Last Tuesday, Oscar Lopez, chair of the parent company of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and patriarch of the Lopez family, said at a leadership forum that with what had been happening to Meralco, it was as though the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship had not ended. He said government officials were “ganging up on the Lopez management in Meralco when their real gripe is with (the family’s) ABS-CBN.” (Read story)
During the Marcos dictatorship the Lopezes were practically blackmailed into selling the company to some Marcos cronies for a token amount. Today the administration is trying to take control of Meralco with the help of the Government Service Insurance System.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, however, denied that Malacañang was going after Meralco because of the negative publicity it was getting from ABS-CBN. He said, “We are not under martial law.” Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile said there was no way one could compare the Arroyo administration to the Marcos era.
No, the country is not under martial law, but there are so many similarities between the dictator Marcos and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that Lopez could be justified in saying it is as if Marcos never left. Indeed, many opposition and militant leaders have said that Ms Arroyo is another Marcos. Marcos was considered the most corrupt president the Philippines ever had, until Ms Arroyo came upon the scene. A survey by the poll group Pulse Asia last October said people considered Ms Arroyo the most corrupt president the country ever had, with Marcos placing only second.
Transparency International estimated Marcos’ total take from graft and corruption during the period 1972-1986 at $5 billion to $10 billion. Ibon Foundation, a militant think tank, said corruption scandals in the past seven years under the Arroyo administration have cost the people at least P7.3 billion.
Professor Alfred McCoy of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who has done extensive studies on Philippine politics and social history, said in a paper, “Dark Legacy: Human Rights under the Marcos Regime,” that during the Marcos dictatorship, 3,257 people were victims of extrajudicial killings, 35,000 were tortured and 70,000 incarcerated. The human rights violations have continued under the Arroyo administration. According to Karapatan, a human rights organization, there were 901 victims of extrajudicial execution under the Arroyo administration from Jan. 21, 2001 to June 30, 2008. Victims of enforced or involuntary disappearances during the same period totaled 193.
Marcos coddled and provided his military and police generals with many perks because they were the ones propping up his unpopular martial law regime. He militarized the government, putting many generals in positions that should have been filled by civilians. Similarly, Ms Arroyo is coddling her generals who are propping up her questioned presidency. Many retired generals are in positions of power, like Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, Public Works and Highways Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane, Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Hermogenes Esperon Jr.
Marcos controlled the courts and had them promulgate decisions favorable to him and his administration. Ms Arroyo wields a lot of influence over the courts, including the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, which lately have been handing down decisions favorable to her in such important cases as that on executive privilege and the writ of amparo.
Marcos controlled the Commission on Elections, and had a Leonardo B. Perez to count the votes in the Interim Batasang Pambansa, and later, the National Assembly elections the way he wanted them counted. Ms Arroyo also wields a strong influence over Comelec, and has had Virgilio Garcillano of “Hello, Garci” infamy, Lintang Bedol and other poll operatives to do her bidding.
The similarities are so striking that some people may be forgiven if they think that it is as if Marcos never left. The people will face a big problem if, despite her promise to leave Malacañang in 2010, Ms Arroyo will find a way to keep herself in power, the way Marcos stayed in power by declaring martial law in 1972.
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