Marcos would have been the best president in my book - intelligent, driven, ambitious. However, everything went down the drain when forced his rule over the country by declaring martial law. Legally, his term would have ended on the succeeding year but he declared martial law to suspend the elections. Supported by the military, he reigned over the country like a monarch whose will cannot be thwarted. Whoever gets in the way gets killed. The fact that he looted the country had been widely proven in international and local courts. Whatever they managed to give to people as benefits were morsels compared to what their family members were enjoying. The people deserved better than that. Some people say that life, back then, was easier. Globally, it was easier. Now, even first world countries have social welfare dependents and homeless people.

It's difficult to compare presidents with 6-year terms to a president who had ruled the country for more than 20 years. After all, it wasn't just a one-man rule. Marcos and his wife Imelda (Malakas and Maganda) ran the country as if it belonged to them, expanding their rule by appointing relatives and friends to government posts and corporations. It would not be fair to compare an irregular arrangement to a normal one. Among the presidents with regular terms, I would pick FVR as the one with the vision to promote the Philippines globally as a business destination and for his drive to modernize public infrastructure. His rule was also the least tainted among them. While PNoy had stepped up on welfare programs like Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, he could have done more for his countrymen. His last year was marked by controversies. He denied the increase in pension but granted huge bonuses to SSS executives. I can understand the denial to a certain extent (for the reason that SSS will run out of funds in the future), but why rub salt to injury by giving away bonuses to government people who are just doing their jobs? His administration created a lot of enemies by prosecuting/persecuting people who disagreed with their policies or the way they run the government.