Tag archive

Martial Law - page 4

Challenge to the open democratic mass movement: OPPOSE A NEW DICTATORSHIP VIA CHARTER CHANGE!

in Mainstream 
by Angel Balen

On February 24, on the 32nd anniversary of the ouster through popular uprising of the 14-year US-Marcos dictatorship, coordinated protest actions nationwide centered on the call: Oppose the Duterte fascist regime’s Charter change proposals, frustrate the scheme to install a dictatorship!

The proposed charter changes, now pending in the House of Representatives (dominated by a “supermajority” of mostly traditional political turncoats belonging to political dynasties), are correlated with President Duterte’s drive to shift the form of government from the current unitary to a federal system. Such a shift has by itself raised doubts and concerns over the perils of the big rush to push it through. The latest target is before the end of 2019.

What perils? Three interrelated matters: The shift to federalism would enable all the incumbent elective officials (legislative and executive), so many of them corrupt and abusive, to remain in their posts throughout—and most probably even beyond—the transition period from unitary to federal. It would break up the Philippines into regional states that would add a new layer of bureaucracy, red tape, and political largesse and expand the powers of entrenched political dynasties and warlords; and it would enshrine in the prospective constitution the discredited pork barrel system, which would fatten these greedy politicians to no end.

From where does the threat of dictatorship emanate? It would be during that transition period—suggested at nearly 12 years by the PDP-Laban ruling party proposal—that President Duterte (as the incumbent) would be granted oversight power over all branches of government (executive, legislative, and judiciary), constitutional bodies, independent bodies, departments, agencies and offices of the government. In effect, he could exercise absolute powers as the dictator Marcos did for 14 years.

All the above should not be allowed to happen.

Other pernicious proposals

Moreover, highly pernicious to the national interest and the people’s welfare are the many proposals to delete or water down provisions of the 1987 Constitution. These provisions largely embody the sovereign, libertarian, democratic, and humanitarian principles and aspirations of the Filipino people that impelled them to struggle hard to oust the US-Marcos dictatorship. Among the proposals are the following:

  • Delete or water down progressive and protectionist provisions on the national economy and patrimony, including limits on foreign ownership of land, public utilities, media and educational institutions, and preference for Filipino enterprises and professionals;
  • Delete or water down provisions on social justice and human rights, particularly the right to security of tenure and living wage [for workers], agrarian reform [for peasants and farmworkers], and urban land reform and housing [for the urban poor];
  • Limit the exercise of the people’s sovereign will to mere suffrage [voting in elections], and the freedom of the press, free expression, assembly and redress of grievances to their “responsible” exercise; and
  • Delete or water down provisions prohibiting foreign military bases, troops, facilities as well as nuclear weapons in the country.

None of the above proposals should be allowed to pass. These are the most anti-people changes to the constitution ever put forward.

Three previous presidents—Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Estrada, and Gloria M. Arroyo—attempted to change parts of the 1987 Constitution. The first two attempts sought mainly to enable the sitting president to remain in power, the third aimed to allow foreigners to own lands in the country and open foreign participation in fields reserved only to Filipinos. Each attempt was frusrated by a show of strong popular opposition.

Because the Duterte regime’s charter change is far worse than the previous three, all the more must the open democratic mass movement endeavor to harness all available means to stop it.

Movement Against Tyranny

The above proposed changes to the 1987 Constitution are among those cited in a unity statement of the No to Cha-cha Coalition, formed on February 13, 2018, through the initiative of the Movement Against Tyranny (MAT). The unity statement bears a long title: “Uphold democracy, sovereignty, social justice and human rights! No to Charter change!” It has been circulated for signatures of endorsement for anyone interested to join the fight.

The MAT itself was formed only on August 28, 2017. Its aim: “To unite all freedom-loving Filipinos against tyranny and build a broad front to counter the increasing fascism and militarist rule of the Duterte government.” Its formation at the national level, with counterparts being organized at regional level around the country, was a timely response to the need for more unified and vigorous popular actions in confronting the Duterte fascist regime.

