Presidents

Ferdinand Edralin Marcos was born 11 September 1917, in the town of Sarrat, Ilocos Norte to Mariano Marcos and Josefa Edralin.[2] He was baptized into the Philippine Independent Church.[3] According to the family's oral history, the original surname was Quidit, and their Ilokano stock had some Han Chinese and Japanese admixture.[citation needed] Marcos once claimed that one of his forefathers was a "15th century Chinese pirate." This pirate is the well-known Limahong or Lin Feng in China. Rumors in the Chinese community claims he is the illegitimate child of Judge Chua to Josefa Edralin. Thereby making him a half-Chinese by blood. It was said Judge Chua made arrangement for the young Josefa who was his secretary to marry with Mariano Marcos.[4]
In December 1938, Ferdinand was prosecuted for the murder of Julio Nalundasan along with his father, Mariano, his brother, Pio, and his brother-in-law Quirino Lizardo; Nalundasan one of the elder Marcos' political rivals. Nalundasan had been shot and killed in his house in Batac on 20 September 1935–the day after he had defeated Mariano Marcos a second time for a seat in the National Assembly. According to two witnesses, the four had conspired to assassinate Nalundasan, with Ferdinand Marcos eventually pulling the trigger. In late January 1939, they were denied bail[5] and in the fall[when?] of 1939 they were convicted. Ferdinand and Lizardo received the death penalty for premeditated murder, while Mariano and Pio were found guilty of contempt of court. The Marcos family took their appeal to the Supreme Court of the Philippines, which overturned the lower court's decision on 22 October 1940, acquitting them of all charges except contempt.[6]
Marcos studied law at the University of the Philippines, attending the prestigious College of Law. He excelled in both curricular and extra-curricular activities, becoming a valuable member of the university's swimming, boxing, and wrestling teams. He was also an accomplished and prolific orator, debater, and writer for the student newspaper. He also became a member of the University of the Philippines ROTC Unit (UP Vanguard Fraternity) where he met his future cabinet members and Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff. He sat for the 1939 Bar Examinations, receiving a near-perfect score and graduating cum laude despite the fact that he was incarcerated while reviewing; had he had not been in jail for 27 days, he would have graduated magna cum laude. He was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu and the Phi Kappa Phi international honour societies, the latter giving him its Most Distinguished Member Award 37 years later.[7]
He claimed to have led a 9,000-man guerrilla force called Ang Mahárlika (Tagalog, "The Noble") in northern Luzon during World War II, although his account of events was later cast into doubt after a United States military investigation exposed many of his claims as either false or inaccurate