page_title: Ferdinand Marcos
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Ferdinand Marcos / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: English: Ferdinand Marcos (right), younger brother Pacifico, younger sister Elizabeth and mother Josefa Edralin. Family picture circa 1925
context_page_description: Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. was a Filipino politician and kleptocrat who was the tenth President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. A leading member of the New Society Movement, he ruled as a dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981. One of the most controversial leaders of the 20th century, Marcos' rule was infamous for its corruption, extravagance, and brutality.
  Marcos claimed an active part in World War II, including fighting alongside the Americans in the Bataan Death March and being the "most decorated war hero in the Philippines". A number of his claims were found to be false and United States Army documents described Marcos's wartime claims as "fraudulent" and "absurd."
  Marcos started as an attorney, then served in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the Philippine Senate from 1959 to 1965. He was elected president in 1965, and presided over a growing economy during the beginning and intermediate portion of his 20-year rule, but ended in loss of livelihood, extreme poverty, and a crushing debt crisis.
context_section_description: Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos was born on September 11, 1917, in the town of Sarrat, Ilocos Norte to Mariano Marcos (1897–1945) and Josefa Edralin (1893–1988). Mariano Marcos was a lawyer and congressman from Ilocos Norte, Philippines. He was killed in the waning days of World War II. Josefa Marcos was a schoolteacher who would far outlive her husband—dying in 1988, two years after the Marcos family left her in Malacañang Palace when they fled into exile after the 1986 People Power Revolution.
  Ferdinand was baptized into the Philippine Independent Church, but was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church at the age of three.
  Marcos studied law at the University of the Philippines in Manila, attending the College of Law. He excelled in both curricular and extra-curricular activities, becoming a member of the university's swimming, boxing, and wrestling teams. He was also an accomplished orator, debater, and writer for the student newspaper. While attending the UP College of Law, he became a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi, where he met his future colleagues in government and some of his staunchest critics.
  When he sat for the 1939 Bar Examinations, he was the bar topnotcher (top scorer), with a score of 98.8%, but questions from various sectors prompted the Philippine Supreme Court to re-calibrate his score to 92.35%. He graduated cum laude. He was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu and the Phi Kappa Phi international honor societies, the latter giving him its Most Distinguished Member Award 37 years later.
  Ferdinand Marcos received his Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) (honoris causa) degree in 1967 from Central Philippine University.
caption: Ferdinand Marcos (right) with his family in the 1920s
exif: {}