A New Voice in Asia

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When Marcos entered the University of the Philippines in 1934, he had gained enough scholarship support to ensure his education without parental help. As a sophomore, he not only proved a top student, but found time to star on the wrestling, boxing and swimming teams, and become captain of the rifle and pistol squad as well as cadet battalion commander in the ROTC. He also got his first taste of political activism. Ferdie took to the soapbox to comment acidly on everything from the curriculum to the policies of the Philippines' first President, Manuel Quezon.

White for Innocence. In September 1935 occurred an incident that still haunts Marcos' career. His father had been defeated in a congressional election by Julio Nalundasan, a sharp-tongued Nacionalista who had insulted Mariano fiercely during the course of the campaign. To Filipinos, insults cannot go unanswered. On a stormy, wind-whipped night shortly after Pistol Champion Ferdie Marcos had returned to Ilocos on vacation, Nalundasan rose from his dinner table and walked to a washbasin. He was starkly silhouetted in the lighted window. A single .22-cal. bullet cracked in the banana tree outside, and Nalundasan dropped dead, shot through the heart. The shadow of suspicion was heavy: Mariano had been defeated and insulted; Ferdie was the best small-arms shot in the Philippines.

Justice works slowly in the islands, and not until Dec. 7, 1939, was Marcos arrested for the murder. He was then within five months of graduating with honors from law school. From his jail cell, Marcos successfully petitioned for his release on bail, then succeeded in winning his degree (two cops accompanied him to his graduation). In the subsequent bar examination, he scored the highest average ever (98.01%). When the puzzled judges accused him of cheating on the exam, Marcos demanded that he be tested orally—and scored 92.35%, the second highest average in history. Then, clad in a white sharkskin suit and white shoes to emphasize his innocence, Marcos pleaded his own case before the Supreme Court on the murder charge. He was exonerated on grounds of conflicting evidence.

Years later, however, his guilt or innocence was to be raised again—both by political opponents and his own son. "Little boys have amazing minds," Marcos said recently. "Just the other day our nine year old, Bongbong, came to me and said: 'Hey, Dad, what's this about you having murdered a man once?' And I said: 'Well, if that had been so, I wouldn't be standing here with you now, would I?' Bongbong said: 'O.K., who did kill him then?' We just left it there."