Ferdinand Marcos
Assassination of Julio Nalundasan

Marcos first gained national notoriety over the murder of Julio Nalundasan. Nalundasan, Mariano Marcos's political rival, was killed with a single rifle shot at his home in Batac on September 21, 1935, the day after he had defeated Marcos a second time for a seat in the National Assembly.

In December 1938, Ferdinand Marcos was prosecuted for the murder of Nalundasan. He was not the only accused from the Marcos clan. Also accused were his father, Mariano, and his uncles, Pio Marcos and Quirino Lizardo. According to two witnesses, the four had conspired to assassinate Nalundasan, with Ferdinand Marcos eventually pulling the trigger. In late January 1939, they were finally denied bail.

The evidence was strong against the young Marcos, who was a member of the University of the Philippines rifle team and a national rifle champion. Though Marcos's rifle was found in its gun rack in the U.P. ROTC armory, the rifle of team captain Teodoro M. Kalaw Jr. was missing at the time and the National Bureau of Investigation had evidence that it was the one used in the murder of Nalundasan. Of all the accused, only Ferdinand Marcos had access to the U.P. armory.

Later in the year, Ferdinand and Lizardo were convicted of murder. Ferdinand was sentenced to 10 to 17 years in prison. The Marcos family took their appeal to the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

According to Primitivo Mijares, Justice Jose P. Laurel, who penned the majority decision, saw himself in the young Marcos in that he had almost killed a rival during a brawl during his youth, had been convicted by a trial court of frustrated murder, and was acquitted after appealing to the Supreme Court, and saw in Marcos an opportunity to pay forward his debt to society. Dean of the UP College of Law George A. Malcolm was Laurel's professor and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Malcolm had urged his colleagues to acquit the young Laurel because he knew him to be a bright student. Laurel thus reportedly saw in Marcos a mirror of himself and pleaded for his colleagues to acquit.

The Supreme Court overturned the lower court's decision on October 22, 1940, acquitting the Marcos family of all charges except contempt.
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