ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the rollback of the postwar clientelist electoral regime and institutionalization of centralized authoritarian rule. During the postwar period, ownership and control of the national press had been largely decentralized. The immediate challenge for democratic groups was how to rebuild and expand the organizational networks under the repressive conditions of centralized authoritarian rule. The institutionalization of centralized authoritarian rule altered the nature of previously existing linkages between national and local politics in the Philippines. The drive to expand Philippine agricultural exports and institute export monopolies headed by his closest business associates and political allies in the early period of martial law wrought significant changes on rural society in general. Philippine agriculture had become extremely dependent on chemical inputs manufactured by multinational companies that were expensive and subject to world oil prices since they were made from fossil fuel.
