Mariano Marcos

Mariano Marcos was born in Batac, Ilocos Norte on April 21, 1895 to Fabian Marcos and Cresencia Rubio. A farmer, the elder Marcos had served as gobernadorcillo and justice of the peace of Batac after the Philippine Revolution, who championed the Ilocano language but at the same time cultivated a scholarship in the Spanish language.

A militant follower of Gregorio Aglipay and member of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, he raised his son under the Aglipayan faith. Mariano Marcos had his primary and intermediate education in his hometown. Then he went to Manila to study at the Philippine Normal School (now the Philippine Normal University), where he graduated valedictorian, with honors in oratory and debating, in 1916.

One of his co-graduates was Josefa Edralin (1893–1988), a lady four years his senior and hailing from a landed family whom he married that same year. They had four children:

• Ferdinand Marcos (1917–1989), who became president of the Philippines (1965–1986)
• Pacifico Marcos (1919–unknown), a physician
• Elizabeth Marcos-Keon (1921–1986), former Ilocos Norte governor (1971–1983) and mother of Michael Marcos Keon
• Fortuna Marcos-Barba (1931–2018)

Right after he received his diploma, the Bureau of Education named him maestro insular in Laoag, a position he held until 1917, when he was promoted to maestro principal. A year later, he was enlisted in the National Guard and given the rank of lieutenant. On September 16, 1919, after passing a rigid examination, he was named supervising teacher, a position that required traveling and doing the rounds of the public schools in the whole province. He held this position until January 4, 1921, when he resigned to accept the position of high school teacher at the National University. While teaching in this institution, he studied law at the University of the Philippines. Among his professors were Justices Malcolm and Laurel. He graduated valedictorian with a bachelor of laws degree on March 27, 1925, passing the bar not long after. He and his lawyer-brother Pio opened a law office in Batac, with a branch in Manila.

Historical marker by the National Historical Commission dedicated to him.

Meanwhile, with the encouragement of his friends and admirers, he had entered politics. Running under the banner of the Nacionalista Party, and backed by the majority of his fellow Batacqueños, he was elected representative of the second district of Ilocos Norte. Marcos was considered one of the most effective speakers in the entire province during his time. His powerful voice gave him an edge over other politicians during political rallies. He successfully ran for the same position in 1928. In the legislature, he obtained the chairmanship of the powerful committee on ways and means, and likewise served as member of other committees including those on public instruction, public works, public estate, and mines and natural resources. He bid for the same seat in 1932, but lost to his rival from Laoag, Emilio Medina, a consequence of the Batac vote being divided between him and his town mate and fellow candidate, Julio Nalundasan. In 1935, cast another bid at the legislature, this time for a seat at the National Assembly under the Commonwealth government, but lost to Nalundasan. Two days after the elections, Julio Nalundasan was hit in the head by a rifle shot while inside his home and died instantly. Mariano Marcos, his son Ferdinand, his brother Pio, and his brother-in-law Quirino Lizardo, were accused of the crime and eventually arrested and tried for the crime in 1938. He and his brother were eventually acquitted but his son and brother-in-law, were both convicted. A Supreme Court decision penned by JP Laurel would reverse the conviction in 1940. It is believed that the young Marcos' godfather Ferdinand Chua who was also the municipal court judge in Batac interceded for him. His wife, while she was still alive, recalled that Marcos was strict about the training of their children but at the same time very understanding. A product of the old school, he adhered to a strict code of discipline that he passed onto his children, inculcating in them primarily the values of responsibility and obedience. Mrs. Marcos acknowledged him as the fount of their children's intellectual endowments, including a fluency in two languages, Spanish and English. But, it was not all academics for Marcos for he knew too well the value of physical fitness. Not only did he have a passion for boxing, wrestling and shooting- he also had the expertise, teaching his two sons the "scientific" method of boxing and insisting on them to always settle sibling rivalries through wrestling. He taught them boxing and shooting so well that his sons used to out-box opponents in local children's boxing derbies; his second son Pacifico eventually became an expert pistol shooter like himself, while his eldest son Ferdinand became national rifle champion at the age of sixteen.

Documents at the Philippine Archives Collection at the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. state that Marcos was tried and executed by the Luzon Guerrilla Armed Forces (LGAF), a guerrilla force fighting the Japanese under the command of Major Robert Lapham.[6] This is disputed by accounts told by the Marcos family.[5]

In Lapham's account, Mariano Marcos was tried, and having "readily confessed," was executed on March 8, 1945 as a Japanese collaborator by the Luzon Guerrilla Armed Forces. Mariano Marcos was drawn and quartered - his hands were tied to two carabaos, which were then whipped to run in opposite directions.[3] His body parts were then hung by ropes on the branches of a large tree in what is now the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University's Bacnotan campus, as a demonstration of what would happen to those who collaborated with the Japanese.[5]

In a book written by Lapham later, he adds that some of the guerrillas who were allowed to participate in the execution were related to Julio Nalundasan.[4]

The version of the story told by the Marcos family[5][7] says that Mariano Marcos was executed by the Japanese.[8][9]