The formation of the MAT was coordinated by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, which has been the mobilizing center for the multisectoral progressive forces in the open/legal democratic mass movement since its founding on May 5, 1985 (in the waning days of the US-Marcos dictatorship).

As soon as it was formed, MAT’s convenors announced its initial mass protest action: a broad-based huge rally at the Luneta Park on September 21, coinciding with the 45th year of the declaration of martial law by Ferdinand E. Marcos.

The September 21 protest rally at the Luneta Park proved to be a magnet that attracted people from all walks of life to join. Over 21,000 organized progressive forces were mobilized, but the unorganized and those not within the loop of the progressive mass movement exceeded their number. At the height of the activity, and despite the rain, the crowd rose to 44,000.

Students from various schools, colleges and universities constituted the bulk of the crowd. The rally also served as a reunion for veteran anti-martial law/anti-Marcos dictatorship activists and former political prisoners, who exchanged recollections of their experiences and enthusiastically chanted: “Never again! Never again to martial law!”

A report on the gathering by the online Bulatlat news website said in part:

“The crowd was a friendly, cheerful mix of old and young. There were school kids, millennials, middle-aged and seniors. Their placards and printed-out tarpaulins were witty, yet angry and committed to fighting the return of, or tendencies toward, martial law, against extrajudicial killings, corruption and tyranny. They clapped, chanted and sang as a group and many stayed despite the rain towards the end of the program.”

Movie and stage actors, professional singers, musical bands, and a full contingent of theater artists of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) performed. They launched a Filipino version of the Les Miserables musical piece, “Do You Hear the People Sing?” and capped the rally with the signature protest song, “Bayan Ko,” of the 1986 “people power” uprising.

The next big rally under the auspices of the Movement Against Tyranny was the December 10 International Human Rights Day march-rally. The bulk of the marches first gathered at Liwasang Bonifacio, then marched to the Andres Bonifacio Shrine near the Manila City Hall, where fiery speeches were delivered, interspersed with songs and cultural presentations. Before dusk the animated protesters marched with lighted torches to Mendiola near Malacanang Palace. There Duterte’s effigy was burned amidst chantings and flag waving of the various participating organizations.

It was at the Bonifacio Shrine program where a group of artists, journalists and other media practitioners made a call: “Let us organize for democracy and integrity.” From that call was born an organization named LODI, which has vowed to challenge Duterte’s public information machinery, fact-check his pronouncements and those by his aides and supporters who command an online following. LODI’s initial statement said:

“Duterte himself has led the assault on freedom of expression and disinformation campaigns, aided by a well-oiled machinery of disinformation peddlers and digital storm troopers. Duterte’s attacks on media companies whom he had accused of unfair reportage have been amplified by a well-funded social media army, in part underwritten by taxpayers.”

“It is not enough to call for a halt to government-led disinformation campaigns,” LODI emphasized. “We will expose these deceptions,” it vowed.

No more turnarounds for Duterte?

Since he unraveled himself as a fascist—a fascist compliant to US imperialism—early in his second year as president, Rodrigo R. Duterte appears to hold no thought of turning back or reconsidering the often rash actions he took on specific occasions. This is specifically so with regard to his curt statement, addressed to the revolutionary movement and the organized masses with whom he had earlier avowed a long-running friendship, even affinity: “I am your enemy!”

No more falterings and turnarounds that characterized his first year in office?

Duterte’s fascist regime has unrelentingly pushed its “all-out [counterinsurgency] war” against the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) since February 2017. That month saw the abrupt ending of five months of tenuous reciprocal unilateral ceasefire declarations, during which period three rounds of formal negotiation in the GRP-NDFP peace talks (that had begun in August 2016) were successfully held in Europe.

After a relatively successful fourth negotiation round in April (with the GRP failing to comply with an agreement, during the back-channel discussions in March, to restore the reciprocal unilateral ceasefires), Duterte began playing a go-stop-go-stop game on the peace talks.

