Recently, I received an interesting spam mail. No, no… it’s not from those sleazy porn sites offering, strap-on dildos, penis-enlargement kits and Thai glow-in-the-dark anal beads. It’s not uncommon for me to ignore and delete spams but one particular item caught my attention. It was intended to be a chain e-mail summing up in detail the luxury items and real estates the Marcos Dynasty had purchased and acquired during their regime based on a document, “CHRONOLOGY OF THE MARCOS PLUNDER” written by one Charlie Avila, a co-operator of the failed Operation Big Bird tasked by the Cojuangco Kamag-anak, Inc. and the Aquino Holy Monarchy in 1986 to recover the Marcos loot in Swiss accounts. So I thought it might be worth sharing:
“September 1976
The Marcoses bought their first property in the U.S. – a condo in the exclusive Olympic Towers on Fifth Avenue in New York. Five months later they would also buy the three adjoining apartments, paying a total of US$4,000,000.00 for the four and using Antonio Floirendo’s company, The aventures Limited in Hong Kong, as front for these purchases.
October 13, 1977
Today, after addressing the UN General Assembly, Imelda celebrated by going shopping and spending US$384,000 including US$50,000 for a platinum bracelet with rubies; US$50,000 for a diamond bracelet; and US$58,000 for a pin set with diamonds.
The day before, Vilma Bautista, one of her private secretaries, paid US$18,500 for a gold pendant with diamonds and emeralds; US$9,450 for a gold ring with diamonds and emeralds; and US$4,800 for a gold and diamond necklace.
October 27, 1977
The Marcoses donated US$1.5 million to Tufts University in Boston, endowing a professorial chair in East Asian and Pacific Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The students and professors discovered this and forced the school to reject the donation. To save face, the Marcoses were allowed to finance several seminars and lectures.
November 2, 1977
Still at her shopping spree, Imelda paid US$450,000 for a gold necklace and bracelet with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds; US$300,000 for a gold ring with emeralds and diamonds; and US$300,000 for a gold pendant with diamonds, rubies, and thirty-nine emeralds.
July 1978
After a trip to Russia, Imelda arrived in New York and immediately warmed up for a shopping spree. She started with paying US$193,320 for antiques, including US$12,000 for a Ming Period side table; US$24,000 for a pair of Georgian mahogany Gainsborough armchairs; US$6,240 for a Sheraton double-sided writing desk; US$11,600 for a George II wood side table with marble top – all in the name of the Philippine consulate to dodge New York sales tax.
That was merely for starters.
A week later she spent US$2,181,000.00 in one day! This included US$1,150,000 for a platinum and emerald bracelet with diamonds from Bulgari; US$330,000 for a necklace with a ruby, diamonds, and emeralds; US$300,000 for a ring with heart-shaped emeralds; US$78,000 for 18-carat gold ear clips with diamonds; US$300,000 for a pendant with canary diamonds, rubies and emeralds on a gold chain.
After New York, she dropped by Hong Kong where a Cartier representative admitted it was this Filipina, Imelda, who had put together the world’s largest collection of gems – in 1978.
November 23, 1978
A house was purchased at 4 Capshire Drive in Cherry Hill , New Jersey (actually near to Philadelphia where Bongbong was taking courses at that time) for use by servants and Bongbong’s security detachment. The Marcoses did not neglect their annual real estate purchase. During this year and next year, 1979, they purchased two properties – one at 3850 Princeton Pike, Princeton – a 13-acre estate for use by daughter Imee as she attended Princeton .
The other was a house at 19 Pendleton Drive in Cherry Hill for use of Bongbong and under the name of Tristan Beplat, erstwhile head of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines.
April 1979
Two days in New York this month, Imelda spent $280,000 for a necklace wet with emeralds and diamonds; $18,500 for a yellow gold evening bag with one round cut diamond; $8,975.20 for 20-carat gold ear clips with twenty-four baguette diamonds; $8,438.10 for 18-carat gold ear clips with fifty-two tapered baguette diamonds; and $12,056.50 for 20 carat gold ear clips with diamonds.
May 1979
The Marcos couple celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in a party that cost US$5,000,000.00. There was a silver carriage drawn by eight white horses.
