The 1969 Philippine presidential and vice presidential elections were held on November 11, 1969. Incumbent Nacionalista President Ferdinand Marcos was reelected to a second term, defeating Liberal Sergio Osmeña Jr., senator and former Cebu City mayor. Marcos was the last president in the entire electoral history of the Philippines who ran for and won a second term. His running mate, incumbent Vice President Fernando Lopez, was also elected to a third full term as Vice President of the Philippines. A total of twelve candidates ran for president, but ten of those got less than 0.01% of the vote. Despite Marcos' win, Osmeña never conceded defeat.
Constitutionally barred for a third term, Marcos sought to amend the constitution to allow him to do so. A constitutional convention was elected in 1970 for this purpose. Growing unrest led to Marcos declaring martial law in 1972. Months later, the constitutional convention passed a new constitution, which was subsequently ratified in a plebiscite in 1973. Marcos then ruled by decree, and a presidential election would not be held again until 1981. The office of the vice president was abolished in the new constitution but was reinstated in 1984, and an election for it was first held in 1986.
The formal beginning of the 1969 campaign can be dated to the July 1969 meeting of the Philippines' Nacionalista Party, in which Ferdinand Marcos was formally nominated as the party's presidential candidate. A meeting of the party's ruling junta had met a week earlier to assure that the nomination would be unanimous. Ferdinand Marcos won his first campaign for the Philippine Presidency in November 1965, and was inaugurated just before New Year's Day in December the same year. Under the 1935 Philippine Constitution which was in force at the time, Marcos was supposed to be allowed a maximum of two four-year terms as president.
With his popularity already beefed up by debt-funded spending, Marcos's popularity made it very likely that he would win the election, but he decided, as National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin reported in the Philippines Free Press, "leave nothing to chance." Time and Newsweek would eventually call the 1969 election the "dirtiest, most violent and most corrupt" in Philippine modern history, with the term "Three Gs", meaning "guns, goons, and gold" coined to describe administration's election tactics of vote-buying, terrorism and ballot snatching
Marcos used the military and the government bureaucracy for his campaign, and also went on a campaign spending spree, initiating US$50 million worth in infrastructure projects meant to impress the electorate.
The most infamous incidents of violence took place in Batanes, where Philippine Constabulary officers, paramilitary groups and hired guns essentially took over the island, and motorcycle-riding thugs rode around terrorizing voters and Comelec officials, and beating up opposition leaders.
On April 5, 1969, at the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, Marcos exposed Osmeña of collaborating with the Japanese in World War II.
Later on June 15, Osmeña won the Liberal Party nomination for President of the Philippines, and would run against incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos for the 1969 Philippine presidential election. Marcos spent US$50 million in infrastructure projects in an effort to improve the country. This rapid campaign spending was so massive that it would be responsible for the Balance of Payments Crisis of 1970, whose inflationary effect would cause social unrest leading all the way up to the proclamation of Martial Law in 1972. Marcos was reported to have spent Php 100 for every Php 1 that Osmena spent, using up to Php 24 million in Cebu alone.
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Despite the electoral victory of president Marcos, Osmeña never conceded defeat.
Marcos, who was term-limited in the upcoming 1973 election, proposed drafting a new constitution. An election in 1970 elected delegates to the constitutional convention. Due to rising unrest, Marcos declared martial law and suspended the current (1935) constitution in 1972. The constitutional convention, which by then had seen its delegates opposed to Marcos dictatorship arrested or fled the country, then passed its draft constitution, and a plebiscite in January 1973 approved the constitution. A petition declaring that the 1973 constitution as unlawfully enacted was dismissed by the Supreme Court. Further plebiscites in July 1973 and 1977 extended Marcos's term, and a presidential election wouldn't be held again until 1981.