He cancelled the fifth round as it was scheduled to start in May. He set back-channel discussions for the fifth round in August but cancelled these in July. With his go-signal, two productive back-channel discussions took place in October and early November, hammered out three documents prepared for initialing or signing. But on November 22, as the fifth round of formal negotiations was about to begin in Oslo to take up the three documents, Duterte ordered the cancellation of “all talks with the Left.” The following day he issued Proclamation 360 formally terminating the peace talks.

However, the GRP has not sent a formal notification to the NDFP Executive Council, as protocol requires, terminating the 1995 Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Once acknowledged by the NDFP, the notice of termination of the JASIG and the peace talks will take effect 30 days after such acknowledgment. Absent that, the GRP-NDFP peace talks are deemed to be indefinitely suspended.

Tagging the CPP-NPA as “terrorist”

On December 5, 2017, Duterte issued Proclamation 374, formally declaring the CPP-NPA as a “designated/identified terrorist organization” in accordance with two anti-terrorism laws of the reactionary government, legislated at the instance of the US government. That presidential act has upped the ante of state antagonism towards the Left revolutionary movement and the virulence of its “all-out war.”

However, the terrorist tagging or “proscription” cannot instantly take legal effect, no matter that it’s a presidential proclamation. According to the anti-terrorism law it invokes, the GRP justice department must first file a petition before a regional trial court seeking the latter’s approval. The process entails going through public hearings (purportedly to hear both sides, similar to public trials) before the court can issue a decision. (Such a process took five years to conclude, for instance, before a Mindanao RTC branch declared the Abu Sayyaf group as a terrorist organization.)

Up to this writing, the GRP justice department hasn’t filed a petition. Yet the state security forces have already exploited Proclamation 374 to intensify their villification attacks on the CPP-NPA and against legal progressive organizations that they obdurately tag as “fronts” or “supporters” of the CPP-NPA. During a successful jeepney drivers’ strike against the government’s costly motor vehicle modernization program, called by Piston and supported by the Kilusang Mayo and the human rights alliance Karapatan, Duterte himself accused the three organizations of being allied with the CPP-NPA. He erroneously threatened to charge them with rebellion—of rising up in arms against the government).

Pleased with himself

As matters stand, Duterte appears pleased with himself and with what he has been doing and saying (repeatedly before various audiences around the country) to harass, insult and threaten his perceived enemies. Among his frequent targets for vitriol are human rights defenders, within the country and abroad. He brushes aside their call for a stop to the extrajudicial killings (both in carrying out his “war on illegal drugs” and the counterinsurgency campaign) and for justice to the victims of human rights violations.

When peasants from Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon undertook a 10-day journey to Manila to demand fulfillment of his promises to them and to stop the killing of farmers (at the time the victims numbered 99, now 111), Duterte desisted from meeting with them. He didn’t make any statement at all. He also ignored the pleas of the Moros and indigenous peoples of Mindanao (Duterte’s home region), who had likewise journeyed for several days, encamped at the University of the Philippines Diliman campus for over a month, and rallied before the AFP headquarters and various government offices. They demanded positive actions on their problems, among others an end to the militarization of their communities, the shutdown of their schools, and the lifting of martial law in Mindanao.

Vis-à-vis organized labor, Duterte has hedged on signing an Executive Order abolishing contractualization (one of his electoral campaign promises), which he had asked the combined conservative and militant trade union formations to draft and which the secretary of labor has already approved.

Expressing irritation over media reports critical of his governance and pronouncements, Duterte routinely made veiled threats to certain journalists and media establishments, and caused the issuance of an order to close down a leading online news website, Rappler.

Duterte has spoken most venomously and disparagingly against the New People’s Army, accusing the latter of continually killing “my soldiers and my policemen.” After dining in Malacanang with alleged “former leftist rebels,” he facetiously suggested that women revolutionary fighters shouldn’t be killed but should be shot in their genitals to render them “useless”. And speaking to representatives of indigenous people’s tribes assembled by the military in Davao, he instigated them to kill NPA Red fighters, instead of joining or supporting them. He even offered to pay P20,000 (later increasing it to P25,000) as reward for every NPA member they could kill—who could very well be a fellow tribesman. (Duterte had earlier claimed that 90 percent of the NPA members in one Mindanao area are indigenous people.)

