In 1965, Ferdinan Marcos defeated Macapagal and became President at a time when the Philippines was regarded as the most Westernized country in the region, and well before the tiger economies of Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong had taken off.At First, the Marcos administration was highly regarded: he spent all available resources on development and unified the country through the construction of bridges, ports, and roads, but gradually dissatisfication increased. The communists Party of the Philippines (CPP) was founded in 1968 by Jose Maria Sison, and the following year the CPP guerilla movement, known as the New People’s Army (NPA) was formed with a number of former Huk fighters. The PKP and CPP clashed over ideology, the former being Soviet backed and the latter being Maoist, and in due course the PKP faded from prominence.