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Thank you readers, for sharing my Ph Daily Inquirer piece on the Marcoses 11,500 times

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Just my opinion

By Raïssa Robles

I had not expected this.

I thought few would be interested in reading about the Marcoses at a time when the Binays are the hot topic.

To all those who shared and read my piece, I would like to thank them all. One thing the Internet has done for writers is to give us almost instant reader feedback. Until I started this blog, I had been used to writing in isolation.

But as I said, I wasn’t expecting that many people to read it. I thought it would be treated as just a period piece to mark a dark anniversary.

Possibly, interest on the Marcoses has been revived by Imelda Marcos’ announcement that she wants her only son Ferdinand Bongbong Jr. to run for president in 2016. Bongbong believes his boyish appeal and the windmills being built in his home province will make young voters go for him.

Before I go on to another topic, I would just like to answer MC who wrote in the Inquirer as a comment to my piece:

MC
Tell me a country with no bloody history. More than a million people were killed during the Cultural Revolution of Chairman Mao. A large part of the American population were killed during their civil was notwithstanding the obliteration of the indigenous American Indians who are the real Americans. Russia killed more than a million people during the Stalinist era. We just have to move forward. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

What was written by the lady was better reserved for academic discussion in the halls of the academe where continuous dissection can be made in an ambiance of pure scholarship. But the problem at hand is economics. What are we gona do to create jobs, stimulate investments, increase agricultural productivity and restore peace and order? Those are the missions that have to be accomplished. What has the Marcoses got to do with the present lack of mining policy up to now; absence of car manufacturing roadmap or deteriorating peace and order condition? Don’t tell me that it is still Marcos who is to be blamed for the construction of the White House for Mr. Purisima or it is Imelda who is to be blamed for the mess of the MRT. What is the concrete technicallt and financially feasible proposal of Ms. Raissa to solve the daily EDSA traffic jam would be a better piece of journalism that can be written.

This is what I would call Marcosian logic that Filipinos were constantly bombarded with during the dictatorship.

The first paragraph actually justifies the use of bloody violence: Why, russia killed over a million during Josef Stalin’s one-man rule. And MC concludes – “We just have to move forward.”

My reaction to MC – you are A BLOODY COWARD. If you really believe in what you say, you will not hide behind those initials.

You want me to reserve my writings “for academic discussion..in an ambiance of pure scholarship.”

Try again, MC. You just want me to shut up, right?

And then you say – “But the problem at hand is economics” – then you go on and on and on…

My answer is, we should discuss BOTH. Why does it have to be one or the other? Why not both? Ooooh. Unless you are pro-Marcos, of course.

As for me, I like discussing the Marcoses and the present economy and a lot of things besides. On the economy, see my previous article where I discussed the laws that need to be passed in the final years of the Aquino administration. It’s entitled Pass the Freedom of Information Act – the Right, the Left and Center all urge President Aquino

Thank you, Sunstar, for inviting me to lecture on journalism before students in Cebu

I would also like to thank Sunstar publications for giving me a chance to lecture in Cebu.

The Sunstar reporter who wrote a piece on my lecture got the facts right. I commend Kevin A. Lgunda for his piece. You can read Lagunda’s report entitled “Journalist says opinion should be based on fact” by clicking here.

I also finally met Sunstar opinion editor and columnist Bong Wenceslao in person. He looks fierce in his photo. In person, he’s gentle. I knew he was closely following my blog during the trial of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Bong Wenceslao also wrote about my lecture and I’m glad he pointed out one of the gems of my blog – the many insightful commenters who congregate here and discuss in our Cyber Plaza Miranda. You can read his column entitled Freedom and responsibility by clicking here.

As a keepsake, I have this photo taken with the Sunstar editors and officials of Smart Communications – the company that sponsored my Sunstar lecture.

From left, Sun.Star Cebu editor-in-chief Isolde Amante, Smart Communications senior public affairs officer-Vismin Marylou “Des” Gocotano, Sun.Star Cebu managing editor for special pages and features Cherry Ann Lim, Sun.Star Cebu executive editor Michelle So, Smart Communications senior manager for public affairs-Vismin Atty. Jane Paredes (partly hidden), Raissa Robles and Smart Communications public afffairs officer-Vismin Mier Villegas.

