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Marcosism

Marcosism
Marcosismo
LeaderBongbong Marcos
FoundersFerdinand Marcos
FoundedDecember 30, 1965; 60 years ago (1965-12-30)
IdeologyAuthoritarian conservatism
Filipino nationalism
Populism
Developmentalism
Anti-communism
Militarism
Anti-aquinoism
Dutertism (Factions)
Political positionRight-wing[1][2][3]
Colors  Red

Marcosism (Filipino: Marcosismo) refers to the political ideology, method of governance, and authoritarian regime associated with Ferdinand Marcos, 10th president of the Philippines. This term is often used among political analysts and historians to describe the concentration of executive power, the suppression of democratic institutions, crony capitalism, cult of personality, strong nationalist rhetoric centered on building a "New Society" (Bagong Lipunan), and military favoritism characteristic of his rule, especially during the period of martial law. Members of his political base were often referred to as "Marcos Loyalists".

Marcosist policies

Infrastructure Development

During Marcos years in the office, many infrastructure projects were built. These includes San Juanico Bridge, Maharlika Highway, and LRT Line 1. National road network doubled from roughly 55,000 kilometers in 1965 to over 129,000 kilometers by 1980. Projects such as Hydroelectric and Geothermal Powerplants, and the controversial Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (though stopped by Aquino administration due to safety concerns followed by Chernobyl disaster) were also built to increase the supply of energy and reduce dependency on foreign oil, due to 1973 oil crisis. He built around 47 State Universities and Colleges, examples are Pangasinan State University and Isabela State University.

Martial Law, Anti Terrorism, and Law and Order

Martial Law was declared on September 21, 1972 through Proclamation No. 1081. According to Marcos himself, it was declared to fight the Communist rebellion in the Philippines. During this period, a notorious Chinese drug lord Lim Seng was executed on January 15, 1973. Martial Law was lifted on January 17, 1981 through Proclamation No. 2045. This period marks reported Human rights abuses of his regime.

Culture, Arts, and Tourism

During his administration, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Philippine International Convention Center, Folk Arts Theater, and People's Park in the Sky were built.

Agriculture and Domestic Economy

In 1968, the Philippines achieved a historic milestone by briefly becoming a net rice exporter for the first time, shipping out around 65,000 metric tons of surplus rice and earning millions. This brief self-sufficiency resulted from early high-yielding rice varieties like IR8 ("miracle rice") developed by the International Rice Research Institute. He also launched programs such as Green Revolution, Masagana 99 to increase rice production, and Biyayang Dagat.

Social Welfare Programs

The Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services (BLISS) housing program was launched by President Ferdinand E. Marcos in January 1979. Spearheaded by the Ministry of Human Settlements under First Lady Imelda Marcos, it built low-cost, mid-rise walk-up apartments and self-contained communities nationwide featuring rent-to-own packages. The Labor Code of the Philippines was enacted as Presidential Decree No. 442 by President Ferdinand Marcos on May 1, 1974. It is the foundational law enforced by the Department of Labor and Employment governing employment, worker safety, wages, benefits, and labor unions. The 13th-month pay was signed by then-president Marcos through Presidential Decree No. 851 on December 16, 1975. The law required private sector employers to give a 13th-month salary to rank-and-file workers no later than December 24 each year.

Militarism

During Marcos Sr.’s presidency, the Armed Forces of the Philippines underwent massive expansion and consolidation to enforce Martial Law, growing from roughly 57,000 personnel in 1971 to over 113,000 by 1976. The military budget climbed steeply from ₱880 million in 1972 to ₱4 billion by 1976 to support counter-insurgency operations. A secretive indigenous defense R&D undertaking aimed to build local rocketry and unguided artillery systems Bongbong rocket series. These tests mostly took place on Caballo Island but were abandoned by 1986 due to funding shortages and technical limits.

Symbols

V Sign

The V sign or victory symbol was associated with the Marcos family when Ferdinand Marcos Sr. used the gesture during his four presidential campaigns. His son and namesake, President Bongbong Marcos, his electoral alliance, and his supporters used the "V sign" gesture as the official identity of their political campaign during the 2022 presidential elections. In the pro-Marcos camp, the "V sign" (made by raising the index and middle fingers to form a V) stands for victory and peace.

Color Red

The color red became prominent in the Marcos political machinery during the late 1970s through the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan. For the loyalist camp, red signifies strength, unyielding political continuity, nationalism tied to the strongman era, and a direct counter-symbol to the anti-Marcos opposition's yellow. Loyalists also clarified that their usage of color red is not the same as Leftist, Communists usage of the color, in which they called "hijacking of the terrorists".

