Mariano Marcos


Mariano Marcos y Rubio was a lawyer and a politician from Ilocos Norte, Philippines. A Congressman from 1925 to 1931, he is best known for being the father of Ferdinand Marcos, who was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986.
There are some conflicting accounts about the exact nature of his death, with one version suggesting he was executed by the Japanese in Bacnotan, La Union, and another saying that he was killed by guerrillas as a collaborator.
His name was honored as part of the names of two Philippine state universities: the Mariano Marcos State University in Ilocos Norte, and the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University in La Union. He was also honored by having the town of Marcos, Ilocos Norte named after him.

Early life

Lawyer, educator, and legislator, Mariano Marcos was born in Batac, Ilocos Norte on April 21, 1895 to Fabian Marcos and Cresencia Rubio. A farmer, the elder Marcos had served as gobernadorcillo and justice of the peace of Batac after the Philippine Revolution, who championed the Ilocano language but at the same time cultivated a scholarship in the Spanish language.
A militant follower of Gregorio Aglipay and member of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, he raised his son under the Aglipayan faith. Mariano Marcos had his primary and intermediate education in his hometown. Then he went to Manila to study at the Philippine Normal School, where he graduated valedictorian, with honors in oratory and debating, in 1916.

Personal life

One of his co-graduates was Josefa Edralin, a lady four years his senior and hailing from a landed family whom he married that same year. They had four children:
Right after he received his diploma, the Bureau of Education named him maestro insular in Laoag, a position he held until 1917, when he was promoted to maestro principal. A year later, he was enlisted in the National Guard and given the rank of lieutenant. On September 16, 1919, after passing a rigid examination, he was named supervising teacher, a position that required traveling and doing the rounds of the public schools in the whole province. He held this position until January 4, 1921, when he resigned to accept the position of high school teacher at the National University. While teaching in this institution, he studied law at the University of the Philippines. Among his professors were Justices Malcolm and Laurel. He graduated valedictorian with a bachelor of laws degree on March 27, 1925, passing the bar not long after. He and his lawyer-brother Pio opened a law office in Batac, with a branch in Manila.

Political life

Meanwhile, with the encouragement of his friends and admirers, he had entered politics.
Running under the banner of the Nacionalista Party, and backed by the majority of his fellow Batacqueños, he was elected representative of the second district of Ilocos Norte. Marcos was considered one of the most effective speakers in the entire province during his time. His powerful voice gave him an edge over other politicians during political rallies. He successfully ran for the same position in 1928. In the legislature, he obtained the chairmanship of the powerful committee on ways and means, and likewise served as member of other committees including those on public instruction, public works, public estate, and mines and natural resources. He bid for the same seat in 1932, but lost to his rival from Laoag, Emilio Medina, a consequence of the Batac vote being divided between him and his town mate and fellow candidate, Julio Nalundasan. In 1935, cast another bid at the legislature, this time for a seat at the National Assembly under the Commonwealth government, but lost to Nalundasan. Two days after the elections, Julio Nalundasan was hit in the head by a rifle shot while inside his home and died instantly. Mariano Marcos, his son Ferdinand, his brother Pio, and his brother-in-law Quirino Lizardo, were accused of the crime and eventually arrested and tried for the crime in 1938. He and his brother were eventually acquitted but his son and brother-in-law, were both convicted. A Supreme Court decision penned by JP Laurel would reverse the conviction in 1940. It is believed that the young Marcos' godfather Ferdinand Chua who was also the municipal court judge in Batac interceded for him. His wife, while she was still alive, recalled that Marcos was strict about the training of their children but at the same time very understanding. A product of the old school, he adhered to a strict code of discipline that he passed onto his children, inculcating in them primarily the values of responsibility and obedience. Mrs. Marcos acknowledged him as the fount of their children's intellectual endowments, including a fluency in two languages, Spanish and English. But, it was not all academics for Marcos for he knew too well the value of physical fitness. Not only did he have a passion for boxing, wrestling and shooting- he also had the expertise, teaching his two sons the "scientific" method of boxing and insisting on them to always settle sibling rivalries through wrestling. He taught them boxing and shooting so well that his sons used to out-box opponents in local children's boxing derbies; his second son Pacifico eventually became an expert pistol shooter like himself, while his eldest son Ferdinand became national rifle champion at the age of sixteen.

Death

Documents at the Philippine Archives Collection at the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. state that Marcos was tried and executed by the Luzon Guerrilla Armed Forces, a guerrilla force fighting the Japanese under the command of Major Robert Lapham. This is disputed by accounts told by the Marcos family.
In Lapham's account, Mariano Marcos was tried, and having "readily confessed," was executed on March 8, 1945 as a Japanese collaborator by the Luzon Guerrilla Armed Forces.
Mariano Marcos was drawn and quartered - his hands were tied to two carabaos, which were then whipped to run in opposite directions. His body parts were then hung by ropes on the branches of a large tree in what is now the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University's Bacnotan campus, as a demonstration of what would happen to those who collaborated with the Japanese.
In a book written by Lapham later, he adds that some of the guerrillas who were allowed to participate in the execution were related to Julio Nalundasan.
The version of the story told by the Marcos family says that Mariano Marcos was executed by the Japanese.

Legacy

Educational institutions

In his memory, a number of streets and schools, both in Manila and in Ilocos Norte, including the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, and MMSU College of Education in Laoag City, were named after him. Moreover, Marcos town, formerly a part of Dingras, Ilocos Norte, and created a town in 1963 by Republic Act No. 3753, was named in his honor. On October 24, 1982, the National Historical Institute paid him tribute by installing a marker at the Mariano Marcos State University in Batac, Ilocos Norte.

The Marcos dynasty

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' 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 limitation set by the 1935 Constitution of the Philippines by placing the country under Martial Law in 1972.
This 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. Ferdinand's wife Imelda to become Governor of Metro Manila as appointed head of the Metro Manila Commission from 1975 to 1986 and Assemblywoman in the Batasan Pambansa for Region IV-A from 1978 to 1984. Ferdinand's Sister Elizabeth Marcos-Keon to become Governor of Ilocos Norte from 1971–1983. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to become Vice Governor of Ilocos Norte from 1980 to 1983 and Governor of that same province from 1983-1986. Secondborn Imee Marcos to become chairman of the Kabataang Barangay from 1975 to 1986.
Although the Marcos family was removed from power by civilian protests during the 1986 People Power Revolution, President Corazon Aquino eventually allowed the members of the Marcos family to return to the Philippines after the death of Ferdinand Marcos, supposedly so that they could face various corruption charges. Within a year of arriving, Imelda Marcos was running for president in the 1992 Philippine Presidential election, finishing 5th out of 7 candidates. In that same yar 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. Ferdinand Jr. became a Senator from 2010 to 2016, and ran for the post of Vice President during the 2016 Philippine National election, but narrowly lost to Leni Robredo.
In the recently-held May 13, 2019 National and Local Election, Imee was elected as a Senator. She will have a 6-year term starting on June 30, 2019.