We should recognize we Filipinos aren’t unique in having idolized, then vilified, then idolized again: the preeminent example of this condition is France, as I tackled in Unintended consequences of Napoleonic solutions back in 2016.
Start with September 23, not 21 then Time bandit to see why September 23 is the real martial law anniversary and why September 21 represents a victory for Marcos even when his critics criticize him on his handpicked martial law anniversary.
The real question we have to ask is less how did Marcos manage to get away with it, but rather, how did so many who knew what was coming, fail to stop it? The timeline reveals to us it was like a train wreck in slow motion. (The Philippine Diary Project has a comprehensive timeline, 1965-86)
I have my own theories from reading up and listening to those who were active then. My theory is it took 1967-76 because he actually did it in stages. What Marcos had going for him: every institution that could resist had hidden cells of Marcos-minded people. In media, Doroy Valencia. In the courts, Fred Ruiz Castro, the Ilocano generals and all the colonels pissed off with the Commission on Appointments; legions of parents freaked out by hippies; priests and bishops freaked out by Reds, ditto businessmen big and small.
Against him the usual intelligentsia but with the intelligentsia with no political sense but so much righteousness, it pissed off the middle class, but also a sub-group of them entranced by the idea of recreating society in a grand social experiment at Marcos’ instigation; again, media that was sounding the alarm but pissing off people like businessmen, and most everyone who thought they had more time because FM wouldn’t move until closer to November 1973, as his term was ending.
Most of all Marcos had sized up everyone, including their price: because most everyone proved to have a price. Sen. Pres. Puyat and Speaker Villareal and most everyone in Congress were OK with replacing Congress with a unicameral national assembly; Concon delegates looked forward to sitting in the national assembly provided they approved the Marcos-written charter.
I tend to agree with those who suspected ex-Pres. Macapagal and then-VP Lopez looked forward to the chance of being ceremonial prexy with FM as PM. They all thought after a temporary crackdown, that by 1973 they would all be back. This was FM’s deal with all of them and they happily took it.
Then FM double-crossed them repeatedly: he postponed convening the interim National Assembly to 1974. Then he postponed convening it to 1975. By the time he abolished the Interim National Assembly altogether in 1976, no one could fight him anymore.
So everyone could be divided and conquered. There’s a great scene in Raissa Robles’ book where a decade after martial law had been imposed, former Speaker Villareal told Marcos, you had us fooled, we thought it would last only a year or two and here you are.
How Marcos sandbagged institutions by wrapping them tight in ribbons of legalities he himself created, is enumerated here: The nuts and bolts of martial law
And how he accompanied this with veiled and not-so-veiled threats, when he wasn’t actually locking up people, is recounted here: Showdown with the Supremes
And this is why, as recounted here, it took most of 14 years for a fragmented, divided, society to recover its sense of independence and unite: The fabric of freedom, 10 Years After Edsa
What happened since –how we got from kicking out a Marcos to electing one with the 3d highest mandate in our electoral history, requires telling several stories. First, let’s look at the presidency itself: The Presidency 3×3
Second, let’s look at The Rise and Fall of our Fifth Republic (related to this: Manolo Quezon III on Philippine Democracy and the 2022 Election )
Fourth, let’s look at what the Marcoses were doing from 1992 to 2022, to me, the period of their plotting, and achieving, Restoration: From FM to BBM
(See also my interview on this topic: Basagan ng Trip with Leloy Claudio: A history of the Marcos Restoration and my Long Form article on this: the Marcos Restoration: 30 Years In The Making )
Fifth, how ot all came together in 2022 and the two nations the election revealed: From the Fifth to the Sixth Republic? The 2022 election in context
Try this exercise. Look at the videos from 1965-1973 and see how you’d react to the sights and sounds of the era. Do the same for 1973-1983 and then 1983-1986:
And of course, the fun activity of counterfactuals –the what ifs: What if Marcos Won?
Additional readings on Marcos:
and a kind of counterpart/postscript to the above, Ferdinand Marcos and us
5. The Defiant Era: on the First Quarter Storm
