Challenge: best Marcos presidency possible

With a POD of Jan. 1, 1966, have Ferdinand Marcos' presidency be a highly successful one, especially on economic matters. Bonus if a successful transition to a parliamentary system is made. Double Bonus if Aquino is trounced in two consecutive elections. Triple Bonus if GMA becomes PM or President later on.
 
With a POD of Jan. 1, 1966, have Ferdinand Marcos' presidency be a highly successful one, especially on economic matters. Bonus if a successful transition to a parliamentary system is made. Double Bonus if Aquino is trounced in two consecutive elections. Triple Bonus if GMA becomes PM or President later on.

Pre-ML Marcos' administration was economically successful, IIRC. It took a decade of dictatorial rule to undo his own achievements. So I think this one would be easy - don't be so hell-bent on keeping Malacanan. Now whether his successor tries parliamentarianism is up in the air, of course, seeing as he can't disappear pesky opponents...
 
I think he can try Cha-Cha and transition to a parliamentary system with himself as PM. IOTL he only turned to martial law when the Con-Con refused to do that in 1971. Or he can do what GMA is doing now: give up the presidency, run for the House or Senate from Ilocos Norte, and become a de facto PM. It's very ironic that GMA is succeeding where Marcos failed: appearing to give up power but actually consolidating her grip on it, via perfectly legal methods.
 
I think he can try Cha-Cha and transition to a parliamentary system with himself as PM. IOTL he only turned to martial law when the Con-Con refused to do that in 1971. Or he can do what GMA is doing now: give up the presidency, run for the House or Senate from Ilocos Norte, and become a de facto PM. It's very ironic that GMA is succeeding where Marcos failed: appearing to give up power but actually consolidating her grip on it, via perfectly legal methods.

He'd be perfect for a House Speaker, then, or Majority Leader - who knows? Ferdinand Marcos, the Reed Cannon of the PI? :D Sure beats "nasty authoritarian dictator."
 
Majority Leader was Marcos' pre-presidential post before 1965. Speaker/PM is GMA's role come June 30. I think of Marcos as a LBJ-type figure as a brilliant legislator turned president.
 
Fatal heart attack in 1971? Then he never has a chance to "go bad".

Unlikely - he wasn't young, but he wasn't the old gerontocrat he was in the late 80's. Maybe one of the assassination attempts that plagued him during the FQS actually succeeds, and then Fernando Lopez becomes President. That's one plausible scenario. OTOH, his economic record won't be as strong as if he just serves out his term and lets the scheduled elections run. Even if, to his horror, Benigno Aquino wins the election, he'll be seen more as an elder statesman and not as the bane of the nation that he is seen as outside the Ilocoses.
 
Marcos is not going to give up power voluntarily. Unlike GMA, who can still run the country as Speaker/PM, his goal is not term extension but the imposition of the New Society, with the country under military rule with himself as civilian apex. All you have to do is read his UP Law thesis: "The Necessity of Corporatism in the Philippines", which was enacted to the letter after 1972 and is hardly subtle in its intentions.
 
Marcos is not going to give up power voluntarily. Unlike GMA, who can still run the country as Speaker/PM, his goal is not term extension but the imposition of the New Society, with the country under military rule with himself as civilian apex. All you have to do is read his UP Law thesis: "The Necessity of Corporatism in the Philippines", which was enacted to the letter after 1972 and is hardly subtle in its intentions.

So, basically, to achieve your goal, basically we need to have some radical student or Commie activist actually succeed with their attempts to kill Marcos (which were apparently a dime-a-dozen). I'm particularly fond of the one involving going up to the President after a play and hacking him to pieces with a bolo-cum-stage prop - especially because, had security been slower to act, it may have actually succeeded (as it did, he escaped, merely injured and bloodied from the attempt)
 
Of course, what they didn't realize was that the FSQ gave Marcos an excuse for 1072. Everyone expected him to declare martial law and cancel the 1973 election, but they expected it to be closer to term's end than Sept. 1972. That's how he caught the opposition off guard and swept them all into prison the first week. Rather like the shrieking when GMA declared a state of emergency (though admittedly the post-Ferdie martial law, which does not confer God-Empress powers like in 1972) in '06 or martial law in Mindanao last Xmas.
 
Of course, what they didn't realize was that the FSQ gave Marcos an excuse for 1072. Everyone expected him to declare martial law and cancel the 1973 election, but they expected it to be closer to term's end than Sept. 1972. That's how he caught the opposition off guard and swept them all into prison the first week. Rather like the shrieking when GMA declared a state of emergency (though admittedly the post-Ferdie martial law, which does not confer God-Empress powers like in 1972) in '06 or martial law in Mindanao last Xmas.

