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June 30 (Reuters) – Ferdinand Marcos Jr took the oath of office on Thursday as Philippines president, 36 years after a people’s revolt drove his father from office after two decades in power. nL1N2YH03Q

Below is a timeline of key events for the Marcos family, the country’s most famous and politically influential dynasty.

1965 – After 15 years as a lawmaker, Ferdinand Marcos wins a presidential election, following a campaign portraying him as a decorated World War Two hero, claims that historians have disputed. Marcos is popular in his first term after borrowing from abroad to modernise infrastructure.

1969 – Marcos wins a second term, but an earlier debt-fuelled spending spree triggers an economic crisis and soaring inflation. Public discontent and social unrest simmers and opposition against Marcos grows on several fronts.

1972 – Marcos declares martial law to restore order and dissolves Congress, which allows him to stay in power beyond the constitution’s two-term limit. Thousands of opponents are arrested, beaten, tortured or killed or disappear during nine years of martial law.

1981 – Martial law is lifted. A presidential election is held and Marcos wins by a huge margin, with much of the opposition boycotting.

His son and namesake, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, returns to the Philippines after studying in Britain and the United States and becomes Ilocos Norte governor.

1983 – The president’s biggest political rival, Benigno Aquino, is assassinated upon his return from exile, triggering anger against the Marcos administration.

1985 – As domestic discontent grows, Marcos calls a snap election. Aquino’s widow, Corazon, decides to run and opposition starts to unite against Marcos.

1986 – Marcos wins an election that observers and the United States say is fraudulent. Opponents call for protests and civil disobedience and are threatened with arrest for sedition. The president’s defence chiefs quit and side with a growing “people power” movement.

The Marcos family and an entourage of dozens flee into exile in Hawaii, with a customs inventory that includes 22 crates of cash and millions of dollars worth of jewellery, including diamond-studded tiaras, a gold crown and dozens of pearl necklaces.

A special panel is created to retrieve an estimated $10 billion of wealth that disappeared during the Marcos era. It will eventually recover about half of that.

1989 – Marcos Sr dies in Hawaii age 72.

1991 – The Marcos family return home to face graft and tax evasion charges, but are cleared. Over the next two decades, Marcos Jr, sister Imee, and mother Imelda, rebuild the family’s political network, between them serving concurrently as governor of Ilocos Norte and its representatives in Congress and several stints in the Senate.

1992 – Imelda Marcos contests the presidency, finishing fifth out of six candidates in the first of two failed presidential runs.

1993 – The body of Marcos Sr is returned to the Philippines but is denied a burial in a heroes’ cemetery for former presidents, a decision the family challenges for years.

2016 – After six years as senator, Marcos Jr contests the vice presidential election but narrowly loses.

President Rodrigo Duterte agrees to the Marcos family’s request to bury Marcos Sr with military honours at the heroes’ cemetery.

2018 – Imelda, now aged 89, is found guilty in absentia of seven counts of corruption involving use of Swiss bank accounts, collectively worth up to 77 years in prison. She is bailed pending appeal.

2022 – Marcos Jr wins a presidential election by the biggest margin since his father’s rule and takes the oath of office pledging to work for a bright future, while praising his late father’s achievements.

(Reporting by Martin Petty and Enrico dela Cruz
Editing by Gareth Jones)

((martin.petty@tr.com; +66896070413))

Recasts, adds more Marcos quotes, protests, reaction

By Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales

MANILA, June 30 (Reuters) – Ferdinand Marcos, the son of the Philippine ruler overthrown in a popular uprising 36 years ago, was sworn in as the country’s president on Thursday, promising to strive for unity and a better future while praising his late father’s legacy.

Marcos, 64, won last month’s election in a landslide, capping off his wealthy family’s decades-long quest to regain the presidency and transform its image after it was driven out in 1986. nL2N2X00JH nL3N2X13YT

“We are here to repair a house divided, to make it whole and to stand strong again,” he said in an inauguration speech that echoed his campaign slogans of unity.

In a rousing, 30-minute address with sister Imee, a senator, and mother Imelda, a former congresswoman, seated nearby, Marcos Jr thanked voters for giving him “the biggest electoral mandate in the history of Philippine democracy”, and said the country would go far on his watch.

The elder Ferdinand Marcos ruled for two decades from 1965, almost half of it under martial law, helping him to extend his power until his overthrow and his family’s retreat into exile during a “people power” revolution.

Thousands of his opponents were jailed, killed or disappeared during his rule, and the family name became synonymous with cronyism, extravagance and billions of dollars of missing state wealth. The Marcos family denies embezzlement.

“I am here not to talk about the past. I am here to tell you about our future,” Marcos Jr said before thousands of cheering supporters, waving flags, and wearing red, a colour associated with his father.

“No looking back in anger or nostalgia.”

Marcos Jr, who closely resembles his late father, defended his father’s legacy and said he would emulate his achievements.

“I once knew a man who saw what little had been achieved since independence … but he got it done. Sometimes with the needed support, sometimes without, so, will it be with his son. You will get no excuses from me,” he said.

Marcos took his oath at the heavily guarded National Museum, once a legislative building that witnessed frequent demonstrations against his father’s presidency.

‘REJECT, MARCOS’

Close by, hundreds protested against Marcos, angered by a campaign his critics say relied heavily on social media to win votes by debunking narratives of Marcos-era abuses and decadence and offering alternative versions of history.

Carrying banners saying “Reject, Marcos” they gathered at the Plaza Miranda, where some of his father’s opponents were killed and injured in a bombing blamed on communists.

Marcos campaigned on the slogan “together, we shall rise again”, invoking nostalgia for his father’s rule, which his family and supporters have portrayed as a golden age for the Philippines.

At a heroes’ monument, victims of persecution under martial law gathered for their own oath-taking, promising to guard against what they called tyranny and lies.

“The survivors are a vanishing breed, if not an endangered species and the time to correct falsehoods and lay bare the truth is now,” said Cristina Bawagan, who said she suffered abuse under the elder Marcos’ rule.

His son has pledged to deliver jobs and bring down consumer prices in a country of 110 million people, nearly a quarter of whom live on less than $2 per day.

He said he would not disappoint the public and would improve food sufficiency, education, infrastructure and energy supply, tackle plastics pollution and better support millions of overseas Filipino workers.

“I am ready for the task,” he said. “I will get it done.”

(Additional reporting by Peter Blaza; Editing by Martin Petty, Michael Perry and Alison Williams)

((karen.lema@thomsonreuters.com; +632 841-8938))