Recall back to the twilight years of the presidency of former President Benigno Simeon “BS” Aquino III. Back then, Aquino was so desperate to shore up the flagging political fortunes of his party that he would go as far as reminding Filipinos to stop referring to the regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos as the Philippines’ “Golden Age”. This followed a realisation that was slow to come to his camp of the immense popularity of then vice presidential candidate Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr and the grave threat if posed to his dynasty.
It didn’t help Aquino’s Liberal Party at the time that no less than a New York Times report asserted that Filipinos yearn for a return to a similar Golden Age marked by a Marcos back in Malacanang…
Michelle Pulumbarit, 31, a customer service operator who lives north of Manila, said Mr. Marcos was putting forward a proposal for the future that will bring back the best of the Marcos years. She is not concerned about martial law and human rights violations, she said.
“For me, those are things of the past,” she said. “That was a time when our economy was booming. Even Imelda did a lot of good things. She shared our culture with the world. I can forgive her for having so many shoes.”
A key concern amongst anti-Marcos campaigners lies in what they regard as an “alarming” position taken by young Filipinos who form a huge proportion of the Philippines’ pool of voters. Most Filipino “millenials” who were equipped primarily with anecdotal evidence of the Martial Law years had expressed a widespread disillusionment with the “democracy” pitched to them under the “EDSA People Power” flag. They only saw the absolute wretchedness of life in the Philippines and took the position that things need to change — and that the closest model of how things should be in the Philippines was a time when discipline and order ruled…
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Apple Buiza, 26, an employee of a Manila aluminum siding company, said the fate of Imelda Marcos’s jewels was not a priority for her in the next election. Ms. Buiza spends hours each day battling traffic to get to work and is frustrated by the current government. She said she has heard stories of how orderly the country was during the Marcos years.
“During the time of martial law, the Philippines was disciplined,” Ms. Buiza said as she gestured toward a group of jaywalkers dodging vehicles and blocking traffic. “People don’t even know how to cross the street now.”
It is now a widely-held theory that the renewed — and surging — interest in the virtues of the Martial Law Years of former President Marcos and its regard as a “Golden Age” by some Filipinos is a direct result of a lack of any progress realised over the 30-odd years that followed the 1986 “people power revolution” and, more specifically, over the six years of the Second Aquino Administration. It could be said that The Great Democratic Experiment of the Philippines was marked more by a wholesale missing of the real point of freedom of an entire society and a series of governments that ruled since 1986.
Instead of a stronger nation, what emerged after 30 years is a country characterised by a non-existent fighting capability, mainstream media networks that dumb down rather than enlighten their audiences, and a people that lack a clear picture of what their long-term future might look like.
The trouble with Aquino was that, as president, he focused most of his media time on vilifying his predecessor former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, blaming “corruption” supposedly perpetrated by previous administrations, and waxing poetic about his parents’ “heroic” legacies. Meanwhile, then Senator Bongbong Marcos sustained a message to the public consistently themed on the future and moving towards it. Back in early 2015 in the days immediately following the massacre of 44 Special Action Force (SAF) troops by elements of the terrorist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, then Senator Marcos charted a crystal-clear three-point way forward out of the ensuing crisis that gripped the country in its aftermath.
While the Malacanang of then President Aquino suffered an astounding paralysis and repeatedly stammered out mixed messages to the public as the much-vaunted Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) initiative was crushed under the public relations fallout from the massacre, Marcos was in the field cobbling together consensus on how to proceed and assuring a bewildered Filipino public that options were being explored.
Suffice to say, the manner with which Marcos stepped up to the challenge while Aquino and his entire Cabinet descended into an orgy of internal bickering and incompetent statesmanship did not help at all. As is evident in the NYT report, Filipinos long before then had already developed a healthy cynicism for the brand of “demo-crazy” sold to them by the Aquino-Cojuangco clan. Even the whole notion that the Aquinos and Cojuangcos are symbols of the “Spirit of EDSA” is now being challenged.
Indeed, Marcos worked hard to save the Philippines from the clutches of the Bangsamoro Basic Law. He had, in the process, demonstrated an ironic allegiance to the Philippine Constitution — a national charter that was crafted under the watch of no less than President BS Aquino’s mother, former President Corazon ‘Cory’ Aquino.
