In 1964, Ferdinand Marcos won the presidency on the back of his campaign pitch “to make the country great again” and had two four-year terms to make good on that promise.
But it did not happen.
He placed the entire country under martial law, through Proclamation No. 1081 dated Sept. 21, 1972, after the bombing of a Liberal Party rally at the Plaza Miranda that he blamed on the communists and following his public pronouncements that “the society is sick.”
The New Society, as replacement of the supposed “sick society,” lasted until the People Power revolution in February 1986.
Those who would be president — the likes of Jovito Salonga, Jose Diokno, Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo, Emmanuel Pelaez and others — were too old.
In an interview soon after he arrived in Honolulu, Marcos predicted that the Philippines will be under communist rule in six months. It did not happen. That was the last of Marcos’ bull.
JOSE J. FERRER JR., jjferrerjr1@yahoo.com