Marcos and the Political Change of the Philippines

Statesmen, Revolutionalists in the Third World

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between life and thought of President Marcos, especially his leadership for the martial law regime and the framwork of the Philippine politics.
Marcos came out from the framework of the party politics that was under the landlord and oligarchy. During the process the party politics had been getting absence of representative function because of the plutocracy and the “two factions one party system”, the presidential power had been strengthened through its administrative and financial power.
President Marcos further strengthened the presidential power and the result was the martial law regime. He could take his leadership of this process under the condition of strong presidential power, economic development policy foremost in the developing countries, and the public desire for “peace and order”.
We took notice of the same base of the political situation before and after the proclamation of martial law in the field of Philippine economic and financial dependency to the U. S. and the oligarchic society. The “radical change” President Marcos pursued has developed only in this political situation.