Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralín Marcos was a Filipino politician and lawyer, president of his country from 1965 to 1986. Married to Imelda Marcos, former beauty in the Philippines, which is also known for its large shoe collection.

He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1949 and to the Senate in 1959. After losing the presidential elections as a candidate for the Liberal Party in 1964, he was elected president as a candidate for the Nationalist Party in 1964, being reelected in 1969 and still in 1981.

During his government, economic and social reforms were carried out, as well as a new Constitution that gave more powers to the Presidency. Strong opposition led him to arrest his opposition leaders and institute martial law, starting a guerrilla war by the Maoists and Muslim separatists. He lifted martial law in 1981, but nevertheless, government corruption increased, as did poverty and guerrilla warfare.

In 1986, he was officially declared the winner of the elections, but national and international suspicion of massive electoral fraud was suspected, and the army was then divided and Marcos fled to Hawaii (in the course of the so-called Edsa Revolution or of Popular Power) rising to power Corazón Aquino, the widow of Benigno Aquino, one of his great opponents, murdered in 1983, when he returned to the Philippines.

In November 2016, he was buried in the Cemetery of Filipino Heroes