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Philippines
3rd Anniversary of the New Society
1975 Proof Silver 50 Piso 40mm (27.40 grams) .925 Silver (0.8140 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 212, Schön# 51 | Engraver: James Ferrell
REPUBLIKA NG PILIPINAS * 50 PISO *, Coat-of-Arms shield.
ANG BAGONG LIPUNAN SETYEMBRE 21, 1972 PANGULONG FERDINAND E. MARCOS 1975, Marcos facing left.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity. .
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician and kleptocrat who was the tenth President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. A leading member of the New Society Movement, he ruled as a dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981. One of the most controversial leaders of the 20th century, Marcos’ rule was infamous for its corruption extravagance, and brutality.
Marcos claimed an active part in World War II, including fighting alongside the Americans in the Bataan Death March and being the “most decorated war hero in the Philippines”. A number of his claims were found to be false and United States Army documents described Marcos’s wartime claims as “fraudulent” and “absurd.”
Marcos started as an attorney, then served in the Philippine House of Representatives from 1949 to 1959 and the Philippine Senate from 1959 to 1965. He was elected president in 1965, and presided over a growing economy during the beginning and intermediate portion of his 20-year rule, but ended in loss of livelihood, extreme poverty, and a crushing debt crisis. Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law on September 23, 1972, during which the constitution was revamped, the media was silenced, violence and oppression occurred against the political opposition, Muslims, communists, and ordinary citizens. Martial law was ratified in 1973 through a fraudulent referendum.
After being elected for a third term in the 1981 Philippine presidential election, Marcos’s popularity suffered greatly due to public outrage of the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. in 1983. The assassination, along with economic collapse, revitalized the opposition, resulting in them securing a better-than-expected victory in the 1984 Philippine parliamentary election. Both of these factors alongside growing discontent and the discovery of documents exposing his finances and falsified war records, led him to call the snap election of 1986. Allegations of mass cheating, political turmoil, and human rights abuses led to the People Power Revolution of February 1986, which removed him from power. To avoid what could have been a military confrontation in Manila between pro- and anti-Marcos troops, Marcos was advised by US President Ronald Reagan through Senator Paul Laxalt to “cut and cut cleanly,” after which Marcos fled to Hawaii. Marcos was succeeded by Corazon “Cory” Aquino, widow of the assassinated opposition leader Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. who had flown back to the Philippines to face Marcos.
According to source documents provided by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the Marcos family stole US$5-10 billion. The PCGG also maintained that the Marcos family enjoyed a decadent lifestyle, taking away billions of dollars from the Philippines between 1965 and 1986. His wife Imelda Marcos, whose excesses during the couple’s conjugal dictatorship made her infamous in her own right, spawned the term “Imeldific.” Two of their children, Imee Marcos and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., are still active in Philippine politics.
  The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila.
 The Philippines’ location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons, but also endows it with abundant natural resources and some of the world’s greatest biodiversity. The Philippines has an area of approximately 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi), and a population of more than 100 million with faster growth than any other east Asian country. It is the seventh-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12 million Filipinos live overseas, comprising one of the world’s largest diasporas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago’s earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Islamic states occurred. Then, various nations were established under the rule of Datus, Rajahs, Sultans or Lakans.
The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in Homonhon, Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the first Hispanic settlement in the archipelago was established. The Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300 years. This resulted in Roman Catholicism becoming the dominant religion. During this time, Manila became the western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila galleons.
As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, there followed in quick succession the Philippine Revolution, which spawned the short-lived First Philippine Republic, followed by the bloody Philippne-American War of conquest by US military force. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, when the Philippines was recognized as an independent nation. Since then, the Philippines has often had a tumultuous experience with democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution.
The nation’s large population and economic potential have led it to be classified as a middle power. It is a founding member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit. It also hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank. The Philippines is considered to be an emerging market and a newly industrialized country, which has an economy transitioning from being one based on agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing.
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