June 1980
For US$1,577,000.00 in New York Imelda buys Webster Hotel on West 45th Street. She rewards General Romeo Gatan as a limited partner. Gatan arrested Ninoy at the beginning of Martial Law.
The insurgents’ ranks grew by twenty percent a year. Meritorious officers in the armed forces experienced low morale due to Marcos’ penchant for promoting friends over more deserving officers.
February 16, 1986
In Fe’s (Gimenez) records of monies paid out during Marcos’ last campaign, one unusually large item was authorized by “FL” (First Lady) and paid to Assemblyman Arturo Pacificador on this day. A few days later, two carloads of men drove into San Jose, the provincial capital of Antique. Evelio Javier, head of Aquino’s campaign, was watching the votes being counted when the men opened fire and killed Evelio after he was still able to run through town but finally got cornered in a public toilet where he was gunned down in front of shocked townspeople. Pacificador was later convicted of the murder.
February 25, 1986
Marcos fled the Philippines leaving behind a foreign debt of US$27 billion and a bureaucracy gone mad. “Cash advances” for the elections from the national treasury amounted to Php3.12 billion (US$150 million). The Central Bank printed millions of peso bills, many with the same serial number. Sixty million pesos in newly printed bills were found in a vehicle owned by Imelda’s brother Bejo in the Port Area of Manila, and another Php 100 million aboard the MV Legaspi also owned by Bejo Romualdez.
How massive and humongous a loot Marcos took can be deduced from the known losses he left behind. The known losses he left at the Central Bank included US$1.2 billion in missing reserves and US$6 billion in the Special Accounts.
Imelda charged off most of her spending sprees to the PNB or Philippine National Bank which creatively wrote off her debts as “unresponded transfers”. Ver also used PNB funds to finance his “intelligence” operations.
The known losses at the PNB amounted to Php72.1 billion.
At the DBP, the losses Marcos left behind totaled Php85 billion; at the Philguarantee, it was Php 6.2 billion; and at the NIDC or National Investment and Development Corporation (NDC) – the losses amounted to Php 2.8 billion.
These losses were primarily due to cronyism – giving loans to cronies that had little or no collateral, whose corporations were undercapitalized, whose loan proceeds were not used for the avowed purpose, and where the practice of corporate layering was common, i.e. using two or more companies with the same incorporators and officers, whereby one company which gives the loan owns the company which obtains the loan, or similar arrangements.
The cronies enjoyed their closeness to Marcos. With him they formed a Grand Coalition. They participated in the exercise of dictatorship. But Marcos owned them. The wealth of the cronies belonged to him. Because of the free rides taken by Imelda, Marcos and the cronies, the Philippine Airlines was in debt by US$13.8 billion.
The conservative Grand Total for losses Marcos left behind (and therefore the kind of loot he grabbed and hid) amounted to US$17.1 billion. The Central Bank, the PNB, and other financial institutions badly need an audit. The special review (not regular audit because there seems not to have been any – there are no records anyway) did not uncover Imelda’s spending – her name never appeared – and Ver’s intelligence fund. The review gave no hint of theft or missing money, only “downward adjustments” and “proposed adjustments” to “deficiencies” and “shortages of money”.
February 26, 1986
A few hours after the Marcos party landed in Honolulu, their luggage arrived – 300 crates on board a C-141 cargo jet. It took twenty-five customs officers five hours to tag the bags and identify the contents. The process was videotaped because of all the money and jewelry found inside. There were 278 crates of jewelry and art worth an estimated US$5 million. Twenty-two crates contained more than Php27.7 million in newly minted currency, mostly hundred-peso denominations worth approximately US$1,270,000. 00 (It was illegal at that time for anyone to depart the Philippines carrying more than Php500 in cash.)
There were other certificates of deposit from Philippine banks worth about US$1 million, five handguns, 154 videotapes, seventeen cassette tapes, and 2,068 pages of documents – all of which were impounded by Customs.
The Marcos party was allowed to keep only US$300,000.00 in gold and $150,000.00 in bearer bonds that they brought in with their personal luggage because they declared them and broke no US customs laws.
