Category: marcos

Imee loyalists, Imee utang-na-loob

LESLIE BOCOBO. In spite of every disappointing thing Sen. Imee Marcos has said and done to hurt true-blue Marcos loyalists (myself included), I have decided to include her still in my very short list of personal choices for the Senate. … [Beyond “utang na loob”] … Imee will always be a Marcos and, politically speaking, may be the future conduit between her family and the Dutertes. … You are free to castigate me on this, and believe me when I say I am torn … https://www.facebook.com/lesliebocobo/posts/

I imagine that many loyalists also see, and understand, Imee’s defense of former president Rodrigo Duterte as pagtanaw ng utang na loob na hindi matatawaran. After all, Digong did not just happily help along the Marcoses’ relentless campaign to polish up the dictator’s tainted image, even pushed the takedown of ABS-CBN and everything identified with yellow history, he also dared in 2016 to bury the OG Marcos in Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) with full military honors — a favor Imelda had long been seeking from every president since FVR, to no avail.

It was FVR who in 1993 allowed the remains to return home from Hawaii direct to Ilocos Norte for immediate burial with military honors fit for an army major, the highest rank Marcos obtained in WW2 according to US military records. Imelda balked, insisted that as former president and commander-in-chief he deserved a state burial in Manila’s Heroes Cemetery. When FVR stood his ground, Imelda installed the dead one in a glass vault for display in a Batac museum — a tourist attraction — while waiting for more opportune times.  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

She tried again in 1998. Ran for president, then withdrew and endorsed Joseph Estrada, who, upon his election, immediately ordered the burial of Marcos in LNMB. Cement  was already being poured on the foundation of the tomb site weeks before Estrada’s June 30 swearing-in. Pero ipinatigil ni FVR, pangulo pa siya noon, dahil galit na galit ang anti-Marcos groups, war veterans, at Kaliwa. Atras si Imelda. Inamin ni Erap na nagkamali siya, akala niya burying Marcos in the LNMB  would  also bury the “bitter differences” between the pro- and  anti-Marcos. Estrada urged Imelda to bury the remains of her husband in Batac na lang. “End to Marcos’ burial dispute” New Straits Times July 13 1998 

Imelda gave the project a rest during GMA’s time . In PNoy’s time she turned to Congress for help. In  2011, a few days before the 25th EDSA anniversary, Marcos ally Rep. Salvador Escudero authored a resolution calling for the LNMB burial that gathered close to 200 signatures, a clear House majority. In the Senate, Bongbong Marcos released a statement insisting that his father deserved no less than a state burial. http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/

PNoy asked VP Jejomar Binay to decide the case. After 3 months of research and consultations with civil society groups and other concerned citizens, and taking into account the Escudero resolution and an SWS survey [March 3 – March 7] showing that Filipinos were split right down the middle — 50% in favor, 49% not — and a personal meeting daw with Bongbong and Imee Marcos, Binay came to the conclusion that it was a “partisan” issue and a compromise that might be acceptable to both sides would be to bury Marcos in Ilocos Norte with full military honors.  https://ph.news.yahoo.com/news/binay

But as it turned out, Binay had misread the Marcoses: Imelda was adamant about a state burial in Manila. On the 17th of June 2011, PNoy just said no. “Not during my watch.” https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/

And then came Duterte.

Kampanya pa lang, ipinangako na niya ang LNMB burial for the dictator, about whom he only had good things to say; and the burial would unite the nation daw. It is not clear if it was his way of making ligaw the Marcos loyalist vote or if naligawan na siya ni Imee vis a vis the burial in exchange for the same. But once he had won, Digong was quick to thank her publicly.

“Who supported me in Luzon? … Only Imee Marcos.” https://www.youtube.com/

“Sinong tumulong sa akin? Ilan lang … 4, 5, 6? Wala akong barangay captain. Wala akong congressman. Wala akong pera, si Imee pa nga ang nagbigay, sabi niya inutang daw niya. … Si Imee supported me.” https://www.youtube.com/

On June 30 he took his oath, August 7 he ordered the Marcos burial, August through September eight petitions were filed with the Supreme Court seeking a restraining order. Rallies pro and con, left right and center.

Imee Marcos, daughter of the former dictator and now the governor of Ilocos Norte Province painted Duterte as the natural successor to her father. She also implied that recognizing Marcos as a hero would allow the country to move forward. 

