marcos redux

no surprise that marcos jr. is running not for the presidency but for veep.  testing the waters muna siyempre, kahit pa naniniwala silang the marcos regime 1965 to 1986 were good years, better than cory’s, fvr’s, erap’s, gloria’s, and noynoy’s put together.  in fact, say ni bongbong, kung di nag-EDSA, we would be advanced and first-world like singapore.  LOL.  yeah, those were good years, the best years, even, of THEIR lives, i.e, the marcoses’ and their cronies’, in particular, no doubt about it, but of nation?

please naman, itigil na ang pagbibilog sa ulo ng taongbayan.  the marcos regime was more bad than good for nation, the promised revolution from the center did not materialize, we’re still paying for foreign debts that went into failed (looted) industries and white elephants like the bataan nuclear power plant.  and let me not get started on how oppressive, repressive, suppressive that strong-arm rule was, thanks to how marcos the dictator and brilliant lawyer crafted proclamations, executive orders, decrees, and amendments not only to buttress, solidify his (and his heirs’ and cronies’ heirs’) hold on, and everlasting entitlement to, political power (overt and covert), but to preserve and promote forevermore the interests of the ruling class, from the protection of landholdings to control of the nation’s monetary policies — laws and policies that continue/d to be invoked by, and to serve, post-EDSA administrations, from aquino to aquino, mother and son.  how’s that for irony.

I am very happy that I was born into the Marcos family. I congratulate myself for picking my parents very well. I have never felt it to be a burden. I have only felt it to be an advantage, a blessing and I am very thankful that I am a Marcos,” he said in a press conference in Quezon City.

faced as we are with the prospect of a marcos to marcos, from father to son, the line  “I congratulate myself for picking my parents very well” is worthy of note.  it would seem that bongbong believes in past lives and reincarnation  – only in occult/mystical thought is there a notion of the unborn soul choosing one’s parents and the circumstances to be born to in the present life.  but the concept of reincarnation is all about evolving, growing in wisdom, leveling up, as in a spiral of evolution.  for bongbong, since he chooses to follow in the footsteps, and avail of the attendant advantages of the legacy, of his father, then to evolve,  that is, to level up, to save the country from perdition, to fulfill the promise of a national revolution sa puso, sa isip, at sa gawa  would demand that he acknowledge and learn, first, from the mistakes, the failures, the sins of the conjugal dictatorship.  otherwise he is fated to repeat the patterns of corruption and violence set, established, during the rule of his parents, and we should be very very afraid.

meanwhile, on social media, the question still is, should  we visit the sins of the father on the children?  i’ve always said, yes, in the sense that, if bongbong is sincere about moving the country forward, then he should acknowledge such sins, and do what he can to make amends.  only then can we have a conversation about marcos times not being all bad.  only then can the nation truly move forward.  but, no, i can’t see any of that happening soon, as the imeldific one seems still to be calling the shots, and she could live forever.

Comments

  1. WHY MIRIAM DEFENSOR IS NOT CRAZY by Edna Aquino

    Miriam Defensor Santiago is not out of her mind as many would now tend to label her choice of BBM as VP and for making that unfortunate insensitive statement that the Marcoses had nothing to apologize for what their father did and for martial law. It is the typical Miriam – provocative, brutally frank, rude – but which either leave one to become furious and resist, think deeper and be challenged or be swayed or think out of the box.

    She is responsible for her thoughts. Labelling her as crazy or opportunist does not help in deepening why we are reacting this way to Miriam. The labelling and anger including my own are justified. My mother, husband (twice) sister were illegally arrested and detained; my life as a young adult was disrupted as i was forced to go underground and lived in constant fear for years; my friends were killed, arrested, tortured, went missing. But would an apology from the Marcoses address these injustices? It might but it is problematic. I will not reduce the injustice to an apology by the Marcoses. I am angrier at the absence of a justice system that would have made Marcos and cohorts become accountable in the eyes of law. What we are left with are redistribution of the plundered wealth (part of it) and memorialisation. Nothing in textbooks, nothing in criminal law for a final closure.