There were 24 one-kilo gold bars fitted into a US$17,000 hand-tooled Gucci briefcase with a solid gold buckle and a plaque on it that read, “To Ferdinand Marcos, from Imelda, on the Occasion of our 24th Wedding Anniversary.”
February 1986
When Marcos departed the Philippines, the losses in the three Central Bank accounts surpassed Php122 billion (more than US$6 billion). The big bulk of losses were attributed to the RIR account mainly due to two items: forward cover and swap contracts. Forward cover referred to foreign exchange provided by the CB at a fixed exchange rate to importers of essential commodities. Swap contracts referred to CB’s receiving foreign exchange from banks in exchange for pesos at the prevailing rate with a promise to deliver the foreign exchange back to them at an agreed future date. There was no mention of losses due to CB transactions in gold or foreign exchange.
February 28, 1986
On this day, Jim Burke, security expert from the US Embassy, was tapping on the wooden paneling in Imelda’s abandoned Malacañang bedroom when he heard a hollow sound. It was the walk-in vault. Inside were thirty-five suitcases secured with locks and tape. They contained a treasure trove of documents about Swiss bank accounts, New York real estate, foundations in Vaduz, and some notepaper on which Marcos had practiced his William Saunders signature. They also contained jewelry valued at some US$10.5 million.
March 16, 1986
Did Marcos steal any gold from the CB? The CB always refused to comment. Why?
Today the LA Times reported that 6.325 metric tons of gold was unaccounted for in the Central Bank. Between 1978, the year Marcos ordered all gold producers to sell only to the CB, and end 1984, the Bureau of Mines reported that 124,234 pounds of gold were refined. But the CB reported receiving only 110,319 pounds during this same period. That left a difference of 13,915 pounds (6.325 metric tons).
March 1986
Jokingly referring to themselves as the Office of National Revenge, a vigilante team led by Charlie Avila and Linggoy Alcuaz received a tip in the morning that Marcos’ daughter Imee had kept a private office in the suburb of Mandaluyong at 82 Edsa. They obtained a search warrant, then rushed to Camp Crame to pick up some soldiers. After devising a plan, they boarded four cars and drove to the premises, arriving around midnight. The soldiers scaled a fence and sealed off the area. Avila, Alcuaz, and their men moved in and found documents in cardboard boxes, desks, and filing cabinets. Gunfire could be heard outside but it didn’t deter the search.
The documents revealed the names of offshore companies and overseas investments of Marcos and his cronies – a late link in the paper trail that had been started abroad by the teams of Avila, Steve Psinakis, Sonny Alvarez, Raul Daza, Boni Gillego, and Raul Manglapus.
March 09, 1986
A Greek-American, Demetrios Roumeliotes, was stopped at the Manila International Airport before he could leave with eight large envelopes stuffed with jewelry that he admitted belonged to Imelda – valued at US$4.7million.
March 15, 1986
Ernie Maceda, Minister of Natural Resources, revealed today that some 7 to 14 tons of Philippine gold are sold to the Binondo Central Bank annually and then smuggled to Sabah , Malaysia – this gold being part of some 20 tons produced by 200,000 panners all over the country. Maceda’s query was whether part of the gold they produced was siphoned to the “invisible gold hoard of Ms. Imelda R. Marcos.”
“We deliver to the Central Bank,” the miners said. “If it happened (the siphoning), it happened in the Central Bank.”
Is it true that Marcos propagated the Yamashita myth to hide the fact that he looted the Central Bank, that its gold bars were melted down and recast in odd-size bars to make them look old (how does gold look old, anyway?). Marcos claimed that he “received the surrender of Gen. Yamashita” after a battle with his guerrilla outfit. History has recorded that Yamashita surrendered to Lt. Co. Aubrey Smith Kenworthy and that there was no battle. Yamashita’s peaceful surrender had been arranged at least two weeks before the event.
In one entry in Marcos’ diary he noted, “I often wonder what I will be remembered for in history. Scholar? Military hero…?” In a supreme irony, he did achieve what he so vainly sought – lasting fame – but not in the way he envisioned:
*The largest human rights case in history – 10,000 victims.
*Guinness Book of Records – the world’s greatest thief.
