Former President Ferdinand Marcos’ True Reasons for the Declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines

Former President Ferdinand Marcos’ True Reasons for the Declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines

An argumentative paper on

Former President Ferdinand Marcos’ True Reasons for the Declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines

In the whole history of the Philippine government, the darkest and most controversial times of it were probably in the late 70’s and early 80’s because of the declaration of martial law. During this time, thousands of Filipinos, both innocent and guilty, were abused and slaughtered. Millions were suffering from hunger and extreme poverty. At that time, the country was headed by Former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who was a ruthless dictator to some, but was a great leader to others.
During his first term as president, Marcos was very successful in improving the country’s economy and the Philippines even ranked number one in the South East Asian region. He was even able to give jobs to thousands of Filipinos, shrinking the unemployment rate from 7.20% in 1966 to just 5.20% in 1971 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Marcos 2005). Marcos also lead the largest infrastructure construction program in the country’s history and liberated millions of citizens from illiteracy because of the many school building he had put up during the program (Sohmer, Escalante and De La Paz 2000). But Marcos’ first term was not the best time to be in the seat because it was at the height of the cold war and other global conflict including the unexpected increase in oil prices. This was when the chaos started.
It was during Marcos’ second term as president when he placed the Philippines under martial law. The people did not like the decision and accused him of having personal motives in declaring it. People started to protest and random acts of violence were rampant. Because of this, Former President Ferdinand E. Marcos was forced to declare martial law in 1972 because of the spread of chaos and the collapse of civilian authority, and not because of personal motives. This is what the paper seeks to prove, but to better understand the purpose of...

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