Presidential and vice presidential elections were held in the Philippines on November 9, 1965. Incumbent President Diosdado Macapagal lost his opportunity to get a second full term as president of the Philippines to Senate President Ferdinand Marcos. His running mate, Senator Gerardo Roxas, lost to former vice president Fernando Lopez. Emmanuel Pelaez, who resigned in the Cabinet and from the Liberal Party, then sought the Nacionalista Party presidential nomination and lost it to Marcos, did not run for vice president and instead ran for the Misamis Oriental seat in the House of Representatives as an independent. An unprecedented twelve candidates ran for president; however, nine of those each garnered less than 200 votes.
This was the first election where all of the major presidential candidates were born after the end of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines.
Background
Macapagal Reelection Campaign
Towards the end of Macapagal's term, Macapagal decided to seek re-election to continue seeking reforms which he claimed were stifled by a "dominant and uncooperative opposition" in Congress. With Senate President Ferdinand Marcos, a fellow member of the Liberal Party, unable to win his party's nomination due to Macapagal's re-election bid, Marcos switched allegiance to the rival Nacionalista Party to oppose Macapagal. Among the issues raised against the incumbent administration were graft and corruption, rise in consumer goods, and persisting peace and order issues.
He chose Senator Gerry Roxas, son of former President Manuel Roxas, as his runningmate after Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez ran as an Independent for a Congressional seat in Misamis Oriental who left the Leaving The Liberal party during the height of the Stonehill scandal where Justice Secretary Salvador Mariño falsely implicated Pelaez in an exposé on the Stonehill scandal broadcast on both radio and television,
On January 15, 1964, Pelaez rejoined the Nacionalista Party but lost the nomination on November 22, 1964, for President of the Philippines to Senator Marcos.
Rise of Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos always had the ambition to be the president of the Philippines. In his campaign for the 1949 elections, he declared that if he would be elected as congressman, he promise to have an Ilocano president in 20 years' time. Marcos slowly ascended into power and then attempted to run as president in 1961, but he lost to Macapagal in the nominations.
At the time of the 1965 elections, Marcos was a member of the Liberal Party (LP), becoming Senate President during Macapagal's term. Marcos found his ambitions to run for president blocked for a second time when Macapagal decided to run for a second term, so Marcos jumped from the LP to the Nacionalista Party (NP), eventually becoming the NP's candidate for president, winning against Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez in the NP nominations for the presidency.
He acknowledged Himself as a "master of populist imagery", Marcos projected a persona of youth and virility, having himself photographed by rice farmers in their fields.