It’s a cause of exasperation but it’s also a source of envy. Presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has a significant number of die-hard supporters whose blind allegiance to him is not affected by accusations of corruption, human rights violations, and charges of lies.
The serious accusations against Marcos Jr. and his family are proven by government records, evidenced by court decisions, and even institutionalized in laws passed by Congress.
Court decisions in the Philippines, United States, and Switzerland have established with finality that a huge bulk of the Marcos wealth was illegally accumulated. Twelve Marcos cronies confessed to having conspired with Marcos Sr. to enable the latter to amass ill-gotten wealth, and they have surrendered enormous funds and valuable properties to the government. So far, P174.2 billion in Marcos ill-gotten wealth have been recovered, and the government is running after P125.9 billion more in pending cases. Marcos Jr. has been convicted on tax-related charges, and the Marcoses have not paid P203 billion in estate taxes.
Almost 10,000 human rights victims under the Marcos dictatorship were awarded $2 billion in damages by a US court. Congress has passed a law (Republic Act No. 10368) awarding P10 billion in compensation to more than 11,000 Marcos human rights victims. Our government has erected the “Bantayog Ng Mga Bayani,” which has a monument containing the names of those who died, were imprisoned, or tortured during the Marcos dictatorship.
Claims of Marcos Jr. that he graduated from college were disproven by Oxford University and the University of Pennsylvania. Even claims made on various online sites boasting that Marcos Jr. won as the 2001 Milo Little Olympics taekwondo champion for the age bracket 7-12 years old has been exposed as a lie because Marcos Jr. was already 44 years old that year.
So why are Marcos die-hard supporters unaffected by all these?
For Marcos die-hard supporters, issues of corruption, human rights violations, and lies rank very low in their list of qualifications or disqualifications for our next president. For these die-hard supporters, the valuable qualifications that rank the highest in their choice of a president are as follows: 1) our next president should be a man because women are weak; 2) our next president should be in the mold of a dictator or a strongman, and; 3) Marcos Jr. has vast wealth, which he will distribute to his supporters if he wins the presidency.
These reasons are either innocently expressed or can be inferred from foggy explanations when one talks or listens to die-hard supporters. These are the reasons why they blindly worship Marcos Jr. and hate Vice President Leni Robredo.
These three reasons explain why no amount of evidence on corruption, human rights abuses, and lies negatively affects the support Marcos Jr. enjoys from his die-hard followers. Marcos die-hard supporters are looking at standards that are different from the yardsticks used by Marcos disbelievers. In other words, Marcos die-hard supporters are on a different page compared to Marcos detractors.
What’s deplorable, however, is that two of the reasons (president must be male and dictator) that animate Marcos die-hard supporters are primitive beliefs that will get us stuck in a backward society, and another reason (Marcos Jr. will distribute his wealth) is a lie.
Based on an informal survey I’ve seen on the ground in my province here in Cagayan, my estimate is that Marcos die-hard supporters are still outnumbered by his soft supporters who are merely under the influence of fake news. Soft supporters are swayed by the following forms disinformation: 1) Marcos Jr. has outstanding credentials; 2) The Marcos dictatorship was our country’s golden age, and; 3) Robredo is wicked and malevolent.
Of the 60 percent who prefer Marcos Jr. in the last Pulse Asia survey, my ventured estimate is that only 20 percent are die-hard supporters. The rest, or 40 percent, are soft supporters who have been enchanted with false promises and bogus claims.
Kakampinks have 42 days left to knock on doors, recite truth incantations, and cast away the black magic spell that has bewitched so many of our people.
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