The other Dictator, a Philippine Timeline

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The other Dictator, a Philippine Timeline

Note:

The First Three Presidents of these Timeline after Marcos are Danding Cojuangco, Cory Aquino(started as VP Running mate of Salvador Laurel and became the VP of the second term of Danding Cojuangco) and Fidel V. Ramos, that is a spoiler for you..




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On January 17, 1981, President Marcos announced the lifting of martial law via Proclamation № 2045; in his address, he also inaugurated the "New Republic." Although martial law has ended, Marcos retained all of the presidential decrees, legislative powers and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus. The lifting of martial law was speculated to be due to the election of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, with whom Marcos wanted to have close relationship with and who was to be inaugurated only three days later, and the arrival of Pope John Paul II in the country. In February, the Interim Batasang Pambansa (parliament) passed a constitutional amendment that changed the parliamentary system of government to a semi-presidential modeled on that of France. The electorate approved the amendment on a plebiscite held on April. Marcos then called a presidential election to be scheduled on June.


The opposition originally, as early as April, had decided to boycott the election. The United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO), the main opposition umbrella group, wanted to clean the voters' list, a revamping of the Commission on Elections, a campaign to be held nationwide and that UNIDO accredited as a minority party. UNIDO and Marcos made a compromise. UNIDO one of the reasons why UNIDO refused to participate was Benigno Aquino, Jr. (who was in exile in Massachusetts) was not allowed to participate since only people fifty years old or older were allowed to participate (Aquino was 48 years old at the time), however, a compromise candidate was chosen aside from Benigno Aquino – Jovito Salonga.


Due to UNIDO joining and Marcos being weak the KBL and Nacionalista chose one of the brains behind the Martial Law as their candidate – Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco as their candidate.


Cojuangco’s 60% win against the 30% of Jovito Salonga was considered the second president after the establishment of the 1973 constitution.


Eduardo Cojuangco was inaugurated on June 30, 1981 at the Quirino Grandstand, with then United States Vice President George H.W. Bush in attendance. This is when Bush made the infamous praise for the former president Marcos.


"We love your adherence to democratic principles and to the democratic process."


Eduardo Cojuangco would continue the policies of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and would be the one to open the Powerplant in Bataan started by Ferdinand E. Marcos, he would be the one called as the Other dictator.
 
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Prior to his departure from Taipei, Aquino gave an interview from his hotel room in which he indicated that he would be wearing a bulletproof vest. He advised the journalists that would be accompanying him on the flight: "You have to be ready with your hand camera because this action can become very fast. In a matter of 3 or 4 minutes it could be all over, and I may not be able to talk to you again after this." His last few moments in the flight while being interviewed by the journalist Jim Laurie, and just prior to disembarking from the flight at Manila airport, were recorded on camera.



A moving screen shot of Aquino as he was being escorted out of the plane by military personnel, less than a minute before being killed.

On the morning of August 21, 1983, accompanied by his brother-in-law and a group of journalists, Aquino boarded China Airlines Flight 811 (Taipei to Manila). In Manila, a contingent of over 1,000 armed soldiers and police were assigned by the government to provide security for Aquino's arrival. Flight 811 arrived at Manila International airport at 1:04 in the afternoon. Upon the airplane's arrival at the gate, soldiers boarded the airplane to arrest Aquino. The soldiers escorted him off the airplane onto the jet bridge; however, instead of following the jet bridge to the terminal, they exited the jet bridge down the service staircase onto the apron, where a military vehicle waited to transport him to prison.


Sometime between his egress from the aircraft and his boarding of the ground vehicle, several gunshots were heard, and when the firing stopped, Aquino and a man later identified as Rolando Galman lay dead on the apron, both from gunshot wounds. Aquino's body was carried into the AVSECOM (Aviation Security Command) van by two AVSECOM SWAT soldiers, while another soldier at the bumper of the van continued to fire shots at Galman. Then the AVSECOM van sped away, leaving behind the bullet-riddled body of Galman. The subsequent Sandiganbayan ruling established that Aquino died before arriving at Fort Bonifacio General hospital. However, this remains controversial due to contrary evidence presented in court interviews of General Custodio.


Pablo Martinez one of the convicted conspirators in Ninoy Aquino Jr.'s assassination alleged that his co-conspirators told him that President Eduardo Cojuangco ordered the assassination. Martinez also alleges that only he and Galman knew of the assassination, and that Galman was the actual shooter, something that is not corroborated by other evidence in the case.
 
