Originally Posted by
Bears Grill
Bongbong impressed me with his speech during that BBL issue. If there was a contest for statesmanship for all the Presidential and VP candidates, I think he'll top that one.
The monkey wrench for me is the tension he might create if he chooses to pursue his personal interest: i.e. cleaning up his family's name. If and when he buries his father at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, I can already foresee massive protests. He might also want to re-write the Civics textbooks so that instead of villifying Martial Law, it would be extolling the its overall good. That too will incur mass protests. He might also want to re-write history books, so that instead of Ninoy being the hero, we'll have Ninoy the traitor. After all, It doesn't make sense to have both Marcos and Ninoy as heroes; one must be the fall guy. Overall, I foresee turmoil and major divisiveness in a Marcos presidency, and it won't be good for our country.
Anyone who claims that Philippines during the Marcos era was our "Golden Age" should answer this question: HOW do you explain the mass outrage and mass resignations/defections that led to EDSA in 1986? Is it...
a) We were a First World country but the Catholic Church brainwashed the entire country
b) We were going to be the next Singapore but people got fooled by the Aquinos
b) Marcos ruled for 20 years, run our deficits to the brink of bankruptcy, his family and friends helping themselves in what they call "kleptocracy", and things got worse and worse
Come on, now. You can't trust sources from an era where there was no press freedom. Just read what Lee Kuan Yew had to say to get a sense of what Marcos was:
"Marcos and I agreed to implement a bilateral Philippines-Singapore… to promote intra-ASEAN trade…I was to discover that for him, the communiqué was the accomplishment itself; its implementation was secondary, an extra to be discussed at another conference." ---GREAT LEADER, no?
"He once took me on a tour of his library at Malacañang, its shelves filled with bound volumes of newspapers reporting his activities over the years since he first stood for elections. There were encyclopedia-size volumes on the history and culture of the Philippines with his name as the author. His campaign medals as an anti-Japanese guerrilla leader were displayed in glass cupboards. He was the undisputed boss of all Filipinos. Imelda had a penchant for luxury and opulence. When they visited Singapore…they came in style in two DC8’s, his and hers." ---WOW, I BET HE BOUGHT THOSE WITH GOLD BARS WHEN HE WAS A SMASHINGLY SUCCESSFUL GOLD PROSPECTOR!
"Marcos, ruling under martial law, had detained opposition leader Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino, reputed to be as charismatic and powerful a campaigner as he was. He freed Aquino and allowed him to go to the USA. As the economic situation in the Philippines deteriorated, Aquino announced his decision to return. Mrs. Marcos issued several veiled warnings. When the plane arrived at Manila Airport from Taipei in August 1983, he was shot as he descended from the aircraft..."---HMMMMM, VERY SUSPICIOUS.
"International outrage over the killing resulted in foreign banks stopping all loans to the Philippines, which owed over US$25 billion and could not pay the interest due. This brought Marcos to the crunch. He sent his minister for trade and industry, Bobby Ongpin, to ask me for a loan of US$300-500 million to meet the interest payments. I looked him straight in the eye and said, “We will never see that money back.”" ---WE WERE GOING TO BE THE NEXT SINGAPORE INDEED!
Very well said Sir.
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