As chief Senate reviewer of the proposed BBL in 2015, the junior Marcos exhibited the sort of statesmanship and diplomacy that the original Malacanang negotiating team led by Secretary Teresita Quintos-Deles and Miriam Coronel-Ferrer utterly lacked. Over the course of the review, Senator Marcos tirelessly travelled all over the country to consult with everyone potentially affected by the proposed law that would have seen a vast chunk of Mindanao ceded unto the hands of the terrorist Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The outcome of the investigation was nothing short of conclusive. The BBL was unworkable and would have resulted in an outcome the opposite of what its authors promised the Filipino people.
Despite these achievements, however, many Filipinos continue to hate Senator Bongbong Marcos. Why? Because of his surname. Senator Marcos’s father was the late former President Ferdinand E Marcos. Filipinos cannot seem to see past that fact. That is strange, because many of these people are the same people who are advocates of “voter education”. A cornerstone of this initiative to develop an intelligent vote in the Philippines is to change the way Filipino voters evaluate candidates running for office. Voter education champions encourage Filipinos to ditch their traditional practice of voting on the basis of name- and face-recall in favour of qualifications and record of achievement.
Yet, to his detractors, he is still and only just “a Marcos”. That’s, quite simply, being small-minded. Then again, it makes sense of course. Filipinos are predominantly Roman Catholic. Catholics live by the baffling notion that babies are not born innocent. They believe babies are born guilty of Original Sin. To erase that “sin”, no less than the Son of God needed to be put up as human sacrifice to appease his own father.
That explains the primitivist way Filipinos continue to regard Bongbong Marcos. In Filipinos’ minds, Bongbong is guilty of his father’s alleged sins.
So for arguments’ sake, perhaps we should ask ourselves: What does Bongbong Marcos need to do to absolve himself of his father’s sins? Unlike the divine intervention needed to absolve Catholic babies of their guilt, no miracle is really needed to erase the stigma of being “a Marcos” that Bongbong bears. Senator Marcos simply needs to work harder and deliver more results. And so far as we’ve seen, he has demonstrated that stepping up to any challenge does not faze him at all.
It’s been almost four decades and the national narrative (as propagated by the powers-that-be) remains stuck in a bygone past — an age when ordinary people supposedly lacked today’s much-hyped technological capability to more effectively “spring” change from the grassroots. Indeed, a people who lacked mobile technology and social media supposedly instigated a “revolution” over a three-year period since Ninoy Aquino’s assassination in 1983. Today, 25 years since the Internet became available to ordinary users and roughly 15 years since the dawn of social media, Filipino “activists” have failed to step up to the promise of uplifting the quality of the way their compatriots participate in a democracy that aspires to join the modern world.
Perhaps it is time to regard our politicians using a different way of thinking.
You see, it is only when Filipinos become pro-achievement first before being merely and only pro-[insert politician’s name here] that we can hold hand to heart and claim to be a real democracy.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
I’m fully in support of a BBM presidency in 2022! It’s about time we became world-class! Duterte paved the way for much change; BBM can take it notches higher!
He ran for VP. So he’s probably going for the presidency. The seat has his name.
It’s interesting how Bongbong Marcos answered the question, “What are you most proud about your Dad?”
“I’m most proud about my Dad for bringing a sense of nationhood to the Philippines. It was the first time in the history of the Philippines na talagang naramdaman natin na kahit saan ka nanggaling sa Pilipinas, Pilipino ka. At ipinagmamalaki natin ang Pilipino. Dati ang tingin ng tao sa Pilipino sa buong mundo: kawawa, pulubi, mahirap, mahina. Nagbago yun. And for that I’m very proud.”
At least during the Marcos era, we had factories manufacturing consumer goods.
Now all these are made in China, Vietnam or Bangladesh. We cannot even make a fucking pin!!!
Puff piece for Marcos? Hardly. Way I see it, this piece implies that the opposition are slow to realize (or are hiding the fact) that THEY are the very reason popularity for Marcos has resurged in recent years. They ousted the dictator, then they themselves actually turn out to be trapos.
Looking at the focus of the people interviewed in the NYT Floyd Whaley article, we can see that a major reason many people went for Duterte in 2016 is the belief that he will discipline Filipinos. The interviewees kept talking about the lack of Filipino discipline, so this means they want other Filipinos disciplined with a hard hand. Think of that, Filipinos want other Filipinos to be disciplined.
Opposition will claim that martial law will return when Bongbong takes the seat because, since a Marcos imposed martial law before, then a Marcos will always impose martial law. That’s a lapse in logic because they ignore the other factors and circumstances that lead to martial law imposition. I myself won’t be for Marcos or Duterte for that matter, but neither for the opposition because they’re corrupt and incompetent too.
