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<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe Marcoses have fled the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At exactly 9:52 PM on February 25, 1986, DZRH announced that the once-mighty strongman Ferdinand Marcos was now in exile together with his family. On the ground, Filipinos who have endured years of hardship finally had reason to rejoice \u2014 the EDSA People Power Revolution has ousted the cruel dictator and ushered in a new dawn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thirty-four years later, however, it seems that midnight is on the horizon once again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last September 2, the House of Representatives passed House Bill (HB) No. 7137 that declares September 11 as \u201cPresident Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Day\u201d in Ilocos Norte. With the bill poised to breeze through the Senate, President Duterte will have no trouble signing it into law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite being only a measure of local application, HB 7137 has dangerous national implications. It mandates the celebration of a human rights abuser, plunderer, and tyrant\u2019s birth anniversary while implicitly revising Philippine history. HB 7137 is also merely another step in the Marcoses\u2019 quest to regain lost power and prestige. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Make no mistake: Marcos is not a hero. No amount of propaganda from his family\u2019s loyalists and paid online trolls will ever change that. However, the preponderance of false information has forced us to make frequent trips down memory lane to correct false perceptions of history. It may be a dark and grisly journey, but it is necessary if we are to learn from the past and decisively chart our future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE GOLDEN AGE OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A quick internet search for \u201cMarcos Achievements\u201d will yield numerous articles trumpeting the late dictator\u2019s supposed contributions to peace and prosperity in the Philippines. They gleefully reminisce about a golden age that \u201cFilipinos yearn to bring back.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are right. Marcos\u2019 rule was indeed a golden age \u2014 for human rights violations, that is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Marcoses\u2019 desire to be the Philippines\u2019 next top dynasty led them to silence the critical press and eliminate anyone that gets in their way. Marcos, despite making the fight against subversion a centerpiece of his \u201cNew Society,\u201d became the communist insurgency\u2019s top recruiter. The Philippines\u2019 shrinking democratic space and deteriorating political environment drove many towards the trenches of activism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, there were 70,000 people imprisoned, 34,000 tortured, and 3,240 killed at the height of martial rule in the country according to data from Amnesty International. The Marcos regime had no shortage of gruesome methods in tormenting its political prisoners \u2014 many of whom are yet to surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(READ: https:\/\/rappler.com\/…\/marcos-dictatorship-martial-law…<\/a>) <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Martial law era is arguably the darkest chapter in history for the nation\u2019s bright, young minds. Arrests, disappearances, and killings sponsored by Marcos\u2019 government may have well robbed the Philippines an entire generation of leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, human rights victims and their families are still crying for justice. As the Marcoses re-establish their political capital, many claimants who tremendously suffered under their rule are yet to receive even financial compensation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, feel free to say \u201cHappy birthday, President Marcos!\u201d every September 11. Just remember to serve his signature confection \u2014 a cake iced with blood and frosted with bullets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A VANITY-FUELED ECONOMIC DISASTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe own practically everything.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Imelda Marcos could not have been blunter about how wealthy and powerful her family was at the height of their prominence in a 1998 interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Nevertheless, Imelda\u2019s sentiment rings true. Despite promising to dislodge the country\u2019s ruling oligarchs, she and her husband ended up nurturing equally corrupt cronies to replace them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the First Family lavished, the average Filipino had a different story to tell. As the country\u2019s neighbors emerged as \u201cAsian Tigers,\u201d Marcos\u2019 disastrous policies plunged the Philippines into an economic meltdown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Ateneo School of Government Dean Dr. Ronald Mendoza, \u201cstate-run monopolies, mismanaged exchange rates, and imprudent monetary policy and debt management, all underpinned by rampant corruption and cronyism\u201d contributed to the Philippines\u2019 worst economic contraction on record at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid widespread poverty and social unrest, the Marcos regime was in desperate need of a distraction. Imelda, who claims that she is \u201callergic to ugliness,\u201d enthusiastically took up the challenge. She proceeded to oversee a massive infrastructure blitz that ironically aggravated the country\u2019s economic woes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (READ: