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The case of the Marcos Dictatorship in the Philippinies

The different stages in the political evolution of a country do not necessarily occur one after the other. There can be cases when it slips into a more degenerate stage instead of moving up in the natural evolution of power. The Philippines had experienced the age of kings very early when each island would be ruled by a king or a Raja or a Datu. The advent of the Spaniards was pushed by the ambitions of the Church to spread its power over greater portions of the world. The warriors and the kings were at the forefront of this venture at the instigation of the Church. For three hundred years the power of the priests held sway over the islands until the conquering ambitions of the Merchant class personified by the Americans caused the Spanish to forego their hold on the Archipelago. The Philippines therefore fell under the hegemony of the Americans which was motivated by the Merchant of profits.

The Americans left the Philippines under the guardianship of the Oligarchs or the Filipino merchant class. Ferdinand E. Marcos was a dynamic, brilliant visionary who belonged to the warrior class. He managed to present himself as a member of the merchant class and was elected president. He soon showed his true colors by embarking on a campaign of militarization which saw an increase of the military from 50,000 to 500,000 troops. He also set his sights on Sabah which was owned by the Sultan of Sulu but leased by the British and was eventually turned over to Malaysia when the British abandoned the direct rule of their colonies.

When his term was about to end he engineered a continuation of his rule by declaring Martial Law. All in all he ruled for twenty years as an absolute dictator but he was eventually driven out by the merchant class who had their standard bearer in the person of Benigno Aquino a member of the elite oligarch class. His rule therefore represents a falling back and is not really an evolutionary step. The visions of military rule by Honasan and the Oakwood mutineers are mere pipe dreams and will never prosper owing to the tremendous force of historical necessity.

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