Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (1917–1989) was a Filipino politician and dictator who served as President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. Born in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, to Mariano Marcos, a lawyer and congressman (1925–1931), and Josefa Edralin Marcos, a schoolteacher, he was of Chinese mestizo descent and raised in a political family. Marcos excelled in education, graduating cum laude from the University of the Philippines College of Law and topping the 1939 bar exam. His early career included a controversial murder conviction in 1935 for killing political rival Julio Nalundasan, from which he was acquitted in 1940, and exaggerated claims of WWII guerrilla service. Entering politics, he served as a congressman (1949–1959), senator (1959–1965), and various leadership roles before becoming president in 1965. In 1972, he declared martial law, establishing an authoritarian regime that suppressed democracy, arrested opponents like Ninoy Aquino, and oversaw human rights abuses including 1,500–4,000 extrajudicial killings, torture, and incidents like the Jabidah Massacre (1968), Plaza Miranda bombing (1971), and Aquino's 1983 assassination. His 'new society' ideology masked kleptocracy, with the Marcos family allegedly embezzling $5–10 billion, leading to a debt crisis. Deposed by the 1986 People Power Revolution amid election fraud, he fled to Hawaii with Imelda, dying in 1989 of organ failure.