User:Alternativity/sandbox/Second Term of Ferdinand Marcos

Ferdinand Marcos' second term as President of the Philippines began on December 30, 1969, as a result of his winning the 1969 Philippine presidential election nearly two months earlier on November 11, 1969. Marcos was the first and last president of the Third Philippine Republic to win a second full term. The end of Marcos' second term was supposed to be in December 1973, which would also have been the end of his presidency because the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines allowed him to have only two four-year terms. However, Marcos issued Proclamation 1081 in September 1972, placing the entirety of the Philippines under Martial Law and effectively extending his term indefinitely. He would only be removed from the presidency in 1986, as a result of the People Power Revolution.

Marcos’ first term, from 1965 to 1969, had been relatively successful, marked by industrialization, infrastructure development, and an increase in rice production. But in order to win his second term, which would be from 1969 to 1972, Marcos pursued a USD50 million spending spree on infrastructure projects meant to impress the electorate. This rapid spending resulted in a balance of payments crisis, which led Mr. Marcos to seek an adjustment program from the International Monetary Fund, the conditions for which included a reduction of selected tariff rates and a 43 percent monetary devaluation. The exchange rate plummeted from 3.9 Pesos to the Dollar in 1969 to 6 Pesos to the Dollar in 1970, leading to inflation, and eventually, general unrest.

Events leading up to Proclamation 1081
FROM OTHER ARTICLE At the height of the armed communist insurgency in the Philippines, Philippine Military Academy instructor Lt Victor Corpuz led New People's Army rebels in a raid on the PMA armory, capturing rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, a bazooka and thousands of rounds of ammunition in 1970. In 1972, China, which was then actively supporting and arming communist insurgencies in Asia as part of Mao Zedong's People's War Doctrine, transported 1,200 M-14 and AK-47 rifles for the NPA to speed up NPA's campaign to defeat the government.

According to interviews by The Washington Post with unnamed former Communist Party of the Philippines Officials "the (Communist) party leadership planned – and three operatives carried out – the (Plaza Miranda) attack in an attempt to provoke government repression and push the country to the brink of revolution... (Communist Party Leader) Sison had calculated that Marcos could be provoked into cracking down on his opponents, thereby driving thousands of political activists into the underground, the anonymous former officials said. Recruits were urgently needed, they said, to make use of a large influx of weapons and financial aid that China had already agreed to provide." José María Sison continues to deny these claims, and the CPP has never released any official confirmation of their culpability in the incident. Marcos and his allies claimed that Benigno Aquino Jr. was part of the plot, which is generally regarded as absurd given that Aquino was pro-American and pro-capitalist.

Most historians continue to hold Marcos responsible for the Plaza Miranda bombing as he is known to have used false flag operations as a pretext for martial law. There were a series of deadly bombings in 1971, and the CIA privately stated that Marcos was responsible for at least one of them. The agency was also almost certain that none of the bombings were perpetrated by Communists. US intelligence documents declassified in the 1990s contained further evidence implicating Marcos, provided by a CIA mole within the Philippine army. Another false flag attack took place with the attempted assassination of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile in 1972. President Nixon approved Marcos' martial law initiative immediately afterwards.

Extraneous stuff


President Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation No 1081, placing the entirety of the Philippines under Martial Law, some time in mid to late September 1972 - signing it on either September 17 or 22, formally dating it September 21 and then finally announcing it to the public on September 23. =

Philippine society during the first two terms of Ferdinand Marcos still faced persistent problems dating from the end of World War II, including massive social inequality and the continued presence of warlords and armed groups. In addition, the Philippines was closely tied politically to the united states, and was thus caught up in the frenzy of the Cold War era. The Anti-subversion Act of 1957 (Republic Act 1700) made mere membership in a communist party illegal, and it would only be repealed by Republic Act 7636 in 1992. The Philippine government also viewed People's Republic of China, established in 1949, as a security threat which provided financial and military support of Communist groups in the country.