent the war on both sides, and at various times,

was in hospitals with fevers and stomach pains, possibly from the onset of lupus, the

degenerative disease that ultimately ruined his health. In early 1943 in Manila, Marcos

concocted a "secret" resistance organization called Ang Mga Maharlika ("Noble Studs") which

he claimed consisted of spies, saboteurs and assassins, but in fact consisted of many forgers,

pickpockets, gunmen and racketeers, united by an interest in black market operations.

At the war's end, as a deputy to the U.S. Army judge advocate general in northern Luzon,

Marcos was involved in choosing friends and relatives to fill minor civil service jobs, passing

out favors to be redeemed later. After, he resumed his law practice, often filing false claims in

Washington on behalf of Filipino veterans seeking back pay and benefits. Emboldened by his

success, he filed a $595,000 claim on his own behalf, stating that the U.S. Army had

commandeered over 2,000 head of brahmin cattle from Mariano Marcos's wholly imaginary

ranch in Mindinao. Washington concluded that the cattle had never existed. Marcos also tried

to get recognition and benefits for his resistance force, the Ang Mga Maharlika; army

investigators concluded that Marcos's unit was fraudulent.

In December, 1948, after a luncheon meeting with Marcos, a magazine editor published four

articles on Marcos's extraordinary war exploits, including the history of the Maharlika just

after the army's findings of fraud. Marcos' reputation grew. In 1949, campaigning on

promises to get veterans' benefits for 2 million more "unrecognized" Filipinos, Marcos ran on

the Liberal Party ticket for a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives and won

astonishingly, with 70 percent of the vote. In less than a year he was worth a million dollars

and owned a Cadillac convertible, mostly because of his American tobacco subsidies, a

colossal cigarette smuggling operation, and his practice of extorting commissions from

Chinese businesses. In 1954 he formally met Imelda Romualdez and married her.

Read more: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Lo-Ma/Marcos-

Ferdinand.html#ixzz4lvVutQ7P

1.1EDUCATION
Marcos attended school in Manila. His godfather, Ferdinand Chua, may have helped to
pay for his educational expenses.
During the 1930s, the young man studied law at the University of the Philippines,
outside of Manila.
This legal training would come in handy when Marcos was arrested and tried for a 1935
political murder. In fact, he continued his studies while in prison, and even passed the
bar exam with flying colors from his cell.
Meanwhile, Mariano Marcos ran for a seat on the National Assembly in 1935, but was
defeated for a second time by Julio Nalundasan.
1.2MARCOS ASSASSINATES NALUNDASAN
On September 20, 1935, as he was celebrating his victory over Marcos, Nalundasan was
shot dead at his home. Mariano's 18-year-old son Ferdinand had used his shooting
skills to kill Nalundasan with a .22-caliber rifle.
The young law student was indicted for the killing, and convicted by a district court in
November of 1939. He appealed to the Supreme Court of the Philippines in 1940.
Representing himself, the young man managed to get his conviction overturned
despite strong evidence of his guilt.
Mariano Marcos and (by now) Judge Chua likely used their political power to influence
the outcome of the case.

1.3WORLD WAR II
At the outbreak of World War II, Ferdinand Marcos was practicing law in Manila. He
soon joined the Filipino Army, and fought against the Japanese invasion as a combat
intelligence officer in the 21st Infantry Division.
Marcos saw action in the three-month-long Battle of Bataan, in which the Allied forces
lost Luzon to the Japanese. He survived the Bataan Death March, a week-long ordeal
that killed about 1/4 of Japan's American and Filipino POWs on Luzon.
Marcos escaped the prison camp and joined the resistance. He later claimed to have
been a guerrilla leader, but that claim has been disputed.
1.4POST-WAR ERA
Detractors say that Marcos spent the early post-war period filing false compensation
claims for wartime damages with the United States government, such as a claim for
almost $600,000 for 2,000 imaginary cattle of Mariano Marcos's.
In any case, Ferdinand Marcos certainly did serve as a special assistant to the first
president of the newly-independent Republic of the Philippines, Manuel Roxas, in
1946-47.
Marcos served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the Senate from
1963 to 1965 as a member of Roxas's Liberal Party.
1.5RISE TO POWER
In 1965, Marcos hoped to secure the Liberal Party nomination for the presidency. The
sitting president, Diosdado Macapagal (father of current president Gloria Macapagal-
Arroyo), had promised to step aside, but reneged and ran again.
Marcos resigned from the Liberal Party and joined the Nationalists. He won the
election, and was sworn in on December 30, 1965.
President Marcos promised economic development, improved infrastructure, and good
government to the people of the Philippines.
He also pledged help to South Vietnam and the US in the Vietnam War, sending more
than 10,000 Filipino soldiers to fight.