Repetitions

HISTORY REPEATS itself, both times as farce.

The first was during Cory’s time. Not long after she came to power, the Marcos loyalists were out saying how things had gotten so much worse from Marcos’ time. Proof of that was that unemployment was rife, prices were higher and the poor had gotten poorer. And they had the figures to show it.

What they forgot to say was that Marcos had borrowed billions of dollars in the course of his long, vicious and illegitimate rule from September 1972 to February 1986, which was the only thing that kept prices from skyrocketing during the early years of martial law, which debt the people were paying plus interest well into Cory’s time, and would have to pay plus more interest well past Cory’s time. What they forgot to say was that Marcos and his cronies had pretty much stolen that money along with everything else that wasn’t bolted to the floor, setting the country on the road to becoming the economic pariah of Asia. What they forgot to say was that the difference between living during Marcos’ time and Cory’s time was the difference between hell and heaven. If they wanted to, they could always buy a small island near Hawaii and live there with Marcos as their god, but they might not include everyone else in their death wish.

Of course life was so much harder by the time Cory took over. You cannot undo a decade-and-a-half of systematic depredation overnight.

The second is during P-Noy’s (President Benigno Aquino III) time. One year after he came to power, the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) loyalists are out saying how things have gotten worse from GMA’s time. Proof of it is that unemployment is rife, prices are higher and the hungry are getting hungrier. And they have the figures to show it.

What they forget to say is that Gloria borrowed more than Tabako (President Fidel V. Ramos) and Erap (President Joseph Estrada) combined in the course of her long, vicious and illegitimate rule from January 2001 to May 2010, which did not keep prices from soaring anyway, and which debt has added immeasurably to an already gigantic one the people are paying during P-Noy’s time and will continue to pay well past P-Noy’s time. What they forget to say is that Gloria and her husband and their clique pretty much stole that money along with everything else the Marcoses weren’t able to unbolt from the floor, which made the country the most backward in Southeast Asia next only to Burma even as Gloria kept proclaiming in the billboards in her mind, “On this site will rise an Enchanted Kingdom.”

What they forget to say is that the difference between life during Gloria’s time and P-Noy’s time is the difference between hell and heaven—or at least Purgatory, though the absolute contrast makes it feel like heaven. If the Gloria loyalists want to, they can always try to build a Republic of Pampanga or Cebu and have Gloria as their shrunken idol, but they may not make everybody else participate in their post-Lenten act of self-flagellation. Assuming of course that the people there do not rise spontaneously and turn them into Lapid’s chicharon or lechon Cebu. And assuming of course that they manage to escape prosecution for their crimes.

Which is what all this is meant to do as well. It was meant to allow the Marcoses and their cabal to escape punishment for their kabalbalan then, it is meant to allow the Arroyos and their cabal to escape punishment for their kabalbalan now. The not-so-subtle suggestion being that those tyrants might not have been so tyrannical after all, hindi naman pala ganun kawalanghiya. Oh, but they were. Oh, but they are.

None of this is to excuse the P-Noy government’s failings or to say that the criticisms are coming only from the GMA camp. The unemployment is real. The hunger is real. The uncertainties and anxieties are real. I’ll have something to say about it tomorrow.

But it is one of the freak accidents of history—or divine curses, or blessings, for the religious—that two Aquinos, mother and son, would come to power in the wake of two despots, two despoilers of the land, two of the greatest banes in this country’s history. People used to say during Marcos’ time, “Pity the guy who will come after Marcos, he will inherit the wind.” And people used to say during Gloria’s time, “Pity the guy who will come after Gloria, he will inherit the (broken) wind.” Cory did, P-Noy does.

The economy Gloria left to P-Noy is not a rundown restaurant that has been sold to a new owner who with unlimited funds can renovate it and open with the sign, “Under new management.” It is a horse that has been starved and flogged to near-death and bequeathed to an impoverished nephew by a good-for-nothing aunt upon her death. You cannot make that horse spring back to life overnight, especially when it’s all you can do to keep body and soul together. It will take a great deal of nursing to make it so. Along with a great deal of cursing the departed.

You can’t blame everything that is wrong with the economy on Gloria. But you can, and ought to, blame her for a great deal. The people of this country did not start getting unemployed during P-Noy’s time, they started getting unemployed during Gloria’s time. Hell, they started getting hungry—yet another statistic a few months ago said people had gotten hungry of late—during Gloria’s time, as a result of abandoning the farmers completely and relying on importations of rice. And stealing billions of bukols along with the rice.

Gloria is the cause, this is the effect.

Of course when you inherit a horse that has been flogged to near-death, you have two choices. You can just leave it to die, it’s not your fault if it does anyway. Or you can try to revive it, sayang the horse it deserves a better fate than pulutan.

That is the part where you most earnestly hope history won’t repeat itself.