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Yet, no matter how hard they attempted to stigmatize him, the significant things he had accomplished cannot change the fact that because of what he did in his time remains today in the global map, a feat that has never been equaled by the five presidents who succeeded him.


Marcos' accomplishments in infrastructure and development, missing in history books deliberately prescribed for our students and unheard of by many Filipinos, are discussed below.



Under the Marcos regime, Filipinos saw the establishment of unprecedented edifices and infrastructures, the majority of which still stand proudly today, servicing the needs of the Filipino people.


It was in Marcos's time when pioneering hospitals were built: 

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Philippine Heart Center, 
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Lung Center of the Philippines,
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National Kidney and Transplant Institute, and
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Philippine Children's Medical Center.
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</ul>

Cultural, tourism and heritage sites were, likewise, constructed: 

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Cultural Center of the Philippines, 
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Folk Arts Theater, 
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Philippine International Convention Center, 
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the National Arts Center (now Makiling Center for the Arts), 
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Nayong Pilipino and 
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the People's Park in the Sky in Tagaytay City.
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</ul>

To address the influx of people migrating to urban centers from the countryside—which gave birth to a myriad of other problems, such as violence, social unrest, environmental degradation and limited housing provision - President Marcos came up with the Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services (BLISS) projects in Manila and in the rural areas to house the country's poorest of the poor.

A total of 230,000 housing units were constructed from 1975 to 1985. While it provided dignified shelter, the ultimate goal of BLISS is to develop a strong and solid economic base for the community, thereby inculcating self-reliance among the beneficiaries.


Former National Economic and Development Authority and Professor Emeritus of the University of the Philippines School of Economics Gerardo P. Sicat, one of the country's most distinguished economists, said: 


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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/gerardo-sicat.webp" alt="Gerardo P. Sicat" />
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(Gerardo P. Sicat)
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"Of all the presidents of the country (to this time), Marcos built the most extensive infrastructure. The projects were interrelated and complemented sector-development objectives. He put in the major trunk-line road networks within the country, linking them from Luzon to the Visayas, and then to Mindanao.



"These networks were essential in bringing down the cost of transportation, thereby raising the prospects of commerce throughout the affected regions of the country. In his two terms in office, he concentrated on a network of roads, simply designed and inexpensive school buildings, and irrigation systems that also built farm-to-market roads.


"In Luzon major irrigation systems and hydroelectric power plants were built. These were the Upper Pampanga River Project, Angat multipurpose power and irrigation project and the Magat River Project. These projects firmed up the role of Central Luzon and the Cagayan Valley in the Green Revolution of the 1970s. In addition, community irrigation systems were built in many other provinces where agricultural activities thrived, especially across the nation and in the big islands. This increased agricultural activities in the big Visayan Islands and in Mindanao, and helped cover a wide area of the rice and food-producing region. The result of these investments could be seen in the rise of agricultural output, especially the increase toward greater sufficiency in palay production. Irrigation helped to raise farmer productivity.



"He improved the older networks of national roads that connected provinces, and rehabilitated them with durable construction. A lot of these projects eased the transport bottlenecks within provinces and across provinces, and improved intra-island travels within the big islands.


"He linked these with airport constructions. If Marcos were to be judged only on his infrastructure-construction program during his first two terms alone, he would have been considered an outstanding president. But, actually, he undertook a lot more, especially during the martial-law period. The building program for the improvement of public-school buildings, especially at the elementary level, was one of the earliest programs of Marcos.



"A study of infrastructure construction by various presidents shows that Marcos was the president who made the largest infrastructure investment. This is not because he was the longest-serving leader of the country alone.


"On a per-year basis, he led all the presidents. Only Fidel Ramos had bested him in road building for a period of one year. But overall in terms of quantity of infrastructure investments, their impact on the rest of the economy and on the breadth and depth of the investments, Marcos was by far the most prolific, undertaken on a per-year basis and cumulatively over the years that he held office.


"The government's share of public investment to GDP rose to 6 percent from the meager amount of 2 percent of GDP before he took office. This was no mean feat. The level of economic activity rose overall and - in the case of the transport investments - they increased the efficiency of the economy. A great part of these investments in roads was in the countryside so that agricultural output and domestic commerce increased.


"The variety of public investments undertaken was made possible by various methods of mobilizing financing for them. Although some of the major road projects and other public works were placed under the direct programs of some major departments of the government, a large part were undertaken under the auspices of many restructured government entities that took on a corporate form. So, in great measure, the reorganization of the public agencies helped in strengthening the capacity to undertake the projects.


