Thirty Years
Later . . .
Catching Up with
the Marcos-Era
Crimes
Myles A. Garcia
Copyright © 2016 by MAG Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic of mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Permission, inquiries (i.e., other language editions, etc.) should be addressed to [email protected].
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2650-1
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
Cover image c/o Getty Images.
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Set in Times New Roman font
Book design by Myles A. Garcia
To my parents
and the people of the Philippines
| Linoko mo ako minsan, ulol ka. Ulitin mo uli, gago ako. | Fooled me once, shame on you, Fool me twice, shame on me. |
Introduction
Has it really been thirty years already? It seems like only yesterday that Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and company were dispatched from their self-insulated cocoon of Malacañang Palace in Manila into the real paradise of Honolulu, Hawaii. Yet, here we are today, thirty years later, and possibly seeing another attempt by their spawn to regain entry to the old homestead (or at least line up to be the Next Pretender).
It is 2016 and this will be an especially significant and pivotal year in the history of the Philippines, the only predominantly Christian and heavily Western-influenced nation in Asia. It will mark the seventieth anniversary of the nation as an independent, self-governing republic after 350 years of colonial rule by Spain and the United States. It will be the twelfth legitimate presidential election of the post-war Republic.
These elections will once again be a test of the intelligence, or lack thereof, of the Filipino people, who, as of 2014, just became the 12th nation on the planet to pass the 100,000,000 population mark, thanks to the centuries-old negligence of the Roman Catholic Church. I write this book to help remind the Filipino people, especially the new, young voters, of the dangers of the Ferdinand (Bongbong) Marcos, Jr. or Jejomar Binay candidacies and the waste and turmoil left behind by the illegitimate, twenty-year rule of Junior’s parents.
Early Exposure to the Marcoses
My first brush with the Marcoses and their kin was in seventh grade in elementary school at St. John's Academy in my hometown of San Juan, Rizal, when a tall, very fair, puff-cheeked lass named Margarita Romualdez became my classmate. She supposedly was the niece of the then-to-be-senate president Ferdinand Marcos. Being in seventh grade, and not coming from a particularly politically active family, I found no meaning in this fact other than here was this rather attractive gal, campaigning for her uncle in our elementary school.
It seemed rather odd at the time, but the impropriety of those politicking actions did not become significant to a seventh-grader until later years, when her uncle and her entire clan had shown their true colors. So, even at a very young age, Imelda’s family was using people to advance their causes, so they could dip their hands into the public till.
(This niece of Imelda Marcos was supposedly her favorite, being the prettiest, but in the final years of the Marco-kleptomania regime, when Margarita had fallen on hard times, she was supposedly “sidling up to her Lothario uncle,” the president, in far more ways than in an innocent uncle-niece relationship. Of course, it was all done behind the back of the aunt, Imelda, who seemed to be too occupied with her own fantasy world.)
Sheer Volume of Material
The biggest obstacle and dread I faced in writing this book is the sheer volume of material and the multi-layered nature of it. Just as the prose-cutors in New York failed to present a focused picture of the many corporate shell games in the sensational 1990 racketeering trial of Imelda Marcos (more in Chapter V) and thus had the jury acquitting her—one gets mired in the sheer density of material—if an author is to get thorough about the subject at hand. It's as if the devious mind of Ferdinand Marcos itself had actually planned the massive, sleight-of-hand scale and layer upon layer of shell corporations that would obfuscate the common man's understanding of the fraud he had created. Marcos made master US embezzler Bernie Madoff look like a rank amateur.
Another issue of integrity with which I had to grapple while writing this book was what to call Mr. Marcos after his one and one-half terms of legitimate presidency, pre-martial law. Truthfully, he was no longer an honestly elected president of a democracy but the full dictator of a “police” state. I really had to struggle with it—so I beg the reader to forgive me if I still called Marcos president at times when he no longer legitimately was.
Finally, I attempted to make this book as comprehensive as I could, and I had access to some sources who could share first-hand accounts of their experiences with the Marcoses; they chose, however, not to comment, and just moved on—thus, a loss for history.
Feeling of Violation
And then there was the feeling of "dirtiness" and violation one experiences after wading through the voluminous material, giving one the sensation that somehow you had participated in the mass deception and wholesale sham perpetrated upon an unsuspecting people. I often wanted to cleanse myself and my psyche somehow of the misdeeds of these larger-than-life crooks and scoundrels. If there were a way to run my mind through a shower and still be true and faithful to my objectives as a journalist at the end of the day, I would have done so.
Sometimes, coming upon a new topic was only the tip of the iceberg. No one, probably not even the principals, Ferdinand, Imelda, and their closest conspirators, probably knew the total scope of all their crimes and larcenies. (I wouldn’t use the term “misdemeanors” as that would be a disservice to all the honest people of the Philippines, and it would be wholly disingenuous.) If they had not been stopped dead in their tracks in February, 1986, who knows how much more fraud, deceit, and plunder the whole corrupt Bonnie-and-Clyde gang would have perpetrated?
A Quick History of the Marcoses
Ferdinand Marcos (1917-89) was an ambitious, self-made politician from the so-called “Solid North” (the Ilocano region) of the Philippines, so-called because that region tends to vote 95% or so for their native sons and daughters, more so than any other region of the country. He rose from the ranks of being an attorney, a congressman, senate president, and finally elected president of the Republic in 1965.
Imelda Romualdez was the poor relation of a politically prominent clan from the Visayas, the middle part of the country. She came into Marcos’ life in 1954 when the young, charismatic congressman wooed, dined, and won the provincial lass’ heart and hand in a mere eleven days. In Imelda, Marcos saw an invaluable asset in his larger plans for national office.
Their marriage had its early hiccups when the new Mrs. Marcos suffered a nervous breakdown because she could not adjust to the breakneck speed of her husband’s campaign plans. This could not derail Ferdinand’s overall blueprint. Being a successful lawyer, he quickly fixed that temporary bump by sending Imelda for some R&R and psychiatric treatment in New York City around 1956-57. That was Imelda’s first taste of life in the financial capital of the world. She quickly got cured, got back on track with the Marcos program, and became his biggest asset at that time. When they