Puppetry to US imperialism

Regarding the fascist Duterte being a compliant vassal or puppet of US imperialism, here’s a stark proof.

A US government report issued last month confirmed that, back in September 2017, the Trump administration had launched Operation Pacific Eagle as the US military’s “new” overseas contingency operations in the Asia-Pacific region. And it got the Duterte regime to complicitly agree to allow American special operations forces to accompany AFP troops in ALL their missions against violent “extremist” or “terrorist” armed groups, especially in Mindanao.

Actually, Operation Pacific Eagle is a revival of George W. Bush’s Operation Enduring Freedom in his notorious “war on terror” that began in the last quarter of 2001.

During the so-called siege of Marawi by alleged Islamic State affiliates, the Maute and Hapilon-led Abu Sayyaf groups, the US military played a key role in using sophisticated aircraft and drones to identify targets for the daily aerial bombings and artillery bombardment that flattened Marawi City. Duterte was fulsome in thanking them. The Americans has exploited as a convenient justification for launching Operation Pacific Eagle-Philippines the need for US troops to continue supporting the Duterte regime in suppressing the remnants of the alleged IS affiliates that it claims have regrouped and are aggressively recruiting new members in Mindanao.

In turn, having declared the CPP-NPA as a “terrorist organization,” the Duterte regime likewise has found it convenient to allow fully-armed American special operation troops to be directly involved in carrying out its counterinsurgency program, deviously misnamed Oplan Kapayapaan, against the CPP-NPA. It so happens that the bulk of the armed strength of the CPP-NPA is in Mindanao. Thus, it’s there where the AFP has been concentrating much of its counterinsurgency resources and operations. Oplan Kapayapaan will now be conflated with the “anti-terrorism” campaign against the alleged IS affiliates.

Taking advantage of martial law

Those who launched Operation Pacific Eagle in a low-key manner in September, without publicly announcing its nature and implications, took advantage of the extended implementation of martial law in Mindanao. Martial law has been in effect in the whole of Mindanao since Duterte imposed it in May 2017 in connection with the “siege of Marawi.” Despite the ending of the five-month devastating war in Marawi, military rule has been extended up to the end of 2018. Although the claimed regrouping and recruitment of the alleged IS affiliates was invoked as primary basis, the strong presence of the NPA in the region has been anomalously added as basis to justify the extension.

Duterte has even warned that if the CPP-NPA stepped up armed operations elsewhere in the country he wouldn’t hesitate to declare martial law nationwide.

With these developments, more American troop infusions and more military facilities construction inside Philippine military bases and camps (allowed under the EDCA) can be expected in the coming months or years. It’s not farfetched that such military facilities buildup will be utilized as platforms by the Trump administration for launching military interventionist actions in any country in Asia-Pacific. Such US aggression from US facilities here can implicate the Philippines. Extended US military basing in the country (without a formal bases agreement) can also boost America’s capability for military maneuvers vis-à-vis its rival China over military and geopolitical dominance in the South China Sea and further in the Asia-Pacific region.

Definitely, these developments pose a challenge to the open democratic mass movement to strengthen its anti-imperialist flank before Operation Pacific Eagle can put in place its military interventionist programs. A vigorous campaign against Trump’s reviving in Asia-Pacific Bush-era’s Operation Enduring Freedom can logically be fused with the No to Charter Change campaign, specifically as it connects with the existing constitutional ban on foreign military bases, troops and facilities in the Philippines.###

You might be interested in

Marawi Siege: Duterte and the US

in Mainstream 
by Vida Gracias

Given the copious bloodshed and massive destruction, the Marawi siege has more than amply shown that President Rodrigo Dutere has no compunction about running this country with an iron-fist.