 

I learned a lot in turn from all of them, including some very juicy gossip I’m not allowed to publish.

And I had ice-cream with them. One of the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted in my life and that includes the gelato in Venice.

Cebu has Durian ice cream drool

Comments

  1. I have a Filipinos Against Graft and Corruptions and I’m from Makati. I just don’t know why people in Makati are so blind about the Binays. I know my relatives there don’t like what i say and post on Facebook there are some who don’t like my opinions but I say to hell with them. Martin Niemöller, a German said, “When they came for the socialist, I did not speak out because I’m not a socialist, then they came for the trade unionist. I did not speak out because I’m not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, I did not speak out, I’m not a Jew. Then they came for me, there was no one to speak for me.” When we become the three monkeys’ “no see, no hear and no speak” we lose our rights. Being like a stagnant water, we let those pest breed in like the mosquitoes bite us. Those dynastic families are like the mosquitoes we let them breed and make our country sick with their graft and corrupt actions in the government. They are to blame for what is happening in our country. Just for a measly few hundred pesos we sell our votes. Then complain about their life living in squalor.

      • @tony. agree with your comments. am also from makati part of the time. very glad there is a group like yours. more power to you.

  3. A sharp answer to blunt MC. The highlighted BLUE quotes is a weak alternative moving forward with ‘WHAT IS TO BE DONE?’

    MC tells of three (3) bloody countries in their history: China, American (USA) history against England, and Russia. In all of these countries the resulting bloody histories were due to corruption. Big and small corruption at that.

    The point is all this bloody history could not have been kept for academic discussion in the halls of the academe.

    Corruption has to be acted upon. Clipped as far as can be DONE.

    Corruption negate creating JOBS. It blocks INVESTMENTS, local and foreign. It stagnates increasing agricultural productivity.

    Importantly, when the above negatives happens, less PEACE and ORDER are the RESULTS.

    This is what is TO BE DONE on CORRUPTIONS in the government that proliferated so extensively, decisively and destructively in the Marcos era which coins a NEVER AGAIN!

    To forego or forget the past is to repeat it, now and maybe in 2016.

  4. Marcos loyalists have found a venue for their activities,

    There is actually an UNHOLY alliance of some Church personalities, Marcos loyalists and Arroyo loyalists. What Sen Rene Saguisag calls the National Transmogrification Council. ha ha ha

    They have made Lipa their homebase.

    Their key leaders:

    1. Kit Tatad – Marcos loyalist
    2. Carmen Pedrosa – Arroyo loyalist
    3. Belinda Cunanan – Arroyo loyalist
    4. Bishop Mon Arguelles of Lipa
    5. Bishop Capalla of Davao

    Of course, in typical wishy washy fashion, Cardinal Vidal of Cebu confirms and denies being part of the group.
    Those bishops are your typical Sanhedrin, whose beliefs they deem superior to the electoral process. ha ha ha

    I call these groups MALABO (Marcos-Arroyo Loyalists Battling Obsolescence) or KASUCLAM-SUCLAM (Kapisanan ng Subok na Corrupt Loyalists ni Arroyo at Marcos) har har har

    • I like the KASUCLAM-SUCLAM – very appropriate and relevant to our previous leaders whose greed for taxpayers’ money knows no bound.

      • …speaking of CLAM or sea clams or SEEK CLAMS…how do sea clams live? They open their shells and WAIT…then after SUKCLAM, it closes for good and for another opening try.

        kalahari@

  5. I’m actually elated at this year’s amount of pushback exerted in resisting the revisionist thinking on the anniversary of Martial Law and about the Marcoses. The dailies, blogs, TV and radio stations and even artists’ groups all exerted effort to set the record straight.

    In prior years, there was very little, and the neo-Marcos loyalists were quietly garnering support. This year, they barely made any noise and did not get into debates.