*The largest monetary award in history – US$22 billion.
September 30, 1986
Questioned by Philippine and US lawyers about his hidden wealth, Marcos took the Fifth Amendment 197 times. Imelda followed suit – 200 times.
December 1989
An American jury found the Marcos estate liable for US$15 million in the killing of anti-Marcos activists Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo. Manglapus, Psinakis, Gillego and other erstwhile exile oppositionists testified at the trial.
November 04, 1991
Today, a Sunday, the circus came to town. The Swiss Federal Tribunal had ruled the year before that the Philippine government must comply with the European Convention of Human Rights, especially due process. There had to be a lawsuit filed within one year. Thus, the solicitor general’s office filed all sorts of cases against Imelda and the government had to allow her to return to answer the charges.
“I come home penniless,” she tearfully said on arrival. She then repaired to her suite at the Philippine Plaza Hotel which cost US$2,000 a day and rented sixty rooms for her entourage – American lawyers, American security guards and American PR firms.
December 1991
The Central Bank had accumulated losses of Php324 billion in the Special Accounts.
November 30, 1992
The Central Bank; losses were Php561 billion and climbing. Cuisia asked that the CB be restructured. Sen. Romulo asked to see the 1983 audit of the international reserves. He couldn’t get a copy. It was “restricted”.
January 05, 1993
Imelda didn’t show up for the scheduled signing of a new PCGG agreement. She kept vacillating on the terms and conditions – demanding she be allowed to travel abroad for thirty-three days to confer with bank officials in Switzerland, Austria, Hong Kong and Morocco to work out the transfer of the frozen funds.
Actually she was hoping a guy she had authorized, J.T.Calderon, would be able to move the funds just as the order was lifted, before the government had a chance to transfer them to Manila. When the government discovered the authority, all negotiations with Imelda were halted and her requests for travel suspended.
August 10, 1993
Georges Philippe, a Swiss lawyer of Imelda, wrote today a confidential letter to the Marcoses’ old Swiss lawyer, Bruno de Preux, who handled almost all of the Marcos family’s hidden accounts in Switzerland . Philippe requested de Preux for the status of:
*A US$750 million account with United Mizrahi Bank in Zurich;
*Various currency and gold deposits at the Union Bank of Switzerland, at Kloten airport and at Credit Suisse;
*A US$356 million account (now in escrow and worth almost US$600 million) which was being claimed by the PCGG.
1994
The human rights jury awarded the victims $1.2 billion in exemplary damages, then $766.4 million in compensatory damages a year after that, for a total of $1.964 billion. Two days after, another $7.3 million was awarded to twenty-one Filipinos in a separate lawsuit.
1995
The US Supreme Court upheld the $1.2 billion judgment.
March 29, 1995
The Swiss Parliament passed a law (an amendment to a previous act) that removed the need for a final judgment of criminal conviction of the accused (such as the Marcoses) in the case of criminally acquired assets which could now therefore be returned to claimants (such as the Philippine government) by Swiss court order.
July 1996
In part because of the torture of Roger Roxas, US$22 billion was awarded to his Golden Budha Corporation.
December 10, 1997
The Swiss Supreme Court promulgated a landmark decision that took into account the March 1995 Swiss Parliament act and the fact that new criminal cases had been filed against Imelda Marcos. The court held that there was no need for any criminal proceeding; that a civil or administrative proceeding would suffice, and the Marcos Swiss deposits which had been “criminally acquired” can be returned to the Philippines in deference to the final judgment of the Philippine court as to the ownership of these deposits.
The Swiss court also announced that the interest and reputation of Switzerland was at stake if it would become a haven for money launderers laundering money obtained by crime. Therefore, in the case of the Marcos deposits, because “the illegal source of the assets in this case cannot be doubted” the Swiss court ordered that the money be returned to the Philippines to be held in escrow account in the PNB to await the judgment of the Sandiganbayan in the forfeiture case.
By the way, in January 17, 1975 a secret decree not made public until after the EDSA insurrection was signed by Marcos stating that in the event he became incapacitated or died, power would be turned over to Imelda.