No sooner had the Daulah Islamiyah (formed by the Maute group, Abu Sayyaf, Khalifa Philippines) staged its violent attack in Marawi on May 23 than President Duterte declared martial law and suspended the writ of habeas corpus not just in Marawi but in the entire island of Mindanao.  Sixty days were deemed not enough to contain the “invasion or rebellion”. With the concurrence of Congress in joint session, he extended martial law for another 150 days to last until the end of this year.  There’s a lurking fear that martial law would be extended nationwide.

But hark, the martial law declaration has also targetted “other armed groups” in Mindanao apart from the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups. “Dismantling” of the New People’s Army has specifically been added.  The military first denied this, but later events proved that the NPA is indeed its main target not just in Mindanao but in the other parts of the country.

Cries to lift martial law because of baseless claims — “Acts of terrorism are not necessarily equivalent to actual rebellion,” averred Congressman Edcel Lagman in his petition to the Supreme Court; “[Martial law] is unwarranted, unjustified and wholly out of proportion to the threat posed by the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups,” stated the Makabayan solons in another petition—fell on deaf ears.

Neither have the heart-rending appeals by over four hundred thousand evacuees—Stop the daily airstrikes (which have cost hundreds of lives and vast properties leveled to the ground)! Allow us to return home! — could move the military to accede to their demand.

President Duterte has repeatedly said that he would rely on the military in deciding to lift or extend martial law.  Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, once a Scout Ranger battalion commander and counterinsurgency expert, admitted recommending to the President the martial law declaration and its extension.  However, Duterte was quick to add: “I and I alone am responsible.”

 

Enter the US

Duterte’s dread of “terrorism” engulfing Mindanao made him completely dependent on the military and, consequently, on the United States. Increasingly his anti-US stance has seemed to melt down whenever he finds common ground on the “war on terror” with the American imperialists—much to the latter’s delight.

On many occasions, he dropped his blusters and acidic rhetoric against the US. He found himself saying “thank you” for the US advisers’ support in the aerial bombings and intelligence guidance for ground troop assaults against Daulah Islamiyah. Not raising hell, he acknowledged that the military proceeded to invite the Americans without his knowledge. He was also grateful that the US had lifted its ban to sell weapons and munitions to the AFP-PNP, and donated two surveillance planes to boost the government’s counter-terrorism efforts. He was silent when the US Embassy boasted that since 2004 it has delivered and programmed more than P7.4 billion worth of military equipment to enhance the AFP’s capabilities.

As matters stand, the war on terror is turning the President not only into an imperialist lackey but also into a fascist. His complete reliance on the military makes him putty in the hands of the US. Where the military gains control the US is not far behind.

Far from being nationalist or patriotic, the Philippine military has for long been incorrigibly pro-American. Duterte himseld has publicly affirmed this.  AFP courses and training are patterned after those of the US military, particularly its counterinsurgency programs.  Top guns of the AFP/PNP  get elite tutelage from US military schools. American advisers oversee combat and  non-combat training of Philippine troops.  The notorious Central Intelligence Agency or CIA also directly recruits agents from among Philippine military and civilian forces.

 

US and terrorism

The US has prided itself for leading the coalition of nations in the fight against terrorism, specially against militant Islam since 9/11.  But rather than put terrorism to rout, its war has fanned the flames of radical Islam into many corners of the globe. By enlarging the war, the US has made billions of profit in war materiel, oil concessions, and infrastructure contracts in such war ravaged countries as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya.

The US has a history of backing terrorist groups, including those in the Philippines’.  The website Global Research points to  Al Qaeda and ISIS  as “made-in-the-USA, an instrument of terror designed to divide and conquer the oil-rich Middle East and to counter Iran’s growing influence in the region.”  Likewise the  CIA gave birth to Osama Bin Laden as mujahedin in Afghanistan and allowed his organization to grow  during the 1980’s, extending even to far-away shores as in the Philippines.