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The 1973 Constitution, promulgated after Marcos' declaration of martial law, was supposed to introduce a parliamentary-style government. Legislative power was vested in a unicameral National Assembly whose members were elected for six-year terms. The President was ideally elected as the symbolic and purely ceremonial head of state chosen from amongst the Members of the National Assembly for a six-year term and could be re-elected to an unlimited number of terms. Upon election, the President ceased to be a Member of the National Assembly. During his term, the President was not allowed to be a member of a political party or hold any other office.


Executive power was meant to be exercised by the Prime Minister who was also elected from amongst the sitting Assemblymen. The Prime Minister was to be the head of government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. This constitution was subsequently amended four times (arguably five, depending on how one considers Proclamation № 3 of 1986, see below).


From 16–17 October 1976, a majority of barangay voters (also called "Citizen Assemblies") approved that martial law should be continued and ratified the amendments to the Constitution proposed by President Marcos.


The 1976 amendments were:


an Interim Batasang Pambansa (IBP) substituting for the Interim National Assembly;

the President would also become the Prime Minister and he would continue to exercise legislative powers until such time as martial law was lifted.

The Sixth Amendment authorized the President to legislate on his own on an "emergency" basis:


Whenever in the judgement of the President there exists a grave emergency or a threat or imminence thereof, or whenever the Interim Batasang Pambansa or the regular National Assembly fails or is unable to act adequately on any matter for any reason that in his judgment requires immediate action, he may, in order to meet the exigency, issue the necessary decrees, orders or letters of instructions, which shall form part of the law of the land.


The 1973 Constitution was further amended in 1980 and 1981. In the 1980 amendment, the retirement age of the members of the judiciary was extended to 70 years. In the 1981 amendments, the false parliamentary system was formally modified into a French-style semi-presidential system:


executive power was restored to the President;

direct election of the President was restored;

an Executive Committee composed of the Prime Minister and not more than 14 members was created to "assist the President in the exercise of his powers and functions and in the performance of his duties as he may prescribe;" and the Prime Minister was a mere head of the Cabinet.

Further, the amendments instituted electoral reforms and provided that a natural born citizen of the Philippines who has lost his citizenship may be a transferee of private land for use by him as his residence.

The last amendments in 1984, during the term of Danding Cojuangco abolished the Executive Committee and restored the position of Vice-President (which did not exist in the original, unamended 1973 Constitution).


While the 1973 Constitution ideally provided for a true parliamentary system, in practise, Marcos had made use of subterfuge and manipulation in order to keep executive powers for himself, rather than devolving these to the Assembly and the cabinet headed by the Prime Minister. The end result was that the final form of the 1973 Constitution – after all amendments and subtle manipulations – was merely the abolition of the Senate and a series of cosmetic rewordings. The old American-derived terminology was replaced by names more associated with parliamentary government: for example, the House of Representatives became known as the "Batasang Pambansâ" (National Assembly), Departments became "Ministries", and their cabinet secretaries became known as "cabinet ministers", with the President's assistant – the Executive Secretary – now being styled the "Prime Minister". Marcos' purported parliamentary system in practise functioned as an authoritaritan presidential system, with all real power concentrated in the hands of the President but with the premise that such was now constitutional.
 
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Following her husband's assassination in 1983, Aquino became active and visible in various demonstrations and protests held against the Cojuangco regime. She began to assume the mantle of leadership left by her husband Ninoy and started to become the symbolic figurehead of the anti-Marcos political opposition. In the last week of November 1985, Cojuangco surprised the nation by announcing on American television that he would hold a snap presidential election in February 1986, in order to allow the election of the Vice President according to the new constitution.


Initially reluctant, Aquino was eventually prevailed upon to heed the people's clamor, after one million signatures urging her to run for president were presented to her. Despite this, United Opposition (UNIDO) leader Laurel, did not give way to his close friend's widow, however he decided for Cory Aquino to be his vice president instead and so she agreed in her agreement with her friend.


One day after the Snap Elections, Doy Laurel was taking the lead according to the NAMFREL's tally but was short lived when Cojuanco’s tally began leading. There were countless of daily protests and street demonstrations fueled by the government's counting of the tally and the site of Cojuangco winning the polls.


Afterwards, Danding Cojuangco and Cory Aquino were both declared as winners of the elections, Cory Aquino defeated the running mate of Danding Cojuangco, Arturo Tolentino in the polls and got 60% of the votes.



On February 25, 1986, Corazon Aquino was inaugurated as Vice President of the Philippines in a simple ceremony at Club Filipino in Greenhills, about a kilometer from Camp Crame.


An hour later, Pres. Eduardo Cojuangco held a separate the inauguration at Malacañang separate from the new Vice President
 
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