https:\/\/newslab.philstar.com\/31-years-of…\/building-spree<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marcos loyalists would often raise Imelda\u2019s extravagant structures whenever confronted with dark truths about the Martial law era. However, they always forget to mention that the Filipino people will continue paying the debts incurred by her vanity projects until 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than three decades since their ouster, we have been unable to retrieve a significant chunk of the Marcoses\u2019 ill-gotten wealth. Although the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division convicted the former First Lady in seven counts of graft back in 2018, she is yet to serve one second of jail time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite cultivating a culture of nepotism and impunity, and holding a Guinness World Record for the \u201cGreatest Robbery of a Government,\u201d Imelda Marcos remains unperturbed after all these years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I think I deserve more shoes,\u201d she jested back in 2011. <\/p>\n\n\n\n DUTERTE: MARCOS WANNABE<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Marcos regime conjured such an oppressive environment that many Filipinos today deem unimaginable. In many ways, it is akin to the dystopian Panem where Katniss Everdeen lived, minus the Hunger Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An article like this would have never made it to print and would have cost journalists their lives. Education and even entertainment were bereft of politics but overflowing with propaganda: the Marcoses could do no wrong, and anyone who fails to fall in line will pay the ultimate price. After the Marcoses fell from grace, Filipinos vowed that horrors like these must never happen again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, President Rodrigo Duterte had different plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Duterte, constrained by the 1987 Constitution\u2019s provisions, was not able to put the entire Philippines under Martial law. Instead, he resorted to undermining the country\u2019s democratic institutions one after the other. Today, Duterte has both legislative chambers under his sway, appointed 12 out of 15 Supreme Court Justices, and transformed the executive branch into a hub for retired generals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (READ: https:\/\/www.worldpoliticsreview.com\/…\/with-even-fewer…<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much like with Marcos, four years under Duterte have seen cases of human rights violations skyrocket through its bloody war on drugs and intensified crackdown on Lumad communities. Duterte’s Build, Build, Build infrastructure push, which has long been his administration’s flagship program, is primarily fueled by what plagued Marcos-era economic initiatives: foreign debt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The COVID-19 pandemic did nothing to reverse these trends. As fears of contagion curtailed economic activity, the country saw Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fall by 16.5 percent in the second quarter of 2020 \u2014 its worst contraction on record. Moreover, the Duterte administration took advantage of the health crisis to halt ABS-CBN\u2019s operations through a subservient Congress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The last time that a sitting administration forced ABS-CBN to shut down, Filipinos toppled a dictator. Who knows what we can achieve this time around? <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is no surprise that Duterte, who once compared himself to Adolph Hitler, would emulate Marcos\u2019 authoritarian example. Unfortunately for the President, this only shows that he has failed to learn the lessons from history and ignored its warnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL <\/p>\n\n\n\n September 11 is turning out to be very inauspicious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the United States, Americans commemorate it for the series of al-Qaeda plane hijacks and attacks that struck their country almost 20 years ago. In the Philippines, those who wish to revise history in their favor are aiming to make us celebrate the birth anniversary of a ruthless dictator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the date is not as bad as it seems to be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Back on September 11, 1977, students all over the country established the League of Filipino Students (LFS) to oppose frequent tuition increases and the Marcos regime\u2019s increasing oppression. Later on, LFS morphed into a National Democratic Mass Organization (NDMO) to bolster its influence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LFS continues to ignite the youth\u2019s spirit and fight against the ills that hamper Filipino society from much-needed progress until today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Marcoses and their allies are on the rise once again. However, we need not abandon hope. Philippine history is replete with evidence showing the people’s collective strength. No matter how persistent foreign and domestic forces may be in taking away our freedom, Filipinos always find a way to fight back and emerge victoriously. As long as we stay vigilant in pursuit of justice and relentless in defending the truth, one thing will always remain clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marcos\u2019 legacy belongs to history\u2019s dustbin, not its throne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #NeverForget<\/a> Featured image courtesy of Official Gazette<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
#NeverAgain<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n