    Thus the Marcoses’ narrative of “truth” persists along with the attraction of a Duterte presidency that would no doubt slam human rights but which captures many of the people’s imagination as the ‘savior of the country”. These trends frustrate me more than Miriam’s statement. Do not reduce me as defending Miriam Santiago. And please – do not reduce Marcos’ crimes and martial law to a hashtag ‪#‎neveraagain‬.

    https://www.facebook.com/edna.aquino/posts/10153625434249906?pnref=story

  2. MIRIAM: “It is still important to go over the details of martial law in the country so we will know what path we shall take for the millennials. I do not especially agree, and I beg the pardon of Mr. Marcos, that the details of martial law deserve to be buried and forgotten. No. On the contrary, the historians of tomorrow should make the study deeper so that we will know what lessons they held for our future.”

    http://opinion.inquirer.net/89495/a-nonnegotiable-narrative

  3. JOKER : “Except for attacks on Marcos’ corruption and lamentations on our debts, there were no criticisms of Marcos’ policies. On the contrary, as days passed, it became obvious that our fiscal and monetary policies were a continuation of those of Marcos. The Aquino technocrats were no different from, no better than, the Marcos technocrats. They belong to the same school of thought.”
    http://opinion.inquirer.net/89505/joker-arroyo-unedited-on-marcos-debts-in-defense-of-trapos

  4. manuelbuencamino

    Joker is on the right track there in the sense that I think we may have erred in personalizing martial law too much.

    But Marcos policies if Joker means his economic, fiscal, defense etc policies, would also be the wrong subject because many of those policies are orthodoxies i.e. get anyone educated in western schools or UP Ateneo or La Salle and they will most likely come up with the same western-type approaches. And so focusing on those policies, we end up personalizing the issue again in that we will conclude that were it not for a certain person those policies would have worked perfectly well. So we haven’t learned anything we just go back to personalizing the whole thing.

    The problem with personalizing an issue is emotions fade over time.

    What we need to study and to teach in schools as a sort of warning are not only the conditions and conditioning that made even the thinking class open to martial law but how, through proclamations and decrees, martial law will inevitably and always lead to a rule of men over the rule of law, to a totalitarian society.

    Let’s study those martial law proclamations and decrees, how through them a totalitarian system inevitably follows. And it does not matter WHO is at the top because the martial law system where one proclamation allows the head of government to rule by decree will produce a dictator. (Cory could have listened to her advisers and maintained a revolutionary government ruling by decree until justice was had but “unsophisticated” as she was I think she felt in her gut where the situation will lead if she did not re-establish a democratic government based on laws right away. Because martial law, even if the dictator is kind and honest, gives license to subordinates…and the dictator relies on them.)

    In short, let us focus on the system. Let’s become educated that it is the martial law system that is corrupt and abusive by its very nature.

    Twenty five years down the road when all the survivors of abuses are dead and gone, whatever Marcos will be but a dim and not very well understood figure. So the focus should be on why and how the martial law system is inhuman. Teach it as one would teach republican, communist, monarchial systems etc.

    When we say “Never again” it should not be personal. It should apply to the martial law system because anybody can fill Marcos’ shoes.

    Proc 1081 opened the door. What were the most meaningful decrees that established totalitarian rule? The proclamations and decrees are the architecture of it. It’s the house we must avoid building ever again.

      • manuelbuencamino

        Basically all one has to list besides 1081 are those that empowered him to rule by decree, closed Congress, suspended human rights, established courts martial, controlled media, proclaimed the New Constitution, etc and finally Proc 6? which allowed him to continue ruling by decree even after martial law was lifted and the Batasan was convened. I think a law or political science professor can ask his students to list them. Konti lang naman yun foundations. And then one can analyze those decrees and procs and how they served to establish totalitarian rule.

        • ah i’m thinking totalitarian rule and beyond. can’t be specific right now but over the years i remember being dismayed pag me ini-invoke na marcos presidential decree or exec order or letter of instruction that allows our government officials to do questionable things…

          • manuelbuencamino

            well, there was only one totalitarian regime here thank god consequently it is relatively simple to study from the architecture of it. The larger issue of why the people did not resist is a much larger study for sociologists and social psychologists.

            As to the decrees…that bothers me too. It was explained to me that negating all decrees would have deep legal implications/consequences etc. I believe that okay what’s done is done and so we cannot allow retroactive effects if we cancel those decrees but why allow those decrees to remain in force?

            The other thing that concerns is the focus on teaching martial law lessons to students but no focus on teaching the teachers. How many stories have you heard of teachers talking about the dictatorship in nostalgic tones? Students will never learn about the dangers and the negatives of totalitarian rule if teachers’ hearts are not into the lesson. Start with the teachers.

    • Batang Genyo-Ala-eh

      In my humble opinion, Peoc1081 was illegal because it was immplemented without the concurrence of Congress and therefore unConstitutional since it was not debated if there exists a imminent danger of “rebellion” or not. Therefore, all promulgations and decrees which the quasi military govt invoked were contrary to to the basic or fundamental law as provided for in the Constitution. It was unique as the Marcos termed it the “smiling martial law regime”.