On June 7, 1975, in his own handwriting, Marcos amended the January 17th decree and clarified Imelda’s role as chairperson of committee with presidential powers.
In February 1979, Imelda was named chairman of the cabinet committee, composed of all ministries, to launch the BLISS (Bagong Lipunan Sites and Services) program, an ambitious attempt to centralize control of all economic and social development. She assumed responsibility for the “11 needs of Man” codified in her ministry’s multi-year Human Settlements Plan, 1978-2000.
By 1986, the number of Filipinos living below the poverty line doubled from 18 million in 1965 to 35 million. And the ecological balance of the country had degraded from 75 % to 27% forest cover remaining – with 39 million acres of forest falling victim to rampant logging. This was BLISS.
She was also the head of the Metro Manila Commission, which by year-end 1985 had managed to accumulate debts of Php1.99 billion (which included US$100 million in foreign loans) in its ten years of existence. Imelda had accomplished nothing and left the people embittered and even more disillusioned.
In September 1992 Marcos was found guilty of violating the human rights of 10,000 victims. The ruling occurred just after a judge found Imee Marcos-Manotoc guilty of the torture and murder of Archimedes Trajano, a 21 year old engineering student at Mapua who had the temerity to ask Imee after a speech she gave whether the Kabataang Barangay (a national youth group) “must be headed by the president’s daughter?”
Imee and brother Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. have been active in the political scene. Bongbong, who finished 3 terms as Ilocos Norte governor, xxx [had] been quoted as saying that if given a chance, he’d like to run for President one day.
Bongbong is now a Senator, Imee is Governor of Ilocos Norte and Imelda is in Congress. The MARCOSES are back in full force thanks to our “despicable amnesia” as aptly described by the eminent writer, F. Sionil Jose.”
Well, there’s one thing for sure, the guy who wrote this list didn’t suffer from amnesia, but rather from depression in losing his commission for failing to recover the Marcos Dynasty loot from Swiss accounts to the Aquino Holy Monarchy. Not really entirely his fault, because Operation Big Bird was at the brink of success when then PCGG head Jovito Salonga, Joker Arroyo and Sol-Gen Sedfrey Ordoñez stopped the whole operation and turned it into a fiasco. That’s the problem when you have senile old men and politicians named “Joker” in the government.
Finally in 2004, the Marcos loot in the said Swiss account already amounting to more than US$600 million dollars was finally turned over to the Philippine government. But like most stolen pirate treasure and loot, it is bound to be stolen again by smarter thieves—Gloria Mini-Me Arroyo spent it for her 2004 presidential campaign known as the Fertilizer Fund Scam. Hell yeah!
By the way, in case you missed Queen Imelda Nefertiti’s platinum dildo with diamond studs, it’s in another grocery list in Manhattan.
Apo Pharoah Ferdinand claimed he got his riches from the Yamashita treasure and traded in gold after the war. I guess he’s right about that after grabbing and stealing them from treasure hunter Rogelio Roxas whose Golden Budha Corporation finally obtained an award of US$22 billion from a lawsuit against the Marcos estate. However, based on the final judgment the Roxas corporation obtained US$13,275,848.37 and a US$6 million human rights abuse award. However, the fabled Golden Buddha found by Roxas is now in the possession of Carlo J. Caparas to be used as a movie prop in his next flick “Ang Hiwaga ng Buddha at National Artist Award”.
Almost instantaneously, I received another spam e-mail from another source in the person of Mr. Manuel F. Almario, which I quote:
“Philippine Star, Feb. 27, 2010
Letters to the Editor
The dismal record of the Marcos regime
By Manuel F. Almario, Martial Law detainee and spokesman, Movement for Truth in History (philstar.com) Updated February 27, 2011 12:00 AM
What was the true record of President Ferdinand Marcos’ 20-year rule, including 14 years of martial law and dictatorship?
In the Feb. 13, 2011 edition of the Philippine STAR coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the overthrow of the Marcos regime, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was quoted as saying:
“If there was no EDSA I, if my father was allowed to pursue his plans, I believe that we would be like Singapore now…. The truth about the administration of my father is now becoming clear that he accomplished a lot, he helped many people and there was great progress during his time.”
