Marcos' cronies were given strategic positions both in the government and in private sectors in order for the Marcoses to seize control of the major industries of the country.
[8] For the majority of the martial law period, Enrile was in charge of all the armed forces, which were responsible for many human rights abuses and summary executions.
[9] Enrile was also involved with many cases of corruption, namely: Banana magnate Floirendo began his business career in Davao City in the 1940s, when he found it favorable to cultivate relationships with running politicians.
Sen. Lorendo Tañada chaired a Blue Ribbon Committee investigation into the matter, which caused Floirendo to retreat the plan to wait for a more favorable political climate.
In 1987, Floirendo turned over PHP 70 million in cash to the Presidential Commission on Good Government, as well as titles for the Lindenmere Estate, the Olympic Towers apartments, and the Makiki Heights Drive property.
[18] Cojuangco, with Juan Ponce Enrile, were involved with the Coco Levy Fund Scam, which taxed small farmers with the promise of shares in the coconut investment company (Cocofund).
These funds were channeled to the private financial interests of Marcos and cronies and was consolidated in the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB).
Cojuangco's wealth increased rapidly, and by the peak of martial law, the value of all the assets he controlled was $1.5 billion, or 25% of the GNP.
This agreement gave Japan undue advantage in using the country's natural resources, which was the primary reason the Philippine Senate did not ratify the treaty for 13 years.
[10] Overseas, he owned a sugar mill in Venezuela, a trading company in Madrid, bank deposits, mansions, and limousines in California.
[10] Lucio Tan styles himself as a rags-to-riches self-made millionaire who worked his way up[22] from sweeping and mopping floors to becoming one of the most influential people in Philippine history.
However, a closer inspection at his history will reveal deep connections and cronyism to President Ferdinand Marcos, who was able to launch Tan's immense wealth through sky-high tariff rates on imported cigarettes, under-the-table tax breaks, and government exemptions, all of which allowed Lucio Tan to have a "virtual monopoly for over 40 years in the Philippine Market".
Apart from these properties, Velasco also chaired several government and private corporations, in many petroleum, coal mining, transportation, mineral exploration, and shipping businesses.
[10] Cruz served as Undersecretary of Finance from 1968 to 1970, but he is more well known for his bankrolling Imelda Marcos' trips abroad using Philippine Airlines (PAL) funds, which he also managed.
This was due to First Lady Imelda Marcos' indiscriminate international trips,[21] Cruz's mismanagement, misuse of funds, and his lack of experience.
Despite these additions of government money, PAL continued to suffer loses due to Cruz's mismanagement and lack of experience.
[27] GSIS was originally established for financial aid of low-salaried government employees, providing investments, pensions, and housing loans.
Of GSIS' total budget of $1.3 billion, 65% or $843 million went into Imelda's lucrative projects, such as luxury hotels made to impress delegates of the IMF-World Bank conference.
[28] This is due to great amounts of foreign loans, dependence on the government, purchases of heavy equipment even when unnecessary, and high debt to equity ratio.
Delta Motor was one of the carmakers that received preferential status and treatment under the government's Progressive Car Manufacturing Program.
In 2021, the Sandiganbayan would dismiss the complaint filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government against the Marcoses, Silverio and businessman Pedro Carlos Jr. for failure to prove allegations against the respondents.
[32] The points that were mentioned in the case includes the alleged improper payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the two businessmen to the Marcoses in exchange for a contract to supply Kawasaki scrap loaders and Toyota rear dump trucks, grant of three consecutive year special accommodations, privileges, and exemptions from the Central Bank through increased dollar import quota allocation for the importation of Toyota vehicles for Delta Motor and air-conditioning and refrigerating equipments and obtaining a multi-million peso emergency loans as additional capital infusion to Filipinas Bank, a banking institution owned by Silverio.
While the investment was minimal, Disini's big break came when Marcos issued Presidential Decree 750 on July 21, 1975, where it increased the tariff on raw materials imported by the competitor by a 100%.
[35] In 1973, Marcos awarded Disini's Cellophil Resources Corporation a 200,000 hectare logging and paper-pulp concession that was partially responsible for massive deforestation in the Philippines during martial law.
[36] Indigenous peoples in the Cordillera region—supported by environmentalists, church organizations, academics, and the Free Legal Assistance Group—organized a protest movement that helped shut down Cellophil after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.
[37] The Supreme Court of the Philippines First Division in the August 29, 2023 12-page resolution reduced from P1 billion to P100 million the temperate damages that Herminio T. Disini estate must pay for brokering the 1974 deal behind the now mothballed $2.3-billion Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
[40] Trinidad's son-in-law Rebecco Panlilio would later lead the construction of the largest tourism investment in the Philippines at that time, Puerto Azul, at the mouth of Manila Bay in Ternate, Cavite.