“[The reburial] is an opportunity to erase the hatred, conflicts and discord in our society,” she said at a pro-Marcos rally outside the Supreme Court in October. “The healing presidency of President Duterte will take over and we as one nation will be great again,” CNN reported. https://www.csmonitor.com/

Nov 8 the Supreme Court, voting 9-5-1, dismissed all petitions. Nov 17 Duterte flew to Lima Peru for an APEC summit, Nov 18 the dead one was flown to Manila by Army helicopter and buried in “sneaky” rites, behind shut gates, away from public view. https://www.nationthailand.com/

RACHEL AG REYES. There was a grand hearse. Relatives and guests arrived in a fleet of big cars. The Marcos family was impeccably dressed: Imelda wore a beautiful black terno whose silken folds fluttered elegantly in the breeze. Imee was in immaculate white, and her brother chose a barong his father would have favored. The coffin, draped in the nation’s flag, was carried with great ceremony by military pallbearers and honored with a 21- gun salute. Soldiers in full military regalia dutifully saluted. Priests, just as dutifully, prayed and officiated. There were wreaths and bouquets, one said to be from the President. The ceremony began promptly at noon, as tradition dictated, and ended an hour later. Rows and rows of soldiers and police stood guarding the cemetery’s perimeter and entrances. Clearly,the event was planned and executed with the sort of precision and meticulous coordination that seems so uncharacteristic of us Filipinos. Moreover, somehow, remarkably, it was all accomplished with absolute secrecy. Not a shred of information was leaked. Not a single journalist was alerted. Not a single pesky protester was there to ruin the moment and the photos. The Marcoses even controlled the visuals, selecting only a few images of the event for public consumption. The President was conveniently out of the country. His office claimed ignorance. “We honestly don’t know,” said the doe-eyed spokesperson who stood before an aghast press corps. What an impressive and extraordinary feat.  https://www.manilatimes.net/

That the burial was held in secret tells us that the Marcoses were aware of, even sensitive to, the pulse, the agitation, of the people. In the 2011 SWS survey that asked people if Marcos deserved to be buried in LNMB, of the 50% who approved, only 30% said yes to official honors, 20% said yes to a private burial only — this 20% plus the 49% who said no, not worthy, made for a resounding 69%. https://www.sws.org.ph/

Just the same, post-LNMB saw Imee elected to the Senate in 2018. And then in Nov 2021 — tila nagmamadaling maiakyat si Bongbong sa palasyo — she was able to convince Sara Duterte to UniTeam with BBM because otherwise there was no beating Leni Robredo, and Sara agreed, despite Digong preferring that she run as Senator Bong Go‘s VP.  https://www.philstar.com/headlines/

But as it turned out, outside the kulambo pala si Imee, and the pamamangka sa dalawang partido has proven unsustainable with the impeachment of VP Sara by Congress, the turnover of Digong to ICC, and her lagapak sa surveys.

Bocobo’s reading, that “Imee will always be a Marcos and, politically speaking, may be the future conduit between her family and the Dutertes”, might turn out a pipe dream, unless Imee makes it back to the Senate in May, the Senate acquits VP Sara, and Digong gets to come home alive.

Shifting sands

It was nothing like the euphoria of EDSA ’86 when the dictator Marcos fled the country, but still it was quite a rare high when former president Duterte unexpectedly flew off to The Hague without a fight. A WOW! who-would-have-thought moment that we are all still wrapping our heads around, whether in mixed joy and pity, how dissonant, or intense sorrow and rage, how DDS.

It also couldn’t have happened at a more critical time — it’s election season with Duterte and Marcos campaigning for control of the Senate where VP Sara, the daughter, is up for an impeachment trial, and last week civil society was clamoring for the trial to begin forthwith, before elections.

That’s a lost cause now, it would seem. We’ve already lost another week, the window of possibility grows narrower. And given the Duterte-ICC shock-and-awe political drama that’s got everyone thinking, rethinking, reevaluating (sooo Mercury retrograde), I imagine that the trial will just have to wait until after the May elections, in early June. The incumbent senators, re-electionist and otherwise, will not want to be seen adding to the tribulations of the VP, not while she’s in The Hague attending to Digong’s defense, and not while the DDS are screaming to bring him home, or else.

Or else, what? People power daw. The movie-in-the-mind of DDS peeps starts with street rallies that become so large and nasty and noisy that PBBM would have no choice but to declare martial law, which would then unite the opposition, the DDS greens with the pinks and yellows, left right and center; fast-forward to the ouster of Marcos and the rise of Sara. Parang fairy tale. And it’s not as if, if she became president she could bring her tatay home from ICC. Sa intindi ko, the only time Digong gets to come home is if and when the ICC declares him innocent.

Meanwhile they promise a sweep for Duterte’s senatorial slate, certain that they can count on voter sympathy to seat the entire caboodle in the Senate and guarantee Sara’s acquittal sa impeachment trial.

