Category: rodrigo duterte

When a leader betrays his people

Rex D. Lores

… What is deeply disturbing about President Duterte’s decision is the clear disconnect between his rhetoric and reality. On one hand, he is pursuing a devastating campaign against criminality and corruption; on the other, he is coddling the memory of a tyrant whose crimes and corruption stagger our imagination.

On one hand, he is attacking oligarchs who accumulated wealth over decades; on the other, he is praising a discredited leader who became the country’s greatest oligarch overnight by illegally seizing the assets of the elite.

Marcos’ rise to power started with a lie, and he prevailed for so long through the legislative and executive branches of government largely on his capacity to manipulate or conceal the truth. It started with his claims of heroic exploits as a soldier in World War II, claims found fraudulent and without a scintilla of evidence in US Army archives.

Employing these improbable claims, he captured the central seat of power. Thus, the disingenuous argument goes, Marcos is qualified to rest with our heroes. The trouble with this argument is that, bereft of moral reasoning, it is blind to the infinite harm Marcos inflicted on the social fabric.

It smirks at the historical truth: Marcos’ wanton violation of the Constitution, the brutality of his regime, the astronomical external debt he incurred, the collapse of our economy, and the stunning wealth he stole to become the world’s second most corrupt leader of all time.

As flagrant and unconscionable as these atrocities may be, they were not the worst. The most damning was that Marcos derailed the hopes and aspirations of at least three generations of Filipinos, deepening our despair and our desperation.

Death cannot be a cleansing sacrament to alter Marcos’ sordid and bloody legacy. The impunity of Marcos’ long despotic rule will burden our sense of national dignity for generations to come. And how we reckon with this design to rehabilitate Marcos as a national hero has enormous implications on our values as a people, on the nature of our future, and on the efficacy of our political culture.

To bury Marcos in the heroes’ cemetery mocks the valor, dignity, and sacrifice of martyred Filipinos. But even more, it mocks our national esteem and our shared civic values as a democratic society.

reality check

asked my cleaning lady (who comes once a week), kumusta na sa kanila somewhere in fairview where she used to say nakakatakot abutin nang gabi sa daan, o sa pag-alis niya sa umaga at madilim pa: “hindi na po nakakatakot, nawala na po ang mga adik at mga tambay.”  the same goes, i hear, in mendiola’s university belt, where students feel safer, no longer harassed by snatchers and tambays, kahit gabi na.

calling out the prez and the solgen: “healing” for whom?

President Duterte’s order to allow former President Marcos’ interment at the [Libingan ng mga Bayani] is based on his determination that it shall promote national healing and forgiveness, and redound to the benefit of the Filipino people.” 

should not healing be for those who were hurt, tortured, who lost family and loved ones, who survived the atrocities but have seen the marcoses easing their way back to power with nary an apology, who have had to watch helplessly as nation forgets what martial law wrought on nation, on the real lives of real people, given press releases, media complicity, social media money and mileage?

burying marcos in libingan ng mga bayani, mr. president, will only rub salt on still painful wounds and deepen divisions in the body politic.  ang matutuwa lang po ay ang mga marcos at mga marcos loyalist, gayong they don’t need any healing except from the karmic wound of humiliation they suffered deservedly upon the stunning ouster of their overstaying and plundering dictator of a patriarch 30 years ago.

in effect, mr. president, you are forgiving marcos and martial law even as you, yourself, admitted on the campaign trail in feb 2016 that martial law was “clean” only “during the first years.”

napakasuwerte naman nila, sir.  at napakamalas naman ng bayan!

with all due respect, mr. president, for the sake of this nation that you say you love so passionately, this is one campaign promise you would be wise to renege on.  prove to us that you are the president not only of the marcoses and the 16 million supporters you love to wave at us.  it would be a giant step forward for nation, raise morale and some confidence in these unsetlling times, and hopefully start us all off on the road to moral recovery.

marcos, kleptocracy, moral turpitude

indeed, as president duterte declares, there is no law that expressly names and bans ferdinand marcos from burial in the libingan ng mga bayani.

however, AFPR G 161 374, the AFP’s implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act 289 (that created the national pantheon), is said to very clearly state:

The remains of the following shall not be interred in the Libingan ng mga Bayani:

Personnel who were dishonorably separated/reverted/discharged from the service.

Authorized personnel who were convicted by final judgment of the offense involving moral turpitude.

i submit, mr. president, that the dictator marcos meets both criteria easily and unequivocably.

dishonorably separated/reverted/discharged from the service:  in 1986, for sins too many to mention here, marcos was ousted by the direct actions of great numbers of people in a huge non-violent 10-day protest (six days crony boycott, 4 days EDSA) never before seen in the world.  take note, please, that marcos was so freaked out, he voluntarily left the palace, the seat of power, in effect dishonorably discharging himself from his post as president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces at the people’s behest.