@Chino: Indeed, I’m expecting that many will regard this as a “puff piece” and not read into the deeper implications of the unsurprising viability of a Second Marcos Presidency. The easy space that the Yellowtards will play in is the argument, as you pointed out, that along with a Marcos return will necessarily be a return to another “Martial Law era” and that’s missing several points: (1) that, for the last several years, the Opposition had failed to pitch compelling alternatives, (2) that they remain addicted to their tiresome obsolete scare/martydom rhetoric, and (3) are in bed with a reviled communist movement. They need to reflect and learn. But it’s evident now that that is simply asking too much of their “thought leaders”.
The yellowtards are ridiculous and I believe they are the dumbest party going. On one of the anc podcasts like week some clown said when they win the next election Duterte will go to jail…lol. That shows how delusional the yellowtards are.
Filipinos need more discipline… Definitely. But a sheltered rich boy who has a mother with no discipline (who plundered the country for millions) is not the person to bring discipline.
If you think BBM is the guy to bring discipline you are a moron.
Elections mean choosing amongst candidates. So whether or not any one of them possess absolute creds means squat when the Constitution says that one has to be chosen one way or another. This means that even if all candidates are idiots or crooks, one will get to become president anyway. So your worry should be more around who is the best at crafting a strategy to win an election. The Opposition are nowhere near presenting even a remote semblance of such a strategy. So start worrying when you see one of them you do not like — in the case of the subject of this brilliant article, BBM — showing signs that their camp’s getting their shit together.
I don’t see any bold move from Bongbong Marcos starting from his political career. How can we expect a big change from him?
The answer to your question, @keno is not about how BBM will give his true leadership that will give a good results in our country but the most important is its about how the Filipino people and even the government officials will change, behave, disciplined and work together to see the great results of it! Surely BBM would not work alone on all of the mess in our country if he’ll become the president of the Philippines, soon. Just take a look at what his father had done before, and it’s not a walk in the park! During his father’s presidency, there are so many Filipinos that was divided and hard headed and it’s still a problem to this day on a post-Marcos era. And yes it was almost 60 years that we are facing on those kind of problems but his father had tried to develop and save our country in spite of those difficulties and he shows how he love our country from the day that he’d become the president of the Philippines until he was deposed by the Yellow oppositions during the EDSA Revolution n 1986 and if you’d remember before [if you’d reached at the time of EDSA Revolution] one of his general the late Fabian Ver had said to President Marcos that those protesters around EDSA that they should shoot them without mercy but President Marcos contradict it and he said to him that he shouldn’t do that and the only way to curb down those protest is a peaceful dispersion with maximum tolerance and there’ll be no violent dispersion, and I’d remember that when I’d watched it live on PTV which is the only TV station was on live broadcast during that time while the rest of other TV and radio stations was either been shut down or been under a news blackout. And I say that he’d left a good legacy to our country besides on a dark one especially when he’d declared MArtial Law on the entire Philippines on Sept. 21, 1972. Of course, Ferdinand Marcos is not a perfect president, not even a God in spite that there’s a religious cult in the province of Laguna that they’d worship him as a God. That’s because unlike in Singapore where that country is too small and too few people to manage it and easily to develop and improve the social, cultural and political environment for a small country, Philippines is not and this will be a huge challenge for BBM if he’ll become the next Philippine president in 2022 and the previous presidents of our country had done that before. the struggle is real alright for a Philippine president. ?
You just wasted too much space talking about blaming Aquino’s presidency and justifying Marcos Sr, who did not transform the Philippines into a first world country in his 20 years of power, instead of just writing about and focusing on “real” achievements of Bongbong Marcos as a Senator and LGU elected official and his “real” educational background that was put in question and his integrity and competence. His being consultant for Bangsamoro is not even a job of a Senator as defined under the Constitution and other pertinent laws. You appeal more on emotions here rather than intelligence.
Nothing of this piece of yours would convince your intelligent and critical readers to consider voting for him as the next president but only those who are bias and die hard loyalists of Marcoses like you benign0.
That all remains to be seen, yes.
I’m trying to find BBM’s speech on the topic of leadership continuity. If only the “free press” paid more attention to things that actually matter in terms of governance maybe there’d be less bickering.
@James: You must be talking about Bongbong Marcos’ speech delivered before the Asian CEO Forum in 2015. It’s printed form is available at the Senate website.
Here’s the intro part:
“In the letter of your chairman, Mr. Richard Mills, I was told that I am given the liberty to speak about whatever topic I feel would be compelling.
