Born in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte on September 11, 1917 to Mariano Marcos and Josefa Edralin. He was the 10th president of the Philippines and held office from 1966 to 1986. He established an authoritarian regime in t6he Philippines that came under criticism for corruption and for it suppression of democratic processes. Besides being president, he also became the first prime ministerin Philippine history.

Marcos studied law at the University of the Philippines and while still a student he was tried for the assasination in 1933 of Assemblyman Julio Nalundasan, a political opponent of his father. He was found guilty in November 1939 but argued his case on appeal to the philippine SAupreme Court and won acquittal a year later. After graduation, he took the bar examinations and became its topnotcher.

During World War II Marcos served as an officer with the Philippine armed forces. captured by the Japanese, he survived the Death March from Bataan to central Luzon and then escaped. Marcos' subsequent claims of being an important leader in the Filipino guerilla resistance movement were a central factor in his later political success, but U.S. government archives that he actually played little or no part in anti-Japanese activities during the war.

From 1946 to 1947 Marcos was technical assistant to President Manuel Roxas. He became a member of the House of Representatives (1949-59) and of the Senate (1963-65). Marcos also assumed the position of president of the Philippine senate He married Imelda Romualdez in 1954 who successfully helped him later in his campaigned for the presidency. In 1965 Marcos broke off from the Liberal Party after failing to get his party's nomination for president. He then ran as the Nationalista Perty's candidate for president against Diosdado Macapagal who was the chosen candidate of the Liberal Party.