The 14-year era when military rule became the primary tool of power

Countries & Cities · Published 12 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: In 1972, Ferdinand Marcos placed the entire Philippines under martial law, citing communist threats and civil unrest. While he claimed it was necessary for stability, the period became a notorious era of one-man rule, marked by massive economic shifts and a devastating record of human rights abuses.

The imposition of martial law under Ferdinand Marcos began with Presidential Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and was announced on September 23. Despite the official lifting of the decree on January 17, 1981, Marcos kept nearly all dictatorial authority until the EDSA Revolution removed him on February 25, 1986. This 14-year period was characterized by the suspension of civil rights and the application of military justice to civilians, including the use of military tribunals.

Marcos justified his actions by citing the 'communist threat' from the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM). However, critics like Lorenzo Tañada and Jovito R. Salonga accused him of exaggerating these threats to consolidate power and bypass the two-term limit set by the 1935 Constitution. Economic instability also played a role; a balance of payments crisis following massive infrastructure spending in 1969 had created a 'social volcano' of unrest, including the First Quarter Storm protests in 1970.

The human cost of the dictatorship was profound. Records from the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines and Amnesty International lead historians to estimate that this era involved 70,000 incarcerations, 35,000 documented tortures, 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, and 737 'disappeared' individuals. Beyond the social impact, investigators later discovered that the martial law period allowed the Marcos family to hide secret stashes of wealth that courts later ruled were of criminal origin.

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