I was already teaching in college in 1986 so I witnessed the years of the Marcos era. In my province alone, almost all of the people in our provincial capitol as well as our municipal hall, from the governor/congressman down to the lowliest clerks, were corrupt. Janitors were corrupt, public works laborers were corrupt, engineers were corrupt. The government was slowly but surely grinding down to a standstill. During Marcos’ latter years, some paydays for government employees were being skipped because the government has no funds, the government was bankrupt. It was that dire. We were living on the loans from the IMF and World Bank because of the utter mismanagement and massive corruption. In fact, rural poverty was the highest during Marcos’ time.
Let us go back in time. Here is our capital, Manila, in the 1930’s:
Then World War 2 came.
Here is our capital after the ‘liberation’ in 1945:
It was the second most devastated city after Warsaw. We had a wrecked economy, a wrecked national pride, a wrecked national confidence, and with the baggage of a national trauma of three years of war.
Then, just one year later (1946), the Americans granted us ‘independence’ when we needed help the most. Yet the Americans left behind laws that ensured Americans maintain a stranglehold on the economy (Tydings-McDuffie act, 1935 constitution amended 1946, Bell Trade act, Laurel-Langley agreement, etc.).
Some twenty years after being left alone, here is our capital in the 1960’s:
We became the second most successful economy after Japan. Meanwhile, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan were so poor. There were countries bigger and richer, like China, but China’s economy was in the doldrums and the only rich city was Shanghai.
The 1960s was a critical turning point to the destinies of some Asian countries.
In 1963, Park Chung Hee became South Korea’s president, did some economic reforms that saw the coming of the ‘Miracle on the Han River’ and paved the way to the Korea we see today.
In 1965, Lee Kwan Yew oversaw the separation of Singapore from Malaysia, guided the new country through a pragmatic economic and political management and steered Singapore to what it is today.
In 1967, Mao started the cultural revolution that destroyed hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cultural icons and snuffed out countless lives in China.
In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos became the president of the Philippines, inheriting the second most successful economy in Asia. Just three years into his presidency, everything was already gloomy. He was only making schemes on how to stay in power forever and not thinking about the economy.
Then in 1970, everything turned for the worse. The economy was really in shambles but Marcos was concerned with only how to make his political enemies look like the devil himself by branding them as ‘communists’, so the rallies became more violent and widespread.
Then in 1972, he declared the entire country under Martial Law. After twenty years in office, mostly under martial law, with massive corruption from Marcos and his cronies, the economy in shambles, so many people unemployed, frequent power failures, a raging communist insurgency, a military running amok raping, torturing and killing students and anyone they brand as ‘communist’ and burning villages they suspect as sympathizers of the NPA, frequent rallies and demonstrations because of widespread discontent, and a swelling number of people in abject poverty, Marcos was finally driven out in 1986.
In twenty years, Marcos transformed the Philippines from the second most successful economy in Asia to the basket case of Asia.
All those “magnificent” projects done during Marcos’ time were built from loans, loans we can ill-afford during that time and which we have to repay for decades long after Marcos was gone. Those projects were merely excuses so Marcos and his cronies can dip their greedy fingers on a steady stream of pies.
https://martiallawmuseum.ph/magaral/edifice-complex-building-on-the-backs-of-the-filipino-people/
The legislature, (Congress or Parliament; we were a parliamentary system for a time), was simply a rubber stamp to Marcos’ wishes and demands. And yet he issued decrees, which usurped the role of the legislature.
If the 1986 ‘revolution’ did not happen, we would be worse than a basket case, there wouldn’t even be a basket left. The people were already living on the edge, that’s why in 1986 the people snapped. On the other hand, I saw the sudden changes and improvements during Cory’s time.
The Marcos years were the only time in our history that our economy experienced such an extreme negative growth. The only reason there was some “growth” to the GDP during Marcos’s time was due to the infusion of new money from the massive loans, so those “growth” were artificial. By the ‘80s, the IMF and World Bank finally realized there is no way we can repay those massive loans, so no new loans were awarded. That’s when the real state of our economy came out. We were really scraping the bottom when the 1986 EDSA ‘revolution’ happened.
