(We yield this place to the statement of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
MIDNIGHT of Feb. 25, 1986, the Marcos military rule ended. After years of struggle against the dictatorship, the Filipino people reclaimed freedom from tyranny. United, they ousted the Marcoses and their minions from Malacañang.
This is a fact that not even the best of Marcos Jr.’s spin doctors could revise. It reminds us why should we never forget the sins of the Marcoses.
First, Marcos and his family tried to run away with the people’s money. Escaping to Hawaii with the help of US President Ronald Reagan, they brought with them crates and luggage that took US immigration a week to sort out and 23 pages to record – eye-popping jewelry, gold bars, and racks of fur coats and designer wardrobe. These evidence of plunder, along with their numerous offshore bank accounts, were the evil fruits of the unbridled corruption of the Marcoses.
Kleptocracy and rampant cronyism marked Marcos’ notorious reign, propped up by multibillion dollar loans that were supposed to fund the country’s infrastructure program and economic development; instead, they were siphoned off in large parts to their secret Swiss bank accounts. The embezzled Marcos loot is estimated to be between USD 5 to 10 billion, and now constitutes the Marcos estate of which both Imelda and Marcos Jr. are administrators.
To this day, the Filipino people continue to pay for these debts, while Marcos Jr, Imelda, and the rest of the clan frolic in their ill-gotten wealth. For Marcos Jr. to be harping these days about how t1986 EDSA People Power uprising supposedly disrupted the country’s progress is a shameless whitewashing of history. During those so-called “golden years”, the Philippines was, in fact, in a steep economic decline.
Second, the fascist Marcos dictatorship imprisoned, tortured, and murdered tens of thousands to keep its hold on power and continue amassing personal wealth. Based on reports by Amnesty International alone, an estimated 70,000 were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, 3,240 were killed during the martial law period from 1972 to 1981. These include student and youth activists, teachers, the religious and clergy, workers and peasants, opposition politicians, indigenous and Moro peoples. They were subjected to warrantless and arbitrary arrests, trumped-up charges, and the most horrifying forms of torture. Thousands never returned home.
Feigning ignorance, Marcos Jr. denies all these even as he and his mother stood as defendants in the human rights class action suit filed in Hawaii by the victims. The court concluded that Marcos Sr. was guilty and required the Marcos estate to indemnify the victims for USD 1.9 billion.
And third, the Marcos family never admitted or acknowledged — much less atone for — their sins and crimes against the Filipino people. Not only has there been no remorse for the atrocities committed by their rule, they go to all lengths to distort history with their well-oiled machinery.
But remember this: Every poster and TV, radio, and print ad, every troll account and media manipulation promoting the Marcos comeback is paid for by money stolen from government coffers and the people.
Block the return of the corrupt and tyrannical Marcos rule. Let us expose and oppose the continuing distortion of our nation’s history.
