Corruption, impunity, myth-making and distortions of history.
These words come to mind in describing Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first year of presidency, as he delivers his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) today.
Just days before Marcos Jr.’s SONA, we have been confronted with the bad news of another ill-gotten wealth case against the Marcoses being junked by the Supreme Court. This is the fourth case the Philippine Commission on Good Government has lost since Marcos Jr. took power, pointing to a disturbing pattern of impunity and lack of accountability for the gargantuan corruption that marked the rule of Marcos Jr.’s dictator father. With Marcos Sr.’s namesake now at the helm of power, chances of recovering the estimated $6 billion of the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth have become nil. What more the impossibility of their P203 billion estate tax being paid, now that we have a tax evader as president?
But not only do the Marcoses get to keep their loot, they are also gearing up to raid the nation’s coffers anew. The recent signing of the P500-billion Maharlika Wealth Fund legalizes the renewed plunder of government funds for use in questionable big-ticket projects whose profits will only probably line the pockets of the Marcoses and their chosen few. Their rapaciousness will exact a huge human toll as they will be siphoning state funds intended for vital social and development programs.
With no accountability at all for their family’s history of large-scale plunder, it comes as no surprise that Marcos Jr. extends the privilege of impunity to his family’s benefactor Rodrigo Duterte, who took the big leap in rehabilitating the filthy Marcos name by allowing a hero’s burial for Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Marcos Jr.’s refusal to cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s investigation into extrajudicial killings perpetrated during the Duterte regime’s war on drugs aligns with a clear pattern of continuing impunity that covers not only Duterte’s crimes but the human rights violations all the way from Marcos Sr. era to the present.
Marcos Jr. himself now has 60 cases of extrajudicial killings, 28 cases of frustrated extrajudicial killings, eight cases of enforced disappearance, 11 cases of torture, 266 cases of illegal arrest, 7,172 victims of indiscriminate firing and 6,931 incidents of counter-insurgency related bombings to his name, one year into his regime. More than 300 people have also died in anti-narcotics operations under this administration.
Marcos Jr.’s new mantra of “Bagong Pilipinas” or “New Philippines” draws parallels to his late dictator father’s “Bagong Lipunan” or “New Society” slogan that accompanied the declaration of martial law. This choice of slogan is an obvious attempt to rehabilitate the dirt-ridden image of the Marcos family.
Even Marcos Jr.’c choice of “Maharlika” as the name for his slush fund harkens to the days of dictatorship when his mythmaker father once tried to rename the country as such, thinking erroneously that it referred to a class of nobility.
Imelda Marcos’ grandiose birthday bash last July 2 is the latest sickening example of how the Marcoses are steadily displaying the pretensions to royalty and delusions of grandeur that severely isolated them from the impoverished masses and led to their downfall in 1986.
But as the Bagong Lipunan slogan failed to cover up the grave human rights violations and widespread corruption of the martial law era, Marcos Jr.’s attempt at foisting the Maharlika and Bagong Pilipinas myths and mantra on the Filipino people will fail miserably to smother his own dung heap of fascism and official plunder.
History rendered its judgment on Ferdinand Marcos Sr. regime when he was booted out of power in 1986. The Filipino people will overcome the lies and historical distortions being peddled by present-day myth-makers and repeat history by toppling Marcos Sr.’s equally corrupt and fascist namesake.