‘User-friendly’ candidates? (2)

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The first part of this series ended with facts about the master of the “gamitan” practice (being “user-friendly”) — none other than the father and namesake of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was popularly known to be smart and wily. He used the talents of other people to show that he can write a new history of the country, although this was the accomplishment of a group of ghostwriters. He had all the money to pay for this group of “intellectual prostitutes.”

Marcos Sr. and his wife, Imelda, were not the conjugal dictatorship for nothing. They did everything to perpetuate their dictatorial regime by using their absolute power to cater to their whims and caprices, especially those of Imelda. Among these was her love for high-end, luxurious apparel, and jewelry items.

The Marcos family was ousted through the historic people power revolution on Feb. 25, 1986, and was forced to be “airlifted” to Honolulu, Hawaii. The choice of a place to banish the discredited first family was because Marcos Sr. and Imelda were close friends of then Hawaii state governor George Ariyoshi and his wife. Mrs. Ariyoshi was allegedly Imelda’s “shopping buddy,” especially in Honolulu. True to form, Imelda, after just being in Honolulu for less than a day, immediately used her connections with the Ariyoshis and caused the closing of a high-end shopping mall in Honolulu to allow her exclusive use for her excessive shopping that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. (I remember this very well since a friend’s mother worked at the mall at that time; I was then studying at the University of Hawaii on an East-West Center scholarship.)

Listening to the son speak about a glorious time under his father’s watch is hearing a barrage of lies. As many people say, lies repeated often become real for the ones who tell them. His campaign mantra, “Babangon muli ang Pilipinas” alludes to going back to those years of a mythicized nation, led by a couple that claimed to be deities descending from some imagined Olympus, the source of all the glory that the country used to have. It was an illusionary picture of a country with disciplined people (remember the slogan, “Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan”?) (A country develops if there is discipline). It was the heyday of the New Society envisioned by the dictator, a nation in which all constituents have to follow the law of the absolute ruler, Marcos Sr.

I agree that there was discipline during martial law. But it was the kind that came from the power of the guns of Marcos Sr.’s minions in the military; it was the kind that killed people who expressed their legitimate dissent in public; it was also the kind that only applied to the poor and hapless constituents, including the intellectuals who persistently defied unreasonable presidential orders and arbitrary arrests and detention. It did not apply to the members of the presidential family, especially to Marcos Jr., and their friends and cronies. It certainly did not apply to the dictator and his wife, who flaunted the excesses of the abuse of their power in public.

Marcos Jr. repeatedly mentions several things he has accomplished when he was governor of Ilocos Norte. Notable among them is the Bangui Bay Wind Farm that he uses as backdrop in his television campaign pitch for his presidential candidacy. But in 2010, he himself admitted that this was a “private commercial enterprise” rather than a government project. The Danish government invested $48 million to build it. And definitely, it was also not his idea to install the windmills. During his term, he was even known as the “absentee governor.”

In terms of being user-friendly, the apple does not fall far from the tree; like his father and mother, Marcos Jr. uses the accomplishments of other people and institutions to promote his candidacy.

Will he still get your vote?

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