    Now, as for those Ateneans who selfied with Imelda….. buti nga talo Ateneo sa UAAP… ha ha ha ha

    • ang pagbalik ng pamilya ay nagbadya ng bad omen sa ating bansa.
      subalit ang mga mamamayan ay tahimik lang dahil halos walang ipinakitang reaksyon.
      bgkus ay naghalal pa ng isang kilalang marcos ally.
      ang pandarambong ng mag-asawang dorobo ay pinahintulutan din ng mga heneral dahil sa pasalubong at pabaon at ng mga mitshubishops.
      ngayon na namimingit na maulit ang kadilimang inihasik ng bangkay, dapat magsilbi itong aral sa atin na hindi dapat magwalambahala sa mga mumunting senyales ng pang-uuto at ng mga maling palabas at pakulo na mabuti ang rehimen ni makoy sa pamamagitan ng mga pilipit na pahayag sa media at websites.

    • I have been puzzling over this: Marcos’ brutalities, Marcos’ human rights violations. I think, at best, yes, by virtue of command responsibility as commander in chief.

      But then, human rights violations did not stop after his ouster. In fact, some claim that the number of human rights violations cases, went up during the time of Cory, correct me if I’m wrong. But no one is claiming Cory’s human rights violations on account of command responsibility. Or Ramos’ brutalities for that matter, Erap’s human rights violations, GMAs human rights abuses… why is that? Saka bakit kay Marcos lang kayo galit?

      I think the younger generation of historians will puzzle over that one too. By what principle is Marcos being blamed and cursed for these so-called atrocities?

      • because cory did not have control of the military the way marcos did. remember that cory was constantly harassed by the military by way of their bloody coup d’ etat.

        • You could be correct with respect to Cory. What about the rest.

          The question is to what degree is Marcos— or any commander in chief, for that matter— responsible for the acts of the soldiers and the field commanders? Did Marcos control the military to the extent that abuses are his personal responsibility rather than the uniformed men on the field and their superiors. He was commander in chief, alright. Was there a policy to be brutal and merciless or were these natural consequences of war?

          You somehow get the feeling that Marcos was personally directing the conduct of those abuses in gleeful abandon or at least had given coldblooded consent to all forms of cruelties.

          That is why I am in favor of collating records of those so-called abuses so that an honest review be done one by one and prosecute those who were directly responsible if they are still alive. By laying all the blame directly on Marcos, those who should be made to account have effectively escaped punishment.

        • thing is, the marcoses never admitted anything. even if everything is so obvious already. too bad, we really have a bad justice system at that time (up until now actually).

          that’s why those people who were supposedly accountable for any undesirable deeds roamed free and got back here ala arnold s. terminator.

          closest we have today is to at least learn from what history gave us. and yes, #NeverAgain.

        • Likewise, have we heard the side of the soldiers who were fighting the insurgency? We are only willing it seems to listen to the so-called victims. Were they truly innocent bystanders or freedom fighters. Or communist combatants fighting to take over the government? In the old days, human rights victims denied any connection with the communist movement. Recently, to make a case for Marcos savagery, the Inquirer featured the suffering of four human rights violations ‘victims’: they are Satur Ocampo and three former ranking communist leaders turned corporate ceos. Do you know that the claimants to billions of dollars in human rights reparations in the Hawaii case are mostly members of SELDA, a communist front organization, to include top communist leader Joma Sison?

          A distinction must be made between genuine victims and those who are not.

        • so what if majority of the claimants are commies? are commies not human beings? you’re becoming more of a fascist defender each time you post.

        • marcos egged on the military to trample upon the people’s rights. without the military, marcos would not have lasted for a day after his constitutional term ended in january 30, 1973. marcos and the military during the martial law years were indispensable to one another.

  6. There is a direct link between Marcos, Erap, GMA and the Binays. That direct link is the DNA of corruption.

    Keeping the evil of Marcos in the forefront of Filipino consciousness is not only important. It is essential.