Of course, back then, many people (not just Ilocanos) initially welcomed the whole martial-law and New Society schtick - people were sick of the partisan bickering and general verbal civil warfare that Philippine elections were in the sixties. Basically the attitude among the older generation was, "So what if a few students and politicians end up in prison because of this? The former need to know their place, and the latter are corrupt bastards." In fact, if Marcos could miraculously have kept the economy going through the 80's, I think the general regime would still be in place today - and for my rhetoric against the Marcoses and all they stand for (despite being half-Ilokano myself), I'd probably be in a cell in Bilbilid for 'subversive propaganda'.
 
I agree 100%: he was God until the economy tanked in the late 1970s. That was largely due to graft IIRC, and the bottom fell out after the Aquino assassination. A better idea might have been to chopper him out to an Ilocano swamp in 1972-3, when Nixon didn't give a damn what Ferdie did. Put a .50 bullet in the back of Ninoy's head, RTB. No one's the wiser. Best to include Cory as well, to be on the safe side.
 
I agree 100%: he was God until the economy tanked in the late 1970s. That was largely due to graft IIRC, and the bottom fell out after the Aquino assassination. A better idea might have been to chopper him out to an Ilocano swamp in 1972-3, when Nixon didn't give a damn what Ferdie did. Put a .50 bullet in the back of Ninoy's head, RTB. No one's the wiser. Best to include Cory as well, to be on the safe side.

Uh, you do know the Ilocos countryside is not that swampy, right? More likely, if they have to set out from Ilocos, would be to fly him out to the South China Sea, do the same thing, push him out a la Argentina, and wait for the sharks to do their work. Heck, it doesn't even have to be a military plane - just claim it was an "unfortunate airplane accident", repaint the aircraft, and move on.
 
Hmm... I wonder what the long-term effects would be. There's no one else to unite the opposition: all the others can be bought. He could easily have bought Laurel in '86 IOTL and allowed him to become VP in a national unity government, thus defusing a good deal of moderate anti-Marcosian sentiment. Ferdie can offer him all sorts of financial and political rewards. What can Cory offer? Putting some political weight on the ticket, only to get dumped shortly thereafter as a Marcosian-turned-Cory loyalist.
 
Hmm... I wonder what the long-term effects would be. There's no one else to unite the opposition: all the others can be bought. He could easily have bought Laurel in '86 IOTL and allowed him to become VP in a national unity government, thus defusing a good deal of moderate anti-Marcosian sentiment. Ferdie can offer him all sorts of financial and political rewards. What can Cory offer? Putting some political weight on the ticket, only to get dumped shortly thereafter as a Marcosian-turned-Cory loyalist.

Probably either a succession to Bongbong (with Imelda as regent?) or a power struggle between Ver and Enrile, with one of them winning. Out of those outcomes, I'd prefer the military over Bongbong.
 
Unlikely - he wasn't young, but he wasn't the old gerontocrat he was in the late 80's. Maybe one of the assassination attempts that plagued him during the FQS actually succeeds, and then Fernando Lopez becomes President. That's one plausible scenario. OTOH, his economic record won't be as strong as if he just serves out his term and lets the scheduled elections run. Even if, to his horror, Benigno Aquino wins the election, he'll be seen more as an elder statesman and not as the bane of the nation that he is seen as outside the Ilocoses.

Brain aneurysm?

My point is that Marcos was inherently corrupt, and the only way for him to be "successful" is to exit the stage before he puts his plans in place, or be prevented from becoming President.

Had the Phillippines remained American, I have no doubt that a Governor Marcos, or a Resident Commissioner Marcos would have found himself doing a perp walk into the US District Court for Manila on any number of charges.
 
Marcos' problem wasn't the corruption per se. One of the Philippines' most astute political commentators, Manuel Quezon III, summed it up best during the 1986 presidential election: "everyone expects politicians to be crooks. What Filipinos cannot stand are brazen crooks." Dumping ballots on the ground in full view of foreign observers is hardly subtle. Similarly, the alleged vote fraud with "Hello Garci" during the 2004 election that gave GMA a second term by 3%. Remember, even with NAMFREL (accredited poll watcher) counting, Cory only won by just over 51% of the vote. That meant nearly half the country wanted a dying old man who'd held dictatorial powers for 13 years over the "housewife" as Marcos often referred to Cory.
 
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