In his book The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism, Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed wrote lengthily about the US-sponsored AFP-Abu Sayyaf-Al Qaeda nexus.  As early as 2000, even then Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. disclosed, in a speech in the Senate, the joint US-Philippine government role in the emergence and activities of Abu Sayyaf. Yet no investigation was made.  He said: “My information is that the Abu Sayyaf partisans were given military intelligence services, IDs, safe-houses, safe-conduct passes, firearms, cell phones and various sorts of financial support.”  He also said that Philippine military officers involved held very high posts.

As mayor of Davao City, Duterte himself had claimed that the killing of suspected-terrorist Marwan was a CIA operation that led to the killing of 44 Special Action Forces, including MILF fighters too, in Mamasapano.

No fact has yet been established but the botched operation to bag Isnilon Hapilon, a senior leader of the Abu Sayyaf, that led to the Marawi siege and the declaration of martial law could be a secret plan hatched by the Americans.  Hapilon, like Marwan, has a $5 million bounty offered by the US government.

A purely military solution to the Marawi crisis, and to the country’s Left and Moro insurgencies, certainly gives the US the upperhand in deciding the course of the Duterte presidency. The “war on terror” has become a convenient excuse for the US to intervene in the internal affairs of countries and, in this case, gain further military and economic foothold in the Philippines.

Illustration from PRWC Info

You might be interested in

Marcos’s Burial is History’s Reversal

in Countercurrent 
by Bukang Liwayway

The overthrow of the Marcos regime by a people’s uprising in 1986 was historic for the Philippines. The growing people’s war in the countryside had steadily weakened the regime’s military clout and political grip on power and gave the urban-based anti-dictatorship struggle the opportunity to oust the hated regime. President Ferdinand Marcos and his family, aided by the US imperialists, fled the country in fear. Corazon Aquino and a new administration rose to power.

That would have been the end of the Marcos family’s political rule. Instead, the last 30 years have seen the steady rehabilitation of the Marcoses and their return to national politics through ruling class accommodation, compromise and opportunism. Six consecutive administrations played their part, culminating in the burial of the late dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in November 2016 under the Duterte government.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) sharply pointed out: “The hero’s burial accorded to Ferdinand Marcos virtually completes the political rehabilitation of the Marcoses and the revision of the historical judgment against the crimes of the Marcos family”. The Filipino people’s verdict in 1986 was clear: the Marcos regime was guilty of puppetry to US imperialism, gross bureaucrat capitalism, and ruthless fascism. What happened?

 

Corazon Aquino’s magnanimity in victory

Ironically, the refurbishing of the Marcos family’s political fortunes started under the watch of Pres. Corazon Aquino whose family is supposedly the main political rival of the Marcoses.

Pres. Aquino set a compromising tone early on. “I can be magnanimous in victory,” she declared. Evading the problem of dealing directly with the fate of the deposed dictator, she allowed US imperialism to facilitate the “graceful” exit from the country of the late dictator and his family aboard a US air force plane on February 25, 1986.

More than that evasion of responsibility to exact justice for the people, the new administration and supposed return to democratic rule did not mean any real change in elite-driven and anti-people governance. Repressive and anti-people laws, programs and policies of the Marcos dictatorship quickly became manifest under the Aquino regime, especially after Pres. Aquino, in March 1987, “unsheathe(d) the sword of war” against the revolutionary forces and the people in general.

The Aquino regime used the vast powers of government to reapportion the economic spoils of political power with the previously excluded economic political elites. Compromise deals were sealed to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their cronies. In the end, foreign corporations and local oligarchs close to the Aquinos took hold of erstwhile Marcos and crony resources for their own profitable ends. The US-Aquino regime ensured the consolidation of its ruling clique and of elite rule over the country.

Cronyism continued with, for instance, Aquino’s brother Jose Cojuangco and her brother-in-law Ricardo Lopa. The Lopez family was handed back Manila Electric Company (Meralco) and ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation on a silver platter. The Presidential Commission for Good Governance (PCGG) itself, purportedly created to fight corruption, was rife with gross irregularities.