    Just three scores after WWII, there are now many Holocaust deniers. Just two administrations away from Marcos, we had Erap and then GMA. These monumental eruptions of corruption in the highest office of the land threaten to continue in the Binays. Unlike the natural behavior of active volcanoes, these eruptions are entirely within our control as a matter of collective and individual choice.

    Do we want dark chocolate? Or milk chocolate?

    • Erap cannot be likened to the extent of corruptions by marcos, gma and binays. Erap made his fortune from jueteng payola and never touched a single centavo of government money. His conviction by a special division of SB whose members were handpicked by gma raised many eyebrows before. Erap’s counsels Estellito Mendoza, Rene Saguisag, Flamiano, etc were about to submit their MR to the SB and, if denied, will go all the way to the CA and SC. But gma was in a hurry to legitimize her position and concocted the idea of executive clemency to remove erap from the scene.

      Erap’s glaring omissions were his many kulasisi highlighted by the Fourth Estate but his numerous accomplishments such as the conquest of Camp Abubakar and smooth-sailing of government projects were overshadowed and forgotten.

      It’s true erap is no angel but comparing to the big-time corruptions of gma, marcos and binay – he’s a very poor second.

      I have never voted for erap but can’t resist to defend him for fairness’ sake.

      • That’s interesting. And yet Erap is the only President who has been convicted of the crime of plunder. And despite having Estelito Mendoza and Rene Saguisag as defense lawyers.

        Apart from the jueteng payola, Erap was adjudged guilty for receiving SSS/GSIS commissions from the purchase of Belle Resources shares. Arguably, the commissions were government money? He was also charged with misappropriation of RA7171 funds, but this was not proved.

        Given that he’s a poor second in the corruption stakes, Erap can still be held as a sordid example of corruption, perhaps a weak link in the chain but nevertheless a real link.

      • kalahari@…what about the smuggling at the Customs during erap time? Lahat kainum sa la mesa nya.

        hahaha Spiritu santo umalis nga sya! hahaha

    • Kung corruption din lang ang paguusapan, si Binay ang champion. Sina Marcos, Erap at GMA ay presidente na ng magkalakas loob na mangurap nang todo. Si Binay ay mayor pa lang big time na. The comparison is most unfair to Binay because he has not reached the apex of his corrupt ways. Abangan natin pag nag presidente na si Binay.”

      • Rene,

        Kung baga OJT pa lang si Binay sa pagiging presidente. Pero, kamo, kampyon na sa kurakot?

        Hala, eh, papaano na kung OJ na si JOJO? Susjomar!

      • Sorry, Lorena! Mahilig din ako sa dark tsoko. Masmalusog daw!

        – Dark is brimming with healthy monounsaturated fats!
        – Dark has fewer carbs!
        – Its got half the sugar of milk tsoko!
        – And four times the fiber!
        – Milk tsoko has more calcium.
        – But dark iron levels soar!

        So do we want dark tsoko? Yes!
        Do we want dark Binay? No!

    • @Edgar Lores
      Ang sagot ko sayo — Maigi na ang malinaw sa malabo.

      Ang salin naman nito sa wikang Espanyol —Cuentas claras na applicable dapat sa isyung sangkot ang iyong tinurang opisyal.

    • I think there were cases of corruption too under Cory Aquino. Not familiar with Kamag-anak Inc.?

      • Corruption has existed in different magnitudes since the First Republic. Arguably, every administration has been marred with graft and corruption.

        – We know Aguinaldo sold out.
        – Raissa has an item on Quezon and corruption.
        – Laurel had a puppet government riddled with “unscrupulous and corrupt” persons.
        – Roxas had several scandals – Surplus War Property, Chinese Immigration and School Supplies.
        – Quirino had his golden orinola.
        – Magsaysay was reputed to be clean, if not the cleanest, but not so his cabinet.
        – Garcia launched his Austerity Program to curb corruption.
        – Macapagal had his Stonehill scandal.

        The question to ask, then, is this: Was the incumbent president the principal instigator and/or a “wide” practitioner of corruption?