Marcos’ time was a government by the elite. Only Marcos and his cronies were benefiting while the people were mired in poverty. Before Marcos’ time, although it was a succession of oligarchs and political dynastic families who ruled the country, at least they were not exclusive and tried to spread the benefits of the government, so we became number two in Asia. There was corruption, to be sure, but they were nothing compare to Marcos’ greed.
Marcos was elected in 1965. He won reelection in 1969. He cannot run for a third term in 1973 because of the constitutional limitation of two terms. The country was already beset with economic problems and widespread corruption. In fact, the 1969 elections was considered the bloodiest and the most corrupt, so Marcos’ winning was even suspect.
1969 Ferdinand Marcos presidential campaign - Wikipedia
Since the treasury was low on funds, Marcos borrowed from international institutions to finance that campaign, a patently illegal act. Social unrest was already manifesting in rallies and demonstrations. Even if he was allowed a third term, he knew he wouldn’t win, unless he do even more heinous acts. So he declared martial law in 1972 and suspended the constitution.
Right after declaring martial law, Marcos imprisoned most of the senators, congressmen, governors and mayors, even those who were in his same party, just to let them know who’s boss. So when they all came out months later, they were all docile.
The one remarkable personality who remained defiant was Senator Benigno Aquino. Marcos could not touch him because he was known even outside the country, so he simply kept Aquino in prison. Some, like Diokno, Tanada, Salonga and Pimentel, became fearless later out of sheer desperation. But Aquino remained popular even in the years he was in prison.
The most remarkable event during that imprisonment was when Aquino organized a noise barrage — while in prison. The simultaneous noise coming from all over Metro Manila that night — from inside houses, the streets, the honking vehicles — was so eerily disconcerting and so indicative of the people’s solidarity with Aquino that soon after, Marcos made a deal with him: he will be set free as long as he goes out of the country. To no avail.
After Aquino suffered a heart attack sometime later, Marcos released him from prison but forced him to leave the country ‘so he could seek medical aid’. It wasn’t because of concern for Aquino; Marcos was worried that there will be an upheaval from the people and from the international community if Aquino died in prison. But when Aquino came back a few years later in 1983, he was killed at the airport tarmac (he knew he was going to be killed but he came anyway). Marcos blamed everybody else but himself. Of course, he fooled no one.
So the one factor that kept Marcos in power for so long was fear. He was in total control because everyone feared him. The military was the law. People died or simply disappeared if they are known as anti-Marcos. The worst fear was hearing some knocking on your door in the middle of the night. That means someone in your home was going to be dragged away and never to be heard from again.
The problem is, fear doesn’t stay forever. After a while, it wears thin. Soon after Aquino’s assassination, there were protests. At first, it was just a trickle. Then it became a flow. Then it became a flood. And culminated into Marcos’ eviction in 1986.
Ninoy’s funeral was the day Filipinos stopped being afraid of dictators
During Cory’s time, she unfortunately suffered several attempted coups d’etat (seven in total). Juan Ponce Enrile thought he was the savior of the Philippines during the EDSA event when in fact it was the people who saved his ass. If the people did not move, he would have been just another shallow unmarked grave somewhere. He thought, being the hero, he has the right to sideswipe Cory through a coup and set himself up as the ruler through a military junta.
Because of the coups, investors became jittery, so the economy was rattled. Also because of the coups, there was a feeling that nobody was minding the store so everybody helped himself to the government coffers. ‘Little corruption’ sprouted spontaneously. Do I blame Cory for that? No. I put the blame squarely on Enrile.
Yet, despite everything, the wonder is that the economy still stayed positive despite what appeared to be a corrupt government. That is because the ‘little corruption’ going on was nothing compared to the massive corruption of the Marcos years.
