The five administrations following the fall of the late Dictator Marcos have much to be blamed for the ponderous comeback of the Marcoses into the political scene of our country.
Paying lip service to social and political reforms after the Edsa People Power revolt, the succeeding regimes of government reneged on their promises for a meaningful change. As a matter of fact, the overwhelming demands of the highly politically-charged citizenry at the Edsa uprising was for a total overhaul of the social order. But sadly, as pointed out repeatedly in this quarter, the awesome catapult of Cory Aquino to the helm of power was really to usher the return of the crisis-ridden social order that prevailed before the martial law era. It was essentially a “turning back the wheels of history”. Kumbaga, we were “back to square one”.
Now, we reap the fruits of the grand deception of essentially the same elite of the ruling classes—the big landlord and comprador-capitalist classes in collusion with the US imperialists. The same social pests dominate Philippine society; the same basic social ills fester the social, political and economic landscape — feudalism, bureaucrat-capitalism and US imperialism.
The five successive regimes have alternately displayed their talent and skill in perfecting the art of chicanery and deception, giving empty promises and false hopes to the people—sheepherding the great masses to docility amidst their frustrations and hopelessness, rendering them and the new generations of Filipinos —the so-called millenial—forgetful of the horror and rottenness of the martial law era of the Marcoses.
Now, the general feeling of frustration, the depravity and misery of worsening conditions of poverty and, most especially, the intensifying rule of impunity have inflicted society with deepening crises not alien to pre-martial period. And the ruling classes have again dangled as in yore the empty promise and false hope of redemption by the inutile electoral process. But what is more ominous in the upcoming national elections is the appearance of a very familiar figure and a namesake of the hated dictator in Martial law era—Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The Marcoses have made their ominous comeback, hailed by their fanatic loyalists and the so-called ‘millenials’ who have been duped to believe that “the martial law era was a golden era” in Philippine history.
The grand deceit is as much a creation of the five post-Marcos administrations including the current US-Aquino regime as the lies and deception of the Marcoses themselves. The current administration of Benigno S Aquino III is particularly most guilty in allowing a “straight path” (tuwid na daan) for the coming back to the political arena of the Marcoses because of his utter failure in governance and his dexterity in making a fool of the people. The Marcoses, on the other hand, must be exposed for what they are. Bongbong Marcos has cavalierly spun tales of historical fiction that try to deodorize the stench of brutal tyranny and scandalous thievery during the martial law era.
In face of these unsettling threats, it is well to lay bare once again the “legacy “ of sins of the Marcos conjugal dictatorship at this crucial period in our history. The martial law victims— hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who suffered various forms of human rights violations: forcible deprivations of properties, kidnappings, incarcerations, tortures, extra-judicial killings, massacres, enforced disappearances, rapes, arsons, and more — have organized themselves into a CARMMA — Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang.
Hereunder is a reprint of the CARMMA Manifesto on the occasion of a Big March Rally held last February 25 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Uprising:
REMEMBER THE DARK ERA OFMARTIAL LAW: NEVER AGAIN TO ANOTHER MARCOS IN MALACANANG
The Filipino people booted the Marcoses out of the presidential palace—and out of the country—in 1986. After sometime, they wormed their way back to Philippine politics. Thirty years since 1986, the grand scheme to recapture Malacañang, long planned by the Marcos cabal, is just a stride away—if Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. becomes vice-president. A mere walk in the park could be the presidency, given the billions of pesos in their war chest, courtesy of the plunder of people’s money by the Marcos conjugal dictatorship.
For this reason, we have formed CARMMA – Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang. We say NO to Bongbong Marcos as vice-president – because he is not the guiltless son that he presents himself to be.
Sin No. 1. Bongbong arrogantly peddles the lie that his father’s unbelievable wealth is legitimate. In 2003, however, the Supreme Court defined the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family as those in excess of their total legal income of around $304,000 only from 1965 to 1986. This belies the claim of Bongbong that the wealth of his father came from his alleged law practice.
So far, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) has managed to recover about $4 billion, less than half of the $10 billion fortune believed to have been amassed by the Marcoses through the years. These included billions of pesos worth of deposits in Swiss banks and shares in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), and San Miguel Corporation, among many others.
Sin No. 2 While the sins of the father may not be passed on to the son, the son could very well inherit the ill-gotten wealth of the father. And Bongbong, together with the family, did inherit the fruits of the legendary Marcos plunder, much of which has yet to be uncovered, and which Bongbong will never reveal and give back to the people. Bongbong, for 30 years, has been a mere salaried government official. How could the Marcos family live in style all these years? Where is his election fund coming from?
Sin No. 3. Bongbong whitewashes the Marcos dictatorship’s crony capitalism, of which he had been a part. In 1985, when he was 26 years old, his father appointed him chairman of the board of the Philippine Communications Satellite Corporation (Philcomsat), receiving a monthly salary of anywhere between $9,700 to $97,000. This, despite the fact that he rarely event went to the Philcomsat office. In 1986, government auditors would discover that Philcomsat was one of the many corporations and organizations used to siphon ill-gotten wealth out of the country.
The economy bled to death due to behest loans granted by Ferdinand Sr. to his cronies who had little or no collateral . But these cronies were mere dummies of Marcos.
The biggest Marcos crony was his partner in crime, Imelda Romualdez, whose free rides in the Philippine Airlines made its debt balloon to $13.8 billion in 1986 before EDSA 1. She was also the head of the Metro Manila Commission (precursor of the Metro Manila Development Authority) which, by end of 1985, had accumulated debts of P1.99 billion in its 10 years of existence.
Sin No. 4. Bongbong covers up the unprecedented plunder and economic sabotage that his father committed in the 21 years of his anti-people rule. Under the Marcos dictatorship, the number of Filipinos living below the poverty line doubled from 18 million in 1965 to 35 million in February 1986. The dictator also left behind a staggering foreign debt of $27 billion. This belies the claim of Bongbong that Filipinos were better off under the Marcoses.
Sin No. 5. Bongbong continues to defend and promote martial law when thousands of Filipinos suffered systematic, widespread, and state-sanctioned enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial executions. At least 3,000 were killed and more than 30,000 were detained, brutally tortured, raped, or suffered various forms of abuse.
Bongbong even had the gall to dismiss the 9,539 human victims in the Hawaii class suit who won the case against the Marcos estate, as purely motivated by compensation. “Pera-pera lang ang habol ng mga yan,” he said.
As a reserve officer in the Philippine Army, Bongbong wore the military combat uniform when his father was sworn into office at the balcony of Malacañang after the dictator rigged the 1986 snap presidential elections. Bongbong upheld electoral fraud and was ready to defend the dictatorship by arms.
Sin No. 6. Bongbong has not come out clean in the billion-peso Napoles pork barrel scam. He has a lot to explain about his allocation of P100 million for ghost non-government organizations of Janet Lim-Napoles.
THWART THE INSIDIOUS MARCOS SCHEME TO GRAB STATE POWER AGAIN!
NO TO FERDINAND “BONGBONG” MARCOS , JR. AS VICE-PRESIDENT!
