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Those who failed to follow that route often found themselves siding with a new force in Philippine politics: the Huks. Originally known as the Hukbong bayan laban sa Hapon (People's Army Against Japan), the Huks turned quickly to the Communist antidemocratic guerrilla warfare that their brothers in China and Indo-China were fostering. By the late 1940s, the Huk menace was massive: it claimed 14,000 fighting men under arms, and controlled by terror and taxation some 4,000,000 Filipino peasants, mainly in central Luzon. President Roxas, who died in office of a heart attack, was succeeded by Elpidio Quirino, a well-meaning but weak lawyer who was unable to come to grips with either government corruption or the Huks.
Fortunately for the Philippines, a hero arrived in the form of Ramon Magsaysay, a tall (5 ft. 11 in.), tough blacksmith's son from Zambales province, who took over as Defense Secretary in 1950. A principal backer in the Cabinet reshuffle: Freshman Congressman Ferdinand Marcos. Magsaysay tackled the Huks with double-barreled dynamism: his green-clad, rubber-booted troops rooted them out of the Luzon jungles and killed them without quarter; defectors were offered land in islands not infested by Huks. By 1954 Magsaysay had quelled the Huks, and won himself the presidency. Then in 1957, Magsaysay died in a plane crash, and the government passed into the hands of yet another weakling, Carlos Garcia.
Foul Shape & Fair. Magsaysay had gone a long way toward curing the Philippines' ills before his untimely death. His successors, however, were either uninterested in putting an end to graft and lawlessness or simply did not have the strength to cope. Ferdie Marcos did. As the youngest Liberty Party Congressman ever elected, his name was attached to legislation that ranged from civil rights to land reform. Off the floor, Bachelor Marcos had a reputation as a sportsman and Lothario: when he wasn't blasting quail and ducks with his 20-gauge Browning over-under, he was breaking hearts in Forbes Park. That ended one day in 1954 when he wooed and won the daughter of one of the islands' wealthiest families. Sugar-rich Imelda Romualdez, cousin of House Speaker Daniel Z. Romualdez, was crunching watermelon seeds as she listened to Marcos orate in the House. When Marcos finished, he went up to the erstwhile Miss Manila (a proudly packaged 36-23-35) and asked: "Would you mind standing up, please?" Back to back, Marcos determined that Imelda was an inch shorter than his 5 ft. 7 in., then turned to an onlooker and said: "Fine. I'm getting married." Eleven days later, he was.
Singing with Imelda. After Magsaysay's death, Marcos felt that he was in line for the vice-presidency on the Liberal ticket. It went instead to Diosdado Macapagal, who won the presidency in 1961. Embittered and disgusted with Macapagal's inability to cope with the nation's ills, Marcos in 1964 decided to shift his loyalty from the Liberal Party to the opposition Nacionalistas—a maneuver common in Philippine politics. The Nacionalistas could not have found a better man to lead their party against Macapagal in the 1965 elections.