Regarding corruption during Marcos’ time, since it is tiresome to list them all, I’ll just quote from Wikipedia:
“According to Jovito Salongain his book "Presidential Plunder", which details Salonga's time as head of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, the cronies helped the Marcos' amass their wealth by aiding in one or more of what Salonga called "Marcos' Techniques of Plunder."[2]These techniques,[2]Says salonga, were:
- Creating monopolies and putting them under the control of cronies;
- Awarding loans to cronies from government banking and/or financial institutions;
- Forced takeovers of various public or private enterprises, with a nominal amount as payment;
- Direct raiding of the public treasury and government financing institutions;
- Issuance of Presidential decrees or orders, enabling cronies to amass wealth;
- Kickbacks and commissions from enterprises doing business in the Philippines;
- Use of shell corporations and dummy companies to launder money overseas;
- Skimming of foreign aid and other forms of international assistance; and
- Hiding wealth in overseas bank accounts using pseudonyms or code names.”
There are just so many acts of corruption and the stories are so convoluted that it will take a book to list and explain them all, so I am just going to give links. Just bear in mind that this is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.
The $10bn question: what happened to the Marcos millions?
Coco Levy Fund scam - Wikipedia
Philippine Airlines Inc | Encyclopedia.com
Cronies of Ferdinand Marcos - Wikipedia
No power, but plenty of symbolism | Inside Story
That should get you started.
The edification of Marcos by the Duterte administration is related to the demonization of the Aquinos. From all indications, it started with Jejomar Binay, then continued by the Duterte handlers.
Binay was mayor of Makati for over 15 years (with a gap of 4 years) and was Vice President under Benigno ‘Pnoy’ Aquino III. While running for vice president on an opposition party, Binay became so jealous of the squeaky-clean image of the Aquinos while there are so many allegations of corruption against him. He won anyway. While vice president, he was seething with jealousy because Pnoy Aquino was enjoying that squeaky-clean image while Binay cannot get rid of his corrupt image. The problem is, there really are some undeniable reasons why he has that image. Binay was a poor lawyer when he became mayor, now he has huge farms, houses, mansions, condo units and maintaining bogus charities. That is when the rumors of the “corrupt Aquinos” began to circulate. It seemed Binay did nothing that whole six years as vice President but spread disinformation about Pnoy and the Aquinos. He was laying the groundwork for his presidential campaign.
After their term ended, Aquino did not endorse Binay as his successor so Binay was forced to run as an opposition candidate for president. That is when all the black propaganda against the Aquinos went full steam. All the allegations were carefully mixed and matched to have certain amount of truth and fabrications. People simply believed them without checking. Some of the other candidates, like Grace Poe, also added to the mudslinging. The irony is that Aquino wasn’t even running.
Unfortunately for Binay, Duterte joined the race for president halfway through the campaign, taking the wind off the sails of Binay’s campaign. Duterte’s father was a mayor of Danao in Cebu, then was governor of Davao, then was a cabinet member under Marcos. The Duterte political clan is related to the political clans of the Roas and the Duranos. Needless to say, the Dutertes enjoyed largesse from Marcos.
The Duterte campaign simply took over the smear campaign against the Aquinos, adding their own twists and fabrications, so now we have a portrait of the Aquinos as black as the devil himself.
But Duterte had an added twist. Since he belonged to the oligarchy and never suffered or experienced the hardships during the Marcos years and he himself is a Marcos loyalist, he made an effort to resurrect Marcos’ image by blaming everything on the Aquinos, saying all those charges against Marcos were fabrications of the Aquinos. That is the situation we have now. Everything Duterte says, people believe. It is just so twisted and diabolical that I feel stunned sometimes.
(I am not saying that Ninoy Aquino was an angel. He was just another ambitious politician, hell-bent on getting the presidency no matter what. So he courted controversy everywhere just to get to the limelight, like interviewing JoMa Sison and other communists in the mountains, thus being branded as ‘communist’ himself. He enjoyed the controversy and the limelight.
But the years of incarceration changed him. His exile in the US changed him even more, as he had time to reflect about his fate. When he realized that he could be the sacrificial lamb to move people to action against Marcos, he became resigned to his fate. He could have just stayed in the US and be safe because Imelda Marcos was already warning him that there are people who want to kill him if he came back, but he came back anyway.)
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