Roxas was succeeded by a number of Presidents until Ferdinand Marcos (1917-1989) was elected president in 1965. He was re-elected in 1969. As the years passed, the Philippines was dogged by poverty and inequality. Facing the threat of a communist uprising, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972. He imposed a curfew, suspended Congress and arrested opposition leaders.
The Marcos dictatorship was exceedingly corrupt and Marcos and his cronies enriched themselves.
The opposition was weak until 1980 when opposition leader Benigno Aquino was shot when he arrived from exile. Aquino became a martyr and Filipinos were enraged by his murder. In February 1986, Marcos called for a snap election. The opposition united behind Cory Aquino, the widow of Benigno. Marcos claimed victory (a clear case of electoral fraud). Cory Aquino also claimed victory and ordinary people took to the streets to show their support for her. Called People’s Power, it was a peaceful revolution that ousted Marcos and declared a First Woman President.
Thereafter
President Corazon Aquino survived 7 coup attempts and she was too weak to heal the wounds of the country. In 1992, Fidel Ramos became president and tried to place band aid on the country’s ills. Meanwhile in 1998, Joseph Estrada was catapulted to presidency but only for two years as he was impeached for corruption. His Vice-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo replaced him. She was re-elected in 2004. Her tenure was full of controversy and disunity. In the 2010 election Benigno Aquino III won with his slogan of “Daang Matuwid”. He started filing charges against high ranking officials starting with Gloria-Macapagal-Arroyo, Chief Justice Renato Corona and several others. Almost at the end of his term, President Aquino had not done an iota of improvement, the Philippines remains as is.
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