(the story that bongbong and imelda peddle, by the way, that they only meant to go to paoay but were “kidnapped” by the americans and brought to hawaii instead, even if true, is no excuse — it was their mistake, trusting the americans rather than the loyalist pilots of presidential choppers who had been on standby from 10 a.m. of EDSA monday, the day before his tuesday night escape from the wrath of the people.)

convicted by final judgment of offense involving moral turpitude:  may i refer you, sir, to the supreme court’s final decision dated july 2003 (G.R. No. 152154), Republic of the Philippines vs. … Ferdinand E. Marcos (Represented by his Estate/Heirs: Imelda R. Marcos, Maria Imelda [Imee] Marcos-Manotoc, Ferdinand R; Marcos, Jr. and Irene Marcos-Araneta) and Imelda Romualdez Marcos, respondents, in the ill-gotten wealth case involving the aggregate amount of $658,175,373.60 (inclusive of interest as of january 31, 2002) held by five account groups using various foreign foundations in certain swiss banks.

the PCGG showed in detail, very clearly and overwhelmingly

… how both respondents clandestinely stashed away the countrys wealth to Switzerland and hid the same under layers upon layers of foundations and other corporate entities to prevent its detection. Through their dummies/nominees, fronts or agents who formed those foundations or corporate entities, they opened and maintained numerous bank accounts….

…On the part of Mrs. Marcos, she claimed that the funds were lawfully acquired. However, she failed to particularly state the ultimate facts surrounding the lawful manner or mode of acquisition of the subject funds. Simply put, she merely stated in her answer with the other respondents that the funds were lawfully acquired without detailing how exactly these funds were supposedly acquired legally by them. Even in this case before us, her assertion that the funds were lawfully acquired remains bare and unaccompanied by any factual support which can prove, by the presentation of evidence at a hearing, that indeed the funds were acquired legitimately by the Marcos family.

… In the guise of reporting income using the cash method under Section 38 of the National Internal Revenue Code, FM made it appear that he had an extremely profitable legal practice before he became a President (FM being barred by law from practicing his law profession during his entire presidency) and that, incredibly, he was still receiving payments almost 20 years after. The only problem is that in his Balance Sheet attached to his 1965 ITR immediately preceeding his ascendancy to the presidency he did not show any Receivables from client at all, much less the P10,65-M that he decided to later recognize as income. There are no documents showing any withholding tax certificates. Likewise, there is nothing on record that will show any known Marcos client as he has no known law office. As previously stated, his networth was a mere P120,000.00 in December, 1965. The joint income tax returns of FM and Imelda cannot, therefore, conceal the skeletons of their kleptocracy.

sabi nga ni senator rene saguisag:

No doubt Macoy was a criminal genius.

He opened his secret bank account in Switzerland in 1968.

The Supreme Court ruled him a kleptocrat on July 15, 2003 and ordered the Marcoses to return billions. Done.

He had political foes detained, Ninoy, Pepe, Soc, Monching, et al. Only Ninoy was charged, after years of detention.

He destroyed the natural evolution of leaders and many young leaders were killed in the flower of their youth.

75,000 claims of human rights victims are now being processed.

The world hailed his ouster in 1986.

He was super-exec, super-court, super-legislature and a one-man continuing constitutional convention.

Which other Pinoy President does the world see in such light?

No one comes close.

and may i add, contrary to the marcos camp’s online propaganda that marcos himself was the true hero of EDSA because he restrained his loyalist soldiers from firing on the throngs of unarmed civilians, in fact marcos gave the kill-order twice.  on sunday through army general josephus ramas to marine general artemio tadiar whose tanks were ordered to “Ram through!” the crowds gathered in the EDSA-ortigas intersection so that the soldiers could get close enough to eliminate rebel leaders enrile and ramos and RAM; this was between 2 and 3 p.m., just as enrile was leaving camp aguinaldo and crossing EDSA to consolidate forces with ramos in camp crame.  unfortunately for marcos, tadiar could not bring himself to harm innocent civilians.

the next morning, monday, ramas again, and col. irwin ver, too, relayed marcos’s kill-order to marine lt. col. braulio balbas whose troops had breached the libis barricades and made it into camp aguinaldo; looking down from the high ground of aguinaldo’s golf course, balbas had awesome firepower “boresighted” on camp crame, just 200 meters away: 3 howitzers, 28 mortars, 6 rocket launchers, 6 machine guns, and 1000 rifles.  balbas defied repeated orders to fire even when his commander, gen. tadiar, confirmed that the orders were from marcos himself.

my sources are unimpeachable:  the historian alfred mccoy and his team’s account is based on interviews with rebel and loyalist soldiers after EDSA, published in two parts by Veritas in october 1986.  and cecilio arillo, the military journalist identified with enrile who was in the camps and told it as he saw it in the book Breakaway (May 1986).

if all of the above do not qualify as moral turpitude upon moral turpitude upon moral turpitude, mr. president, then, pray tell, what does?