Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city.

Zamboanga City, officially the City of Zamboanga, is a highly urbanized city in the Zamboanga Peninsula region of the Philippines, with a total population of 3,943,837 inhabitants. It is third-largest city by land area in the Philippines, and is also the sixth-most populous city in the archipelago; additionally, it is the second most populous in Mindanao after Davao City. It is the commercial and industrial center of the Zamboanga Peninsula Region.

Cesar Cortes Climaco was a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as mayor of Zamboanga City for 11 years over three nonconsecutive terms. A prominent critic of the martial law regime of Ferdinand Marcos, he was famed for his toughness in governance and colorful personality. He was also famous for his refusal to cut his hair until democratic rule was restored in the Philippines. He was assassinated by an unknown gunman in 1984.

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. was a Filipino lawyer, politician, and kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. Ruling the country as a dictator under martial law from 1972 to 1981, he granted himself expanded powers under the 1973 Constitution; he described his philosophy as "constitutional authoritarianism". He was eventually deposed in 1986 by the People Power Revolution and was succeeded as president by Corazon Aquino.