We must restate the historical record, lest many of our countrymen, should forget, being perhaps afflicted by fading memories and gripped by an undeserved nostalgia for an authoritarian regime especially when compared with faltering succeeding administrations.
To begin with, poverty significantly worsened during the Marcos years. “A World Bank study estimated that the proportion of people living below the poverty line in [Phl] cities had risen from 24 percent in 1974 to 40 percent in 1986 [the year Marcos was ousted]. The countryside was no better.” Thus wrote the well-respected journalist and historian Stanley Karnow in his book, In Our Image, America’s Empire in the Philippines, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History.
Economic growth slackened. Penn World Tables reported that while real growth in GDP per capita averaged 3.5 percent from 1951 to 1965, under the Marcos regime (1966 to 1986) annual average growth was only 1.4 percent (Wikipedia). So how could the Philippines have overtaken Singapore which had witnessed “unprecedented economic growth” averaging 12.7 percent of real GDP from 1965 to 1973, according to the Library of the US Congress? Thereafter, Singapore frequently reached growth rates averaging 8-10 percent.
Workers’ wages decreased drastically. Between 1982 and 1986, real wages of unskilled laborers in Metropolitan Manila declined annually at 5.8 percent, and those of skilled laborers at 5.2 percent. Agricultural wages also declined at the same rate, according to James K. Boyce, associate professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts in his book, The Political Economy of Growth and Impoverishment in the Marcos Era.
But the rich got richer. In his book, The Marcos File, Charles C. McDougald reported that in 1980 the top 12.9 percent of the Filipino population received 22.1 percent of total income, while the bottom 11 percent just received 16.6 percent. In 1983, the top 12.9 percent now received 45.5 percent of total income, while the bottom 11 percent received only 6.4 percent. The poor got poorer.
Public debt soared. The peso-dollar official exchange rate was P3.90 to the dollar in 1966 when Marcos became president. It fell to P20.53 to the dollar in 1986. The Philippines’ foreign debt rose from $360 million in 1962 to $28.3 billion in 1986, said Boyce. Hence, more than one-half of the present $53 billion external debt was contributed by Marcos. It is now helping cost our government more than 40 percent of its budget in debt service, forcing the Aquino II administration to cut budgetary allocations for essential services, like education, health and infrastructure.
The insurgency intensified. “. . . [T]he US foreign policy experts also perceived that the longer Marcos’ excesses continue, the faster the Communist insurgency would spread . . . So his profligacy, corruption and repression presented a potential danger to America’s strategic interests,” said Karnow. Not only did the Communist insurgency strengthen, the Muslim insurgency erupted and after protracted war forced the Marcos government to sign the humiliating Tripoli Agreement giving concessions to the Moro National Liberation Front.
Hunger spread. “In the 1950s, Filipinos had probably been the best fed in Asia; now [the Marcos period] the people in India, Indonesia and perhaps Bangladesh were eating better than they. A staggering 40 percent of all the nation’s death were caused by malnutrition. The infant mortality rate was nearly twice as high in the Philippines as in South Korea.” (Raymond Bonner, Waltzing With A Dictator: The Marcoses and the Making of American Policy, 1978.)
I will not mention the unparalleled graft and corruption of the Marcos regime and the “Conjugal Dictatorship”. Some estimates say that Marcos skimmed some $30 billion from the economy, foreign aid, private investors and government revenues. Some $450 million were found stashed in a Swiss bank under pseudonyms of President Marcos and Imelda. Millions more were discovered in properties in the United States, which have been monetized by private lawyers and US courts and now is being distributed to martial law victims. We are still suffering the blows of the Marcos legacy of corruption.
By all standards, economic, political, social and moral it is abundantly clear that the Marcos 20-year regime from 1966 to 1986 was a total disaster for the nation. It showed definitely that dictatorship is not the path to progress, a lesson being learned by the Arab nations now in turmoil. For the Marcos family, it raised a vast fortune that now finances a flourishing political dynasty, which could have another stab at the presidency in six years’ time.”
I’m not really surprised to receive this kind of email spams since it is obvious that these are counter-movements against what is now seem to be a revival of the demand of the Marcos Dynasty to bury the mummy of Apo Pharoah Ferdi in the Libingan ng mga Bayani or Cemetery of the Heroes in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig.