Allied parties and organizations

Political parties

Political organizations

  • Kabataang Barangay (currently Sangguniang Kabataan)
  • Marcos Loyalist Movement
  • One Nation Movement
  • Kilusang Pilipinismo (founded by Nilo Tayag, a former member of the Communist Party of the Philippines)
  • United Vloggers and Influencers of the Philippines (A group of internet vloggers formed in 2022 to support Marcos Jr.'s presidency)
  • Alyansa Bantay Kapayapaan at Demokrasya (a multi-sectoral and civic alliance in the Philippines that actively voices support for the administration of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., particularly regarding national sovereignty and anti-disinformation campaigns.)
  • Reform the Armed Forces Movement (a once Anti Marcos military cabal who later pledged loyalty to Marcos Sr., and staged several unsuccessful coups against then-president Corazon Aquino)

Notable politicians, figures, and supporters

Political characteristics

Marcosism is primarily characterized by authoritarian governance, systemic corruption, and political patronage within state institutions. Under Ferdinand Marcos, independent democratic institutions—including the judiciary, the press, and legal opposition—were systematically subverted and coerced. This concentration of executive power facilitated widespread crony capitalism, enabling the Marcos family and their political allies to amass vast fortunes through state-sanctioned monopolies. Furthermore, the regime relied heavily on political patronage within the armed forces, which critics argue eroded professional military standards and exacerbated regional anti-government insurgencies.[4]

Contemporary Evaluation

During the final years of the Marcos regime, foreign observers and international press increasingly used the term to analyze the country's political and economic decline. In November 1985, an editorial in the Los Angeles Times characterized Marcosism as the root cause of the nation's political instability, citing rampant corruption, economic mismanagement near bankruptcy, and the rise of communist insurgency across the provinces.[5]

Legacy

Following the 1986 People Power Revolution and the end of the dictatorship, the Marcos family returned from exile in the 1990s and gradually re-established their political influence in the Philippines. Over the following decades, family members and political allies engaged in efforts to rehabilitate the regime's historical narrative, frequently presenting the martial law period as a "golden age" of infrastructure development and law and order.[6]

The concept of Marcosism saw a major revival with the election of Bongbong Marcos as president in 2022. Some media have described this resurgence as a "Marcosian restoration".[7][8]

See also

Similar ideologies

References

  1. ^ National Mid-week: Volume 1, Issues 14-26. Lagda Pub. Incorporated. 1986. p. 12.
  2. ^ Vincent Bevins (May 19, 2020). The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World. PublicAffairs. The right-wing Marcos, reelected under slightly suspicious circumstances in 1968, and his wife, Imelda, were close friends of California Governor Ronald Reagan, who attended the gala opening of Imelda's lavish, multimillion-dollar Cultural Center.
  3. ^ Gokay, Bulent; Aybak, Tunc (2023). "2023 Elections in Turkey within Global Context: Right Wing Populism in the Era of Global Shift". Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies. doi:10.1080/19448953.2023.2258003. Retrieved 9 August 2026. Developments such as razor fences covering Eastern Europe's borders against North African and Middle Eastern migrants, Narendra Modi using religious nationalism to mobilize a large segment of the country's Hindu majority in India, right-wing populist mavericks like Duterte and Bongbong' Marcos in the Philippines, and Orbán's right-wing authoritarian populist regime in Hungary are among the many morbid symptoms of our times. So is Trump's still powerful isolationism ('America first'), which is supported by Christian evangelicals both at home and abroad.
  4. ^ Mark M. Turner (1990) Authoritarian rule and the dilemma of legitimacy: The case of President Marcos of the Philippines, The Pacific Review, 3:4, 349–362, DOI: 10.1080/09512749008718886
  5. ^ "The Menace of Manila". Los Angeles Times. 4 November 1985. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  6. ^ Talamayan, Fernan; Candelaria, John Lee (2024). "Populist desires, nostalgic narratives: the Marcos golden age myth and manipulation of collective memories on YouTube". Asian Journal of Political Science. 33 (1): 55–73. doi:10.1080/02185377.2024.2416116. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
  7. ^ Cruz, Tonyo (25 April 2026). "Leni's choice". Manila Bulletin. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  8. ^ Pangalangan, Raphael A. (21 September 2023). "DepEd: 'Diktadurang _____'?". Inquirer.net. Retrieved 6 August 2026.

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