        To my mind, Marcos, Erap, GMA, and Binay are instigators. Their mindset is significantly different — by several orders of magnitude — from the mindset of those that came before them and after them in Cory and FVR. This mindset essentially is to serve self above and before country.

        It’s horrific, isn’t it, the historic trail of misrule and self-aggrandizement?

  7. It’s just unfortunate that my group of friends prefer liking selfies than shared articles.

    Out of 780, only two “like”d when I shared your recent article about the Marcoses on my FB account.

    Nevertheless, I am re-sharing it.

    • @doms

      Please don’t get discouraged and keep on doing what you think is right. Many people in FB are just hesitant to make a public stand on an issue to avoid alienating some of their friends who might be on the other side of the issue. And some are just following the common dictum that if you want to keep the peace in a group, avoid discussing religion or politics, and some are doing just that in FB.

      When I first started posting things critical of Renato Corona in Raissa’s blog, my spouse’s relatives who are from Tanauan, Batangas thought I was being disloyal to the Tanauan. But soon they realized that being critical of Corona is not being critical of Tanauaneous, in the same manner that being critical of a Filipino “tapolitician” is not being disloyal to the Philippines.

    • @doms, it’s not that just 2 clicked like. from my personal experience, when i get interested in a topic shared in FB, most of the time, i forget to click like because i’m so busy reading it that i forget to “like” it.

    • @doms,

      One must realize that not all of ones FB friends will be able to view his/her FB updates or posts.

      In your case, the base 780 may be an erroneous assumption.

      Think of it as 2/2…meaning, 2 Likes out of 2 Views. That’s 100%.

      Please don’t fret, just keep on posting what you believe is worth sharing…

      • Mang Bernie only has a handful of FB friends who are truly, religiously following him. But those FB friends of his also have their own loyal FB friends. It’s exponential. Mang Bernie has no way of knowing how extensive his FB ‘Shares’ will be.

        “Manganganak din ‘yan,” optimistically he said.

    • sharing or posting what we believe is right
      and in our opinion might lead to betterment of something
      shall not go to naught.
      along its path, someone of the same belief or interest might pick it up and re-share or re-post it.
      that’s how the net works.
      let’s do our little share for our country and fellow pinoys.
      let us be a medium of information dissemination

    • i regularly share joam and raissa robles’ blogs to my 1,125 friends…..only 2-3 liked it…..but I agree with Yvonne….let us not get tired of sharing it …it is the least we can do for our beloved country

  8. Thank you Raissa for your tenacity to expose the truth about the Marcoses, and the evils of the Marcos martial law dictatorship. Never again should the Philippines have another Marcos administration.

    Sad to say that many young Filipinos, who are now part of the electorate, were born after Marcos was thrown out of power and have no idea of the evils of the Marcos martial law dictatorship; instead, many of them are misled by the works of historical revisionists who have largely benefited from the dictatorship.

    Thus, there must be continuing discussions to expose and to document the malady – the loss of personal freedom, the political exploitation, the economic rape of the Filipino people, and other evils – so widely perpetrated during the martial law era.

    We must all keep our guard and be constantly vigilant – NEVER AGAIN !

  9. Interesting facts:

    “The Marcos party arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii beginning their exile. The US Customs officers took 5 hours to go over the 278 crates that the group brought with them. Twenty-two crates contained more than Php 27.7 millions in newly-minted currency, mostly hundred-peso denominations worth approximately US$1,270,000.

    There were other certificates of deposits from Philippine banks worth about US$1 million, five handguns, 154 videotapes, seventeen cassette tapes, and 2068 pages of documents all of which were impounded by Customs. The Marcos party was allowed to keep only US$300,000 in gold and $150,000 in bearer bonds that they brought in with their personal luggage because they declared them and broke no US customs law.

    There were 24 one-kilo gold bars fitted into a $12,000 hand-tooled Gucci briefcase with a solid gold buckle, and a plaque on it that reads, “To Ferdinand Marcos, from Imelda, on the occasion of our 24th wedding anniversary.” (wikipedia)

    • Kalahari,
      One thing I ‘d like to know is what happened to those Marcos belongings/luggages that were confiscated by the US customs. There had been no news whether the Philippine government was able to retrieve them since then. I would highly appreciate it if you could reply on this.
      Thanks.