“Well, I thought about that for a while and I think that at this particular point in time nothing proves to be more compelling than indulging in a reflection about the current state of our country. We heard the other day the President’s own version of the state of our nation in his 6th and final State of the Nation Address, where he brandished to Congress and the people the gains of his “Daang Matuwid” blue print for administration.
“Now then comes a rather expedient time for post hoc public reactions, annotations, comments, from the entire captive audience, Filipino or otherwise, from experts to armchair analysts, from cheerleaders and well-wishers down to plain trigger-happy bashers.
“But rather than engage in a critical discourse and give you a negative-toned counter, or Contra-SONA, allow me to present rather some sort of draft SONA, or administration blue-print, of a make-believe or hypothetical President made at a maiden SONA or at a miting de avance. One that presents another diagnosis of our country, a second opinion if you will, and wherein would contain the plans and programs required to remedy and respond to the state of problems in which we found ourselves and the country as that President leads and assumes the highest and most powerful office of the land.
“And please let me emphasize the words hypothetical, not hopeful, expectant, but less wishful thinking, lest I be quoted out of context and suddenly be reported, as it has been reported before we come here, to have announced a surprise early presidential bid. But if in case it happens, you will be able to see it nowhere else but here in the Asia CEO Forum, and you’ll be able to say, you heard it here first.”
Read the rest here:
http://legacy.senate.gov.ph/press_release/2015/0729_marcos2.asp
Here’s the video version of the same speech in full:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWRW9HjxtaY&t=17s
And here’s the Q$A portion:
Thanks for the links to the speech. There was one that he made where he spoke of it somehow elaborately, but I just read the transcript of as posted somewhere in the news a few years ago. Anyway, I agree that there is a need for a coherent progression in the “blueprint” for national development. Mr. Marcos Jr. seems to be someone who has that in mind.. or something of the sort.
If Bong Bong Marcos have workable plans for the country; it is up to the voters, if they vote him to be the next President.
The Aquino Cojuangco , who hides under the EDSA banner, for their incompetence and crookedness; had shown how they rule, and politicize everything, to hook voters…
Lol
You say people shouldnt blame BBM because of his name yet it is implied you are giving him “credit” because of his name. (As he would never have got to this point without his name)
This article might be the last I read at this site. Posting something like this is the end of the credibility.
I like some of the critical thinking this site provides, but this article is about as stupid as it gets. If you believe in and promote nepotism…. You are are idiot. It is as simple as that. Nepotism will never be a viable argument and anyone who believes in it does not have critical thinking skills. Aquinos/Marcos/ any other big historical name have an extremely small percentage of being the best candidate. A country of 100 million people plus and you think the son of a former president is the best candidate. Lol. The math just makes sense (sarcasm)!!!!Hopefully people can realize how flawed that logic is.
Where exactly do I suggest that Bongbong Marcos be given credit for his name? And yes, it seems a country of 100 million cannot come up with a single alternative and therefore gravitate habitually to the traditional clique of oligarchs on offer. Within that frame then, it seems BBM stands out. Unless of course you can argue the case for a candidate more viable than him.
It seems you did not read the article carefully (which means you really won’t be much of a loss to us as we don’t write for the comprehension-challenged). The main thesis here is BBM as a viable candidate (not necessarily the right one) in terms of what perceptions he’s managed to bring across to the electorate on the bases of well-crafted personal branding. Winning elections is, after all, a skill and a business. Make no illusions of it being any more than that. The Opposition will not win on the back of good intentions. They can only win by being a smarter election winning machine — and that, evidently, is a skill they lack (beyond using Smartmatic, perhaps, as a blunt cornerstone tool in their kit).
Maybe this jealous guy wants Sarah Duterte as his candidate but is too shy to admit it. But I maybe wrong … he might also want Isko Moreno or Manny Pacquiao. Just another Marcos-hater and nothing more … Timbog!
There’s one reason that I might support BBM for the next president of our country in 2022 is because he’d finally shown his true color on politics as according to what his view on partly controversial Community Pantry in our country from his latest vlog on his official YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/iQqGnd9XY_Q
And what he really said onto that video is no matter what position of an organization that sponsored on their community pantry whether they’re on the left, on the right, on yellow, on red, etc., etc. its fine to do this charitable works for as long as it doesn’t have a political agendas on the community pantry to the Filipino people. And it shows that BBM is actually an independent politician or he’s on the grey area or no colors on political world. He’s not very bias nor which political colors are siding on him, and that’s what we need a president for our country besides being an intelligent, strong, humble, out from traditional politics and a nationalist politician. We’re sick and tired of politicians out there who are very biased and being a TRAPO or traditional politics that only for the sake of their personal selfishness and pride rather than doing it for a national interests.
