Marcos’ proof for his war medals was a book on goldfish and plants

Dear Vice-President Jejomar Binay,

Burying Ferdinand Marcos as a hero at Libingan ng mga Bayani is not a matter of public debate but of truth.

Marcos lied on live international TV about his stupendous war record. Which makes most of his war medals suspect. Before engaging everyone in debate, text or e-mail, please investigate his war medals.

When I interviewed you at your home last year, I saw that you had an extensive book collection.

 

I’m sure you have the book Waltzing with a Dictator: The Making of American Policy by Raymond Bonner.

On pages 417 and 418, Bonner narrated Marcos’ appearance on This Week with David Brinkley, a politically influential American TV talk show in the United States. The live interview happened soon after the 1986 snap polls when accusations arose that Marcos was padding the votes.

Alan (my hubby) reminded me today that he had watched this interview live on TV at that time. He was able to dig up our battered copy of Bonner’s book.

Bonner wrote that George Will, a conservative American columnist and commentator, raised the issue of  Marcos’ war medals.

Bonner wrote:

George Will brought up the war medals issue. He noted that one of Marcos’s defenses to the fraudulent war record charge was that the Japanese emperoror Hirohito, in his memoirs, had attested to Marcos’s exploits against the Japanese during the war.

Bonner added:

How could that be, Will wondered,  since ‘the only public words by emperor Hirohito are on marine biology and botany?’

Bonner recorded that –

Marcos answered: ‘If you think –if you, the Americans, who are our allies think that I was not in this, then you should read the memoirs of his majesty, the Emperor, in his memoirs he speaks of Marcos —”

Will cut him of: “They’ve not been published, sir!”

Later Will called the White House. Their man Marcos, he said, was an “inveterate liar.” The State Department officials who learned of Will’s loss of faith were delighted. Now the task was to convince the president of the United States. In the end it was the Filipino people who did so.

Until I reread Bonner today, I did not realize it was the same George Will who unwittingly sealed Marcos’ fate in 1986.

Bonner wrote that in an earlier live appearance on the same TV talk show, This Week with David Brinkley in 1985, George Will was tipped off to pose this question to Marcos –

And there are some people here who wonder if it is not possible and if you would not be willing to move up the election date, the better to renew your mandate soon, say, within the next eight months or so. Is that possible, that you could have an election earlier than scheduled?”

According to Bonner, Marcos replied:

Well, I understand the opposition has been aksing for an election. In answer to their request I announce that I am ready to call a snap election perhaps earlier than eight months, perhaps in three months or less than that….

Here’s an excerpt of that interview that someone posted on YouTube:

A surprised Sam Donaldson, ABC TV’s White House correspondent, then butted in:

Are there any catches, Mr President?

Marcos replied –

I’m ready. I’m ready.

LOL.  – Raissa