The history of the Philippines, from 1965–1986, covers the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, also known as Ferdinand Marcos Administration. The Marcos era includes the final years of the Third Republic (1965–72), the Philippines under martial law (1972–81), and the majority of the Fourth Republic (1981–86).

It was an era marked by plunder, repression, torture, and atrocity. As many as 3,257 were murdered, 35,000 tortured, and 70,000 illegally detained according to estimates by historian Alfred McCoy. One journalist described the Ferdinand Marcos Administration as "a grisly one-stop shop for human rights abuses, a system that swiftly turned citizens into victims by dispensing with inconvenient requirements such as constitutional protections, basic rights, due process and evidence."

The period is sometimes described as a golden age for Philippine society and its economy. However, by its end, the country was experiencing a debt crisis, extreme poverty, and severe underemployment.

In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos won the presidential election and became the 10th President of the Philippines. His first term was marked with increased industrialization and the creation of solid infrastructure nationwide, such as the North Luzon Expressway and the Maharlika Highway. Marcos did this by appointing a cabinet composed mostly of technocrats and intellectuals, by increasing funding to the Armed Forces, and mobilizing them to help in construction. Marcos also established schools and learning institutions nationwide, more than the combined total of those established by his predecessors.

In 1968, Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. warned that Marcos was on the road to establishing "a garrison state" by "ballooning the armed forces budget", saddling the defense establishment with "overstaying generals" and "militarizing our civilian government offices". These were prescient comments in the light of events that would happen in the following decade. Marcos also sent 10,450 Filipino soldiers to Vietnam during his term, under the PHILCAG (Philippine Civic Action Group). Fidel Ramos, who was later to become the 12th President of the Philippines in 1992, was a part of this expeditionary force.

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