Beginnings of the Marcos dynasty (1925–1945) The Second Congressional District of Ilocos Norte The Marcos political dynasty is generally acknowledged to have been founded when Mariano Marcos y Rubio (1897–1945) was elected to the
Philippine House of Representatives as congressman for the second district of
Ilocos Norte in 1925, On that same night, Nalundasan was shot dead by a sniper when he stepped out onto his back porch to brush his teeth. The trial, and the overturning of the conviction turned Ferdinand Marcos into the "most famous young man in the islands", with then-President
Manuel L. Quezon arranging to meet the boy and suggesting that he use the newfound popularity to enter Philippine politics. Before that could happen, however, the Marcoses were overtaken by the events of
World War II.
The execution of Mariano Marcos Mariano Marcos was executed in the closing days of the war on March 8, 1945. The Marcos family's account claims he was executed by the Japanese, but other eyewitness accounts say that he was caught by Philippine guerillas, tried as a Japanese collaborator, and executed by
tearing apart with two
carabaos.
Ferdinand Marcos and the rise of the Marcos dynasty (1949–1986) The rise of Ferdinand Marcos Because the Nalundasan murder trial resulting drew wide public attention in the years immediately prior to the war, Mariano's son
Ferdinand was in an ideal political position to enter politics in the postwar years. Ferdinand Marcos's rise to power was dramatic. He served three terms in Mariano's own former position as the Philippine House of Representatives as the Congressman for the second district of
Ilocos Norte, from 1949 to 1959. Between 1959 and 1965, he served in the Philippine Senate, where he became Senate President until he won the
Philippine Presidential Election of 1965 to become the
tenth president of the Philippines, staying in the position for 21 years despite the eight year (two four year terms) limitation set by the
1935 Constitution of the Philippines by placing the country under
Martial Law in 1972. Ferdinand Marcos's political prominence would pave the way for other members of the Marcos family to be appointed or elected to various national elections - what would eventually become known as the Marcos dynasty.
Dovie Beams and the expansion of the Conjugal Dictatorship Some time in 1968, Ferdinand Marcos began an affair with Nashville actress
Dovie Beams. When Marcos got tired of the dalliance in early 1970 and broke up with Beams, the actress released audio tapes of herself and President Marcos. Author Seagrave recounts that: ''Student protesters at the University of the Philippines commandeered the campus radio station and broadcast a looped tape; soon the entire nation was listening in astonishment to President Marcos begging Dovie Beams to perform oral sex. For over a week the President's hoarse injunctions boomed out over university loudspeakers.'' Historians note that Ferdinand Marcos's president's wife
Imelda Marcos reacted to the humiliation by aggressively pursuing government positions. Imelda Marcos held the position until the Marcos family was deposed in 1986, and would later be concurrently appointed to the Marcos cabinet as Minister of Human Settlements from 1978 to 1986. In addition, she was elected as Assemblyman for Region IV-A to the
Batasang Pambansa from 1978 to 1984. He gave relatives government-related jobs, often putting them in charge of agencies or government-owned corporations with cash incomes. Fortuna owned four undeveloped lots in the fashionable April Sound subdivision on
Lake Conroe in
Texas, in the United States. The lots were suspected of being purchased with money stolen from the Philippine treasury. Fortuna Barba was the last surviving sister of Ferdinand Marcos until her death in March 2018. Only his brother
Pacifico Marcos remains alive. He was placed in charge of Medicare, which collects compulsory insurance contributions from Philippine workers. By 1979, he also controlled at least 14 private corporations involved in mining, coconut refining, and management consulting. Fearful of a scenario in which Marcos's presence in the Philippines would lead to a civil war, the Reagan administration withdrew its support for the Marcos government, and flew Marcos and a party of about 80 individuals—the extended Marcos family and a number of close associates—from the Philippines to
Hawaiʻi. The exiles stayed at
Hickam Air Force Base at the expense of the U.S. Government. A month later, the Marcoses moved into a pair of residences in
Makiki Heights in
Honolulu, which were registered to
Marcos cronies Antonio Floirendo and Bienvenido and Gliceria Tantoco. President
Corazon Aquino eventually allowed members of the Marcos family to return to the Philippines after the death of Ferdinand Marcos, supposedly so they could face various corruption charges.
Return of the Marcoses (1991–present) Political offices after returning to the Philippines Within a year of returning to the Philippines, Imelda Marcos was running for president in the
1992 Philippine presidential election, finishing 5th out of 7 candidates. In that same year, Marcos Jr. ran in a much smaller local election rather than a national race, easily regaining the family's traditional post of Congressman for the Second District of Ilocos Norte. Since then, Imelda, Ferdinand Jr., and Imee Marcos have run for numerous posts, alternatingly winning posts including the house seat for the Second District of Ilocos Norte, the house seat for the Second District of Ilocos Norte, the governorship of Ilocos Norte.
Bongbong Marcos became a Senator from 2010 to 2016, and ran for the post of Vice President during the
2016 Philippine presidential election, but narrowly lost to
Vice President Leni Robredo. Following his defeat, he filed an electoral protest, He later ran for President in the
2022 Philippine presidential election and won by a
landslide over Robredo, marking the return of the Marcoses in the office after 36 years. As of February 2025, nine court cases on the Marcoses' stolen wealth were dismissed during the presidency of Bongbong Marcos.
Marcos historical distortion Historians, journalists, other observers of Philippine politics have noted that the political rehabilitation of the Marcoses has been made possible through "
historical distortion"—a systematic effort to revise the public's perception of the history of martial law and the Marcos administration. Philippine government, civil society, and academic institutions such as the
National Historical Commission of the Philippines, the
University of the Philippines Diliman Department of History, the
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, and the Philippine government's
Presidential Commission on Good Government say that the Marcos revisionist techniques or narratives perpetuated include: •
denial or
downplaying of the tortures and murders that took place during martial law; • the myth that the Marcos period was a "golden age" rather than a period of debt-driven growth and corruption-triggered collapse; • the myth that all the victims of martial law were
communists or communist sympathizers; and • the myth that the children of Ferdinand Marcos, who reached the age of the majority a few years after the declaration of martial law—were too young to know about the abuses of the martial law era. Some historiographers such as Filomeno Aguilar Jr. attribute the rise of Marcos revisionism to the lack of comprehensive, in-depth scholarly work on the history of the Marcos family and of Martial Law. While there is a significant body of scholarly literature on these subjects, it mostly takes the form of collections of papers, rather than comprehensive scholarly works.
Flood control projects scandal == Political positions held ==