the creation of a new trade agreement difficult, which led to many roadblocks in establishing a new agreement. In 1977, public warnings circulated that President Marcos might dissolve the arrangement with U.S. military bases. Marcos being influenced by his staff to protect their strategic interest and force the U.S. to agree to his terms. Martial Law in the Philippines On September 22, 1972, President Marcos declared martial law in the country under the pretext of protecting it from Communist threats. The CIA had known about this declaration and reported it back to the US government. Marcos had been debating several options to stay in power, such as delaying the elections or running a surrogate candidate, but he found imposing martial law to be the easiest path. Marcos quickly jailed his political rivals and seized his goal of rewriting the constitution to remain in power for the foreseeable future. Marcos justified his use of martial law in an attempt to “restructure” the Philippine society. He asserted that all his decrees were well within legal constraints. Marcos claimed that martial law was a necessary response to terrorism, particularly a series of deadly bombings from 1971, including one that killed nine people at Plaza Miranda. The CIA was aware that Marcos stood responsible for at least one of these attacks and were almost certain that they were not perpetrated by Communists. The agency did not share this information with the opposition. The CIA did, however, bribe opposition politicians not to challenge the presence of US military bases or dominance of American corporations at the constitutional convention of 1971. President Nixon approved Marcos' martial law initiative because he accepted the Filipino leader's claim that the country was being terrorized by Communists. Marcos insisted he was going to eradicate corruption through the imposition of martial law. Many people questioned the reason behind Marcos declaring martial law. In this decree, the entire country of the Philippines was considered a land reform area. Peasants were supposed to be given land as a part of this agreement but when the martial rule ended, less than four percent of peasants owned their land. Only the enemies of Marcos lost their land in the martial law. These enemies of Marcos saw their land and businesses taken from them and given to friends and associates of Marcos. The Lopez Clan perhaps suffered the most as Marcos seized all of their profitable