And if he’ll run for the presidency by next year, the best candidate that he should choose for a VP is a candidate that is also an independent/grey leaning politician and don’t have any political colors that he have. Probably if he should choose Atty. Glen Chong for his VP choice and that’s because he’s an independent candidate for the past few years and also just like BBM, he was also been victimized by an election rigging before due to the incompetent and corrupt SmartMAGIC, twice!!! One when he was ran for a congressman and the other when he’d ran for a senate in 2019 midterm election and we already know how inutile and corrupt on both Comelec and SmartMAGIC. Hopefully this BBM-Chong tandem would come true but if not then its OK for a BBM-Duterte tandem in 2022 election as a backup. 😉
Then BBM is Maharlika and he can follow footstep of his late father, late strongman and eternal president Ferdinand E. Marcos.
BBM can suspend 1987 Constitution and resurrect 1973 Constitution to promote New Society, and we would downplay the propaganda.
We want is constitutional authoritarianism and discipline like it was in Singapore.
BBM-Bong Go tandem would be a solution. If it were BBM-Lopez like this…
—
“MARCOS-LOPEZ TANDEM AGAIN???”
“The Lopez Empire are more likely to court the Marcoses than Robredo if Gabby Lopez is removed from the equation. The Lopezes are known to be Kingmakers and a turncoat serving any administration just to keep their ill-gotten wealth from confiscation.”
—
We might downplay crony capitalism, oligarchy and corrupt pratices if BBM has to resurrect 1973 Constitution with hyperpresidential system in guise of pure parliamentary federal monarchy system. And Marcos Loyalists need to rewrite/revise Filipino history so Aquinos would not exist.
Hey Benign0…
You would love New Society where Ferdinand E. Marcos promoted it under martial law. If BBM becomes president so he would abolish 1987 Constitution and return 1973 Constitution. We need a mix of Marcos Discipline and New Society. Blame the Aquinos for promulgating 1987 Constitution.
New Society… seems Marcos took a page from Lyndon Johnson’s The Great Society.
I don’t think BBM plans to change the Constitution and even if he does plan to, it’s unlikely that he will be able to do so in a way that short changes Filipinos — not with the more mature institutional processes in place and the amount of scrutiny his government will likely attract from the chattering classes.
Nonetheless, at least having a vision for something new that is just short of a cold reboot of Philippine society even at least as a philosophical underpinning for any politician’s platform and strategy should always be welcomed. In its current form and culture, Philippine society just does not have what it takes to thrive in the modern world.
I think BBM can revert back to 1973 Constitution unamended so Marcos Loyalists need to glorify the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos.
And we don’t need a new constitution. We need Marcos loyalists to let BBM abolish 1987 Constitution, along with partylist and senate so we need National Assembly back. So discipline and progress would be back in the old days of martial law. And we would see EDSA People power abolished with EDSA monuments dismantled and some violent anime and videogames banned like it was under Marcos.
Of course, the propaganda machine will have thought out all possible spins against their political foes. The focus will naturally be in defeating another Marcos vision. What are we to expect from the oligarch class crafting laws and shaping government? Is that the other alternative?
The mafiosi legislative branch will certainly work hard to make sure their interests are protected- just because they can! People want to believe their votes matter, but if the politicians running are the same old criminal set, what choice do they have?
Marcos’ New Society (Bagong Lipunan) is like Suharto’s New Order (Orde Baru)
For now I’m waiting for Charter Change thing in which President Duterte made a promise in the 2016 election before that our country will convert into a federal/parliamentary or a hybrid asymmetric federal/parliamentary form of gov’t just like what Pres. Marcos did in the early 1980s but it was short lived as we all know what happened next.
But right now Duterte’s term will end by next year and still no development yet whether the Charter Change would go on or not before the 2022 election. Heck, if this would not work then probably we’re gonna do the hard way like the RevGov movement even though there’ll be a opposition for those people who don’t support it. So what do you think?
It’s better so we want 202X Constitutent Convention as BBM becomes president so he can revert to 1973 Constitution with (hyper)presidential system in guise of pure parliamentary federal monarchy and constitutional authoritarianism. Sandro may become a future strongman.
Marcos apologia would be hip for its own good.
I see you malicious intent intent with your own posts with your “Marcos apologia” tagging.
It’s more like anti-Marcos crybabyism in disguise.
More like anti-Nazi or pro-LGBTQIA+ culture.