  10. @raissa,
    yes, we have a lot to share coming from you.
    now you’re on broadsheet. look at that!
    and don’t confine any of your piece out of our sight.
    i’m always o the lookout of your new post here.

  11. Yes, I don’t like to use the term ‘apologist” because it is such a common way to discount the person who is expressing an idea. But MC deserves to be labeled as such because he is dishonest. Of course the Marcoses are deeply a part of existing Philippine problems, including for instance a Constitution that was written so protectively against Executive power, to protect against another Marcos, that the Supreme Court is in many respects an operating branch of government rather than just a judicial branch. And deeply ingrained corruption would not be so onerous had President Marcos not excelled at using power and favor so diligently himself, spreading the disease rather than curing it. Also, MC has no business instructing anybody where their expression is best placed. He has no right to cut off your superb work from those of us who learn from it, and appreciate it. Ach, people like that are a curse, anti-intellectual, anti-freedom, anti-anything except what they want. Horrible representations of humanity.

    • Raissa: “My answer is, we should discuss BOTH. Why does it have to be one or the other? Why not both? Ooooh. Unless you are pro-Marcos, of course.”

      Atta girl!

  12. Hi Ma’am, I have been following you and your husband’s posts on Facebook ever since I joined the #NeverAgain group. It has been a pleasure reading from you both. I also learn about the practice of journalism, and aspire to learn much more.

    I was one of the people who shared this article, because it makes sense: the Marcoses and their network never really left, thanks to our neglect in expunging them after the events of 1986. I think that our battle to remind the people about the Marcoses is truly an uphill one, but because this present generation doesn’t care about past history or its lessons, and just want to move on and make money. Actually, this phenomenon seems to be a global one, I think. But my “evidence” is as yet anecdotal or based on a non-representative sample, just by observing foreign students (exchange as well as regular ones) and local students in Taiwan, where I am now studying.

    Here in Taiwan, where people have started to actively resist what some observers call the “mainlandization” of the island, some people from the generation that came of age during the late part of Chiang Ching-kuo’s presidency (and are DPP-leaning) also tell me that the present generation does not know Taiwanese history or cares to. I am reading closely a 1996 Taiwanese history edited by Murray Rubinstein, and it seems to me that these recent events and tendencies have only been repeats of past events and tendencies.

    The history on the Marcoses, as well as the period before that, is interesting to me because the lessons derived therefrom could steer us toward the development of Philippine democracy and multiculturalism. Thanks so much for exposing them for this generation. I shared and I believe non-Filipinos among my Facebook contacts have had awareness of the Martial Law due to this and other articles you’ve written (I believe I shared the one about Estelito Mendoza, as well).

    Small efforts on my part, but the real credit is yours and other journalists who continue to write and expose.

    • Dear flintstriker,

      Thank you for contributing your insights. And do come and join us here in the discussions.

      By the way, how do your Taiwanese classmates feel about what’s happening in Hong Kong?

      Raissa

      • Ma’am, the people here are watching HK very closely. Some of my acquaintances have also been to Hong Kong or have worked there, and they are concerned. Most of the people I link up with are Pan-Green leaning, by the way. But regarding the majority of students in NCTU and NTHU (two of the top three universities: I’m in NCTU), I think they’ve given up even thinking about these things. They’re watching, yes, but somehow there is the feeling of helplessness.

        Bloggers such as taiwanexplorer are also discussing the situation with respect to Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement, comparing how the two actions played out. Most of these are Western expats, though.

    • Of course, Binaynasty won’t be able to overshadow the Marcos dynasty yet…because the eldest Binay hasn’t sat on the Palace throne yet. However, would we allow any of these dynasties to rule over us starting 2016?

      Of course not!

  15. We need to learn from our mistakes- the marcoses. We also need to move forward- tackling what could be our future mistakes- the binays.