In 1972, Marcos broke the traditional social compact and terms of engagement between the state and civil society by declaring martial law. He justified the use of extraordinary constitutional powers in the face of an intensifying intra-èlite conflict before the 1973 presidential elections (under which Marcos was barred by the constitution from running for a third term) and the growing challenge from a popular-based movement. Fourteen years later in 1986, his authoritarian rule met an ignominious end, yielding to a combined military mutiny and an urban popular uprising and finally losing the support of his American patrons.

Now best remembered for his world-class “patrimonial plunder” and massive violation of human rights, Marcos sought to restructure the bases of political and economic power by reconstituting the base of support for his authoritarian regime. Striking at one faction of the oligarchy, such as the Lopezes, Jacintos and Aquinos who also happened to be his political opponents, Marcos then tried to consolidate his economic base around the ruling family (Marcos-Romualdez) and its coterie of “crony-capitalists”. To further strengthen his economic base, Marcos surrounded himself with some of the best technocrats in the country to enhance his regime's linkages with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) and other multilateral financing institutions. Marcos also put the major agri-based export industries, such as sugar and coconut oil, the traditional base of wealth of the exporting landed élites, under government control through the cronies. Finally, to undermine competing centres of local power and to concentrate more power at the central organs of government, Marcos started to dismantle the private armies of selected political warlords.

All of these measures failed to consolidate the authoritarian regime. The regime's pillars of support — the cronies, the technocrats, and the military — all proved to be unreliable. As the economy unravelled and human rights violations escalated in the context of the counter-insurgency war, the popular opposition together with its armed components grew stronger.