Soon after assuming the presidency, Pres. Aquino also said: “I would like to show by example the sooner we can forget our hurts, the sooner we can start rebuilding our country.” This notion of ‘moving on’ would be echoed 30 years later by the Marcoses themselves.

It was then left for the Filipino people to neither forgive nor forget the horrors of Martial Law (ML) and to seek and fight for justice. In April 1986, the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) with the victims and their families filed a class action suit against the Marcoses at the Federal District Court of Honolulu in Hawaii. Almost 10,000 victims won this landmark Hilao vs Marcos Estate case six years later in 1992. The court, in 1994, awarded a minimum of US$1.2 billion from the Marcos ill-gotten estate as indemnification.

On November 4, 1991, President Corazon Aquino allowed the return of Imelda Marcos, ostensibly to face trial on tax fraud. She was arrested the day after she arrived but posted bail (for US$6,340) and never spent a single day in jail.

Without legal impediments Imelda Marcos brazenly ran for president in May 1992, if not to win then certainly to condition the electorate to their family’s return. The rehabilitation of the Marcoses was thus well underway by the end of Pres. Aquino’s term in 1992.

 

Ramos-Marcos reconciliation: Marcos (body) returns

Pres. Fidel V. Ramos followed suit. On September 7, 1993, he allowed the return of the dictator’s body to the Philippines. Pres. Ramos proceeded to negotiate compromise deals with the Marcoses themselves. The first attempt was a 75/25 sharing of US$400 million of the Marcos’ wealth, brokered in 1993. The second was a 50/50 split of US$100 million negotiated by the PCGG with Robert Swift—lawyer of the victims who filed the class action suit—in exchange for dropping the suit against the Marcoses. But the victims protested so Pres. Ramos was unable to finalize these deals.

No help was given to ML victims during the Ramos administration, despite the NDFP’s demand continuously in the peace negotiations with the Ramos regime for the indemnification and compensation of the victims. It succeeded to have this support to victims enshrined in Article 5 of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).

But justice continued to evade the Filipino people. On September 23, 1993, Imelda Marcos was finally sentenced 18-24 years in jail for graft, with permanent disqualification from public office. But Mrs. Marcos was allowed bail by the court and was set free while the decision is on appeal. She again ran for public office in 1995.

The Ramos administration saw the Marcos family quickly regaining their political ground with the dictator’s son, daughter, and wife taking political office. Bongbong Marcos was elected Representative of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte from 1992-1995. He failed in his first bid for the Senate in 1995 but became governor of Ilocos Norte in 1998 until 2007. Imee Marcos meanwhile took over as Representative of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte in 1998 and similarly held this position until 2007. Imelda Marcos became representative of the 1st district of Leyte from 1995-1998.

 

Estrada’s loyalty is to the Marcoses

The country’s next president, Joseph Estrada, was an unabashed Marcos loyalist. Imelda Marcos again ran for president in 1998, hoping still that a Marcos can reclaim the presidency, although she later withdrew to support Estrada.

Pres. Estrada showed his loyalty and gratefulness by also initiating compromise deals with the Marcoses. He did a 75/25 sharing similar to the one by former Pres. Ramos. Another one was worth US$150 million involving Atty. Robert Swift, legal counsel of the latterly-formed group Claimants 1081. It took protests by SELDA, the victims and their families to again prevent these compromise attempts from succeeding.

In October 1998, barely six months from office, the Supreme Court (SC) under Estrada reversed its earlier decision and acquitted Imelda Marcos of corruption. (Under Ramos, the SC, upon Imelda Marcos’s appeal, upheld the 1993 guilty verdict of the former first lady by a lower court. In its decision the court downgraded to 12 years Imelda’s prison sentence and asked for a fine of $4.3 million).

It was Pres. Estrada who first proposed, in 1998, to transfer the late dictator Marcos’ body from Ilocos Norte to the Libingan ng mga Bayani. This plan was thwarted by the instant vigorous and widespread protest by the people.