Voter sympathy. But I can also imagine voters levelling up, listening to both sides, going through now-I-see moments, and making up their own minds. Wishful thinking, I know, but heck all the information and opinions and platforms have to account for something worthwhile, or what’s the point.

And let’s not forget BBM who is very much in control. Here’s a Facebook post by information consultant James Matthew Miraflor on why BBM did it.

Marcos, Jr. follows the footstep of Macapagal-Arroyo – it does not matter how unpopular your regime becomes, as long as you satisfy the established elite. Unfortunately for the Duterte family, it is the same elite they pissed off when they maneuvered Dennis Uy into their circle.

For this elite, #NeverAgain to the Dutertes. This elite will ensure that Sara is impeached and perpetually disqualified, Polong is jailed (probably), and Baste is politically kneecapped. Kitty? All clans have Anastasias, she’ll probably have her own harmless Disney movie. The Dutertes cannot survive this without compromise. Marcos, Jr. and the rest of the Marcos family cannot risk a vindictive political force post-2028.

Hell, the Marcoses might even be willing to engineer charter change to ensure a transition to a federal-parliamentary system, one that will be dominated by corporate-sponsored parties*. Perhaps a semi-Presidential system, with a Tulfo as President and Romualdez as PM? It will be the apotheosis of the Philippine elite: dual power ala Roman consulate, fully liberalized, rules-based, with institutionalized consensus-based gerrymandering.

Alas, a low-intensity democracy that is also the technocrats dream: capitalists govern, economists appoint regulators, and the electorate simply vote party mascots.

—

* Nacionalista for Villar, NPC for San Miguel, NUP for Razon, LAKAS-NUCD for Aboitiz, and the LP for the Negros vieux riche; Consunjis, Tans, and Gokongweis might commit to new parties, who knows?

https://www.philstar.com/…/2239719/tycoons-men-marcos-men
https://bilyonaryo.com/…/gokongwei-zobel…/business/

Kidnap? . . . Karma!

Tuesday, the 11th, that saw Digong arrested upon ICC and Interpol orders when he returned from Hong Kong, and forthwith detained in Villamor Air Base (not Crame, as a distraught vlogger thought), and by the end of the day flown off on a jet plane, one-way, to Dubai and finally the Hague, was breathtaking, as in startling, thrilling, stunning, in its seamless execution.

At every point, I expected things to go sideways — no jurisdiction? due process not observed? fake arrest warrant? health concerns? TRO? — just because alam naman natin ang batas dito sa Pinas, kanya-kanyang interpretation depending on where one stands in the political spectrum. That the Palace managed to stay out of the unfolding fray, media-wise, was remarkable, even impressive. Ika nga ni Manolo Quezon sa “The last hurrah”:

And so, the Great Eagle Father came home, possibly for the last time. He was arrested with a degree of dignity, not to mention surgical precision and efficiency, I’d previously thought impossible to achieve in our shambolic republic. https://opinion.inquirer.net/181551/the-last-hurrah-2

As it turned out, the rumors that swirled around over the weekend, na he was in Hong Kong kunwari to campaign for the votes of Hong Kong OFWs and KOJCs, actually to ask China for asylum because nabulungan sila about an ICC arrest order… it would seem that the rumors were based on good intel.

Nuong umuwi siya Tuesday morning into the arms of police who arrested him in the plane pa lang, the big question was: Bakit umuwi? Could it be that China said no, and he had nowhere else to go? It was late in the afternoon of Tuesday, nasa Villamor pa siya, when this was posted by the Philippines Defense Forces Forum:

The intel suggests that Xi Jinping smoked Duterte, ignored his requests for political asylum, and had him told to leave Hong Kong upon learning that Interpol had already received an arrest warrant from the ICC. While China is not a member of the ICC, it is a member of Interpol and would likely avoid an embarrassing backlash from other member states by protecting Duterte.
https://www.facebook.com/philippinesdefense/posts/

Digong and Sara claim Digong was kidnapped. But a kidnap is done stealthily — this arrest was done openly, backed by a warrant of arrest. Like Digong used to say, there’s a time for everything, and here it is, a time to pay, for heinous crimes against humanity. A matter of karma. We reap what we sow.