"Major projects dealing with expansion of the irrigation, water services, and power projects were pursued by entities under the corporate structure. They had more fiscal autonomy, and the programs were subject to a system of accountability. The corporate framework for these agencies enabled them to incur debt financing from major multilateral and bilateral development agencies that led to the construction of major development projects.


"Nevertheless, his unparalleled achievements and contributions to the country, especially in infrastructure development, albeit persistently shunned from the spotlight, will remain as his lasting legacy. For as long as they stand, Marcos lives". 

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<h3>
Energy
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The energy sector plays a key role in the country's economic activities. When energy prices go up, the costs of food, transportation and other basic necessities follow suit. To prevent skyrocketing oil and power rates that would eventually result in high prices of commodities brought about by the 1973 global oil crisis, the government sought to decrease dependence on imported oil by harnessing indigenous sources of energy. As a result, the Marcos regime completed 20 power plants:

<ol>
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Agus 2 Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1979;
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Agus 4 Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1985;
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Agus 5 Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1985;
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Agus 6 Hydro Electric Power plant, recommissioned in 1977;
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Agus 7 Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1982;
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Angat Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1967;
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Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, completed in 1983;
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Calaca Coal Power Plant, completed in 1984;
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Cebu Thermal Power Plant, completed in 1981;
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Kalayaan Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed 1982;
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Leyte Geothermal Power Plant, completed 1977;
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Magat A Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1984;
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Magat B Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1984;
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Main Magat Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1983;
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Makiling-Banahaw Geothermal Power Plant, completed in 1979;
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Masiway Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1980;
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Palinpinon 1 Southern Negros Geothermal production Field completed in 1983;
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Pantabangan Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1977;
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Tiwi Geothermal Power Plant, completed in 1980; and
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Pulangi Hydro Electric Power Plant, completed in 1985.
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A <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B05bnRoRkkYjdExDRWlIN05MX0U/view" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="Study">study</a> by Gilberto Llanto (2002), Infrastructure Development: Experience and Policy Options for the Future, reveals that during the Marcos Administration, electrification reached 1,270 municipalities/cities, 19,680 barangays and around 2.7 million households in 1986, which represented 45.6 percent of total households.


Almost three decades after Marcos was ousted from power, not only did his successors fail to build a single power plant; but more devastatingly, the nation also saw the aggressive privatization of the energy industry. Foreign players and the local private sectors started to participate in energy projects through privatization and the build-operate-transfer scheme.


As a result, a few oligarchic families amassed billions of profit, while the consumers bore the brunt of shouldering costly power rates. The Philippines has even earned its place as one of the countries with the most expensive power rates in Asia.


It can be recalled that for 13 years, a specific period covered by Marcos's total energy plan for the country made successful by the right combination of regulated and deregulated policies saw the steady, low-cost supply of oil and cheap electricity to consumers.


In that period, the Marcos government, based on indisputable government records, had succeeded in reducing the country's dependence on Middle East oil from 92 percent in 1973 to 71 percent in 1980 and further to 57 percent in 1984. By 1985, the Philippines stood as the world's second-largest user of geothermal power, next to California, resulting further to 44-percent reduction of the country's dependence on imported oil worth billions of pesos.


On June 19, 1986, four months after the EDSA Revolution, President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino's administration deliberately abolished the Ministry of Energy and placed the multibillion-peso Philippine National Oil Corp., a successful Philippine firm featured successively in Fortune's 500 Best Corp., under the administrative supervision of the Office of the President.


As a consequence, the long-term total energy plan for the country went down the drain after the Aquino regime corrupted, dissipated and privatized its money-making corporations and subsidiaries, including the National Power Corp. and the highly profitable Petron that served as a buffer against foreign oil production and distribution monopoly. Petron controlled 40 percent of the fuel distribution network in the country.


Sources: 

<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Marcos's unmatched legacy: Energy by Cecilio Arillo - October 30, 2015 <a href="https://goo.gl/rKuXtx" class="news_link" target="_blank" title="Source">(http://www.bworldonline.com/)</a>
</li>
<li>
Marcos's unmatched legacy: Hospitals, schools and other infrastructures by Cecilio Arillo - November 13, 2015
</li>
</ol>

Marcos' unparalleled achievements in Energy and infrastructure development