At the end of February 1986 the long-time dictator Ferdinand Marcos fled the Philippines – he had not only lost large parts of the population against him, but also the support of the military.
Like so many authoritarian rulers of his generation, Ferdinand Marcos’ career began promisingly – not only for him and his wife Imelda, but also for many Filipinos. After Marcos, who comes from the province of Ilocos Norte, took over the presidency in 1965 following democratic elections, he invested a lot of money in improving the country’s infrastructure. Hope was born.
Re-elected in 1969 with an absolute majority, Marcos had to face the unrest organized by left-wing students – the background was the Philippines’ anti-communist Vietnam mission. Marcos used an assassination attempt on Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile to impose martial law. And the road to dictatorship continued: in 1972 he dissolved the Congress and the Constituent Assembly, tens of thousands of opponents were arrested, and critical media were closed.
The USA had long relied on the Marcos regime: it appeared to them to be a reliable Asian partner in the fight against communism. A lot of money flowed towards the Philippines, which the USA mainly used as a military base. But when the opposition politician Benigno Aquino, who had just returned from exile, was shot at Manila airport in August 1983, the relationship between the strategic partners got its first crack – the statement by the Marcos government that a communist had carried out the murder was all too adventurous. And when the widow of the murdered Corazón Aquino became the opposition’s top candidate for the presidential elections scheduled for February 1986, the days of the dictator – in retrospect – were actually numbered. He just didn’t know it yet.
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