Ika nga ni Atty Claire Castro re the DDS claim na “nakabuti naman ang drug war sa karamihan ng ating mga kababayan”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc-DXedRNJk

Dapat natin i-determine, anong klaseng kabutihan? … Itanong natin, war on drugs, kasama ang tokhang? kasama ang pagpatay [na] walang due process? kasama yung sasabihan ng pulis…o sige, sabihin mo sa kanya lumaban, para matapos na at mabawasan na ang problema sa Pilipinas? Hindi siya dapat polisiya ng gobyerno in the first place. It’s against the law! Killing is against the law! Wala nga tayong death penalty sa Pilipinas. Uunahan mo pa na patayin. Ang masama, wala pang hearing… So hindi natin matatanggap na yung war on drugs na pinairal ni dating Pangulong Duterte ay tamà. Kung may naitulong sa iba, paano naman yung namatayan. Kung merong nabiktima itong drug users, then the victims can file cases against these drug users. Pero hindi natin matatanggap na polisiya siya na dapat sundin ng isang gobyerno.

Good to be reminded, lalo na’t emotions are running high, ranging from bittersweet joy (justice!) to grief (gone!) and everything in between, which can get really cheesy, like a “public intellectual” saying that it didn’t have to come to this, meaning what? That Duterte should have behaved better maybe? Hindi dapat dumulog sa ICC? Hindi dapat inilipad si Duterte sa Hague? Hayaan na lang na  malusutan ang katakut-takot na indiscriminate extra-judicial killings by his death squads?

Isip isip. There’s right and there’s wrong. Karma rules.

*

What Duterte’s warrant of arrest reveals by Joel Ruiz Butuyan

The law finally caught up with Duterte and his death squads by Karishma Vaswani

Duterte’s arrest: A reckoning for justice by Antonio Contreras

Cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth by Ben Kritz

Llamas exaggerates

This is what he said on Richard Heydarian‘s vlog a week ago, a day or so before the People’s Impeachment Movement (PIM) announced the signature drive.

Ronald Llamas. Nabalitaan ko lang na may mga grupo ng mga religious na balak mag-launch ng people’s impeachment movement. … Kung babagal-bagal ang senado, kung ayaw ng senado na mag-convene, kami ang magco-convene, a people’s impeachment, at itong mga articles of impeachment, mga complaints, paguusapan pa namin, kami na mismo, at baka magpapirma kami ng several million signatures. Dahil sabi ng senate president walang clamor … gagawa ng clamor ang mga religious … balita ko next week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY3Av300cnE&t=1830s 

Na-excite naman ako, LOL. I guess because it reminded of Chino Roces’s signature campaign in November ’85 to convince Cory to run for  president should Marcos call snap elections, and Chino and his peeps gathered 1.2M in less than a month — martial law pa noon! — and the rest is history.  I thought that PIM’s launch would signal the immediate start of signature-gathering in church patios and malls and street corners and online websites, as in forthwith, right away.

Alas. The “launch” on the eve of Ash Wednesday was simply an announcement of intent, and their self-imposed deadline for just one (not several) million signatures is June 8, Pentecost Sunday. June 8!!! By then, according to SP Chiz’s proposed calendar, the Senate would have convened as an impeachment court anyway, so what difference would a million sigs make?

Bakit walang urgency, kung “forthwith” ang ipinaglalaban? Anyare?

People were asking na, where do we go to sign? can we offer, volunteer, our spaces to help gather signatures? kailangan kaya may official I.D.s ang mga pipirma? at kung ano-ano pa. Sayang. It was a great idea.

I had imagined that even just a million signatures could be gathered by a well-organized team by the end of March, and the appeal could be for the Senate to convene as an impeachment court early in April, and then to suspend around the 25th, thus giving re-electionists the final two weeks before the May 12 elections to make their final pitches on the ground, and then to resume in June…

And then again, former Senate Prez Frank Drilon said yesterday on ANC’s Hot Copy with Karen Davila that he thinks the religious orgs are “barking at (sic) the wrong tree”. That the appeal should be addressed to PBBM, not SP Chiz.

Drilon. Senate President Escudero cannot start the trial UNLESS the president calls congress to a special session because (it is) the convening of a special session (that) will make the convening of the impeachment trial court compulsory. … But it cannot start today because there is no session. And therefore the remedy is for the president to call a special session. … He can say: I am calling a special session so the Senate can address its constitutional duty to convene an impeachment court. The discretion of the president to call a special session is ABSOLUTE.

Ang problema, while the president has said he is willing to call a special session, he will do so only if or when the Senate requests it, and the senators (except for Koko Pimentel and Risa Hontiveros) are adamant, as in, no way, busy sila sa kampanya. “Too much to ask” of Senators, say pa ni Cynthia Villar. I imagine that the president is on the same page — he dreams of a 12-0 win  — and will not be moved by a million, even several million, signatures?

So far, no update from Llamas on the signature drive — no response to Drilon’s advice — not even just to correct himself. Maybe the attitude is, matatabunan naman agad, no one’s keeping track, so he feels free to exaggerate, lalo na kung sa vlog lang naman. Ayos.