“Democratically elected in 1965, Marcos placed the entire Philippines under martial law in 1972 on the pretext of protecting the Philippines from the threat of a Communist takeover–a threat now widely acknowledged to have been a Marcos fabrication. A series of terrorist attacks, including the bombing of department stores, private companies, waterworks, even government buildings, all turned out to have been masterminded by Marcos himself, part of an elaborate plan to justify his imposition of one-man rule….

“…Indeed, many Filipino Chinese who knew Marcos remain surprisingly loyal to him. He was an intelligent, in many ways simple, even ascetic man, they say, who ate a plain bowl of Chinese porridge every morning. Marcos was corrupted and ultimately destroyed, they insist, by Imelda, who by all accounts was stupid, ruthless, insatiably greedy, and driven by a terrible inferiority complex. (Among a long list of Imelda’s failures, she once dated the now-martyred Ninoy Aquino, but he dumped her for the shorter, far wealthier Cory.)…”

—World on Fire