The NDFP continued to press for justice for the victims of martial law especially when the CARHRIHL was signed. But nothing came of it as the Estrada regime eventually suspended the peace negotiations with the NDFP as he declared an “all-out-war” against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Even after Estrada was ousted in 2001 on charges of bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the reactionary Constitution, the Marcoses remained in solid control of the 2nd Congressional District of Ilocos Norte and of the province’s governorship.

 

Remaining 15 years and next

By the abrupt end of Pres. Estrada’s term, just 15 years after the Marcos dictatorship was overthrown, the Marcos family had not only preserved huge amounts of their ill-gotten wealth but had also used this to rebuild their political alliances with traditional politicians especially, but not only, in the northern part of Luzon. Their re-entry into Philippine politics was complete, moving from local politics to national positions.

The two consecutive regimes of Gloria Arroyo (2001-2010) and even that of Corazon Aquino’s son, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino (2010-2016) did nothing to push back the restoration of the Marcos’ political fortunes.

In 2004, the Arroyo government sought “closure of the Marcos issue” and started negotiating yet another compromise agreement. This was stopped by the militant protests of ML victims and people’s organizations. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) sharply pointed out: “Successive reactionary regimes from [Corazon] Aquino to Arroyo have failed to mete out swift and appropriate justice on Imelda Marcos and the Marcos cronies because of their interest in the Marcos’ ill-gotten wealth.” It went on further to remind that: “The people’s history has adjudged Ferdinand Marcos as the Philippine Hitler.”

Pres. Noynoy Aquino meanwhile delayed the passage and implementation of the Marcos Victims Compensation Bill or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013. By the end of his term, only 23% of the 75,000 applicants/registered victims were processed. He could have expedited the process—especially because most of the claimants have become old and sick—aside from more aggressively going after the Marcos ill-gotten wealth.

Even as this was happening Imee Marcos remained as governor of Ilocos Norte and Imelda Marcos the Representative of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte since 2010, with both on their third terms.

But it is Bongbong Marcos who has been groomed to be his dictator father’s heir apparent. He was Representative of the 2nd District of Ilocos Norte until 2010 when he passed this to his sister, Imee, and took a Senate seat from 2010-2016. In 2016 he ran for the vice-presidency in a virtual ticket with Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. While Duterte took the presidency, Bongbong Marcos closely lost to Leni Robredo but is currently contesting this. He is generally believed to be gunning for the presidency in 2022.

That the son of the reviled dictator is so close to the country’s highest office says much about the rottenness of Philippine politics. Reactionary politicians from the ruling classes have allowed and even supported the Marcos’s return to power—as much for their own narrow, opportunistic and self-serving interests as to deny the Filipino people of their victory of thrashing the Marcoses after 14 years of dictatorship.

As matters stand, the rehabilitation of the Marcoses rapidly picked up under the Duterte administration. At his proclamation rally in February 2016, then candidate Duterte outright declared Marcos as “the best president ever” with the qualification “ïf not for the dictatorship,” as if this was not at the core of his tyrannical rule. He even went on to cite economic programs that he said were worth emulating.

Pres. Duterte downgraded the annual commemoration of the EDSA “People Power Revolution” in February 2017 and did not even bother to attend it. And there was of course his orally ordering the burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani of the dictator’s remains including a vigorous defense and justification, as if this was the most natural thing to do.

The CPP denounced this act of burying Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. In a statement it said the heroes’ burial “was an act of great reversal of the historical judgment of the Filipino people against the US-Marcos dictatorship and a completion of the political resurrection of the Marcoses.” It called on the Filipino people to demand from the Duterte regime to reverse the historical wrong it committed against the people and end all the legacies of martial law.

But the Duterte regime seemed far from heading towards this direction. It would still be up to the Filipino people to put an end to the Marcos rehabilitation as they once did to the Marcos dictatorship. History will be the final judge.

You might be interested in

1 2 3 4
Go to Top