To satisfy Queen Imelda Nefertiti’s necrophilia, the mummy had since been preserved in a glass case in his museum in Batac, Ilocos Norte for almost twenty years which was brought home from his exile in Hawaii in 1993 where he died earlier in 1989 after being toppled through a Yellow Zombie mob and military coup in 1986 known as the Aquino Monarchy Kamag-anak, Inc. power grab.
Prince Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos, Jr., the son of the late pharoah, has renewed calls for his father’s burial in the said cemetery following the burial of controversial Military Mafia Chief Angelo Reyes in the same cemetery who committed harakiri in the wake of congressional investigations on allegations of corruption and plunder of military funds. Surprisingly, joining the shout out to bury the Marcos mummy is Johnny Pounce Enrile, chief orchestrator of the Yellow Zombie coup that toppled Apo Ferdi 25 years ago. Behind them are more than 200 hordes of pork-hungry scarabs in Congress supporting the call.
In an SWS survey, Flips are now divided whether to allow the burial of the Marcos mummy in the Heroes’ Cemetery or just send it to Madame Tussauds in London or the Cairo Museum. This topic is so incendiary it could break out into a flame war between the Yellow Zombie Horde and the Red Marcos Loyalist Fans. Chief Eunuch Priest Deogracias Iñiguez had also joined the ranks of the Yellow Zombie Horde criticizing and objecting the call for the burial.
Agent Provocateur Johnny Pounce Enrile argues that Apo Pharoah Ferdi had never been tried and convicted of any crime and as a former President and soldier deserves to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani just like Mafia Don Angelo Reyes who had been allowed by Lord Peenoy to be buried in the said cemetery.
According to tradition since the cemetery had been established in 1947, those who were allowed burial were “deceased military personnel who died in line of duty or were honorably discharged, Filipino veterans, former presidents, government dignitaries, statesmen and national artists.” Further, in the LNMB website, it states that “the remains of military personnel who were dishonorably separated, reverted, or discharged from the service are not authorized to be interred in the LNMB, including those who were convicted for an offense involving moral turpitude.”
In the technical sense, Apo Pharoah Ferdi, since he had never been tried or convicted of any crime is therefore qualified to be buried in the said cemetery. Now this really proves difficult for Lord Peenoy who seems could not make any decision with his balls intact except when he rides his Porsche and needs to pass this responsibility to his deputy Jejeje Binay to make a solomonic decision on the Marcos mummy. Haaaay… Binay.
However, there is indeed a solomonic solution to the problem to please all parties to avoid a civil war:
#1 Demand and blackmail the Marcos Dynasty to return first all their loot to the Flip Government then they can be allowed to bury their mummy in the Flip Valley of the Kings. As expected, they will refuse since their loot is more important for their survival than a petrified corpse. Hence, no burial will happen. Stalemate. Status quo. Pax Flipina.
#2 In case the unexpected happens and Peenoy wants to play the “Reconciliation Card” and allows the Marcos mummy to be buried, then rename the Libingan ng mga Bayani as suggested by my comrade Ulong Pare, into… LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI, TRAPOSAKAL AT MAGNANAKAW.
Abangan ang susunod na kabanata…
Marcos was “convicted” after he died after the long and winding Hawaii court ruling. I don’t know where Enrile got his data.
[Reply]
The Gorgon Reply:
April 11th, 2011 at 10:37 pm
Enrile was a former crony and a very close one at that until he turned against Marcos. He must be making amends foreseeing that Bongbong is a future presidential contender. He needs to protect his vast political and business interest just as he had always been a player in past administrations.
[Reply]
Hyden Toro Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 12:07 am
The issue of Marcos surfaced again…for Noynoy Aquino to Cover up his Incompetence, as a President. Prices of gasoline are going up , day by day. Prices of basic commodities, are going up, day by day…OFW slaves are returning in droves.
Noynoy Aquino needs a diversion…someone to blame…because, he cannot fulfill his promises of Hope and Prosperity…Up to now; what he did during the Luneta Massacre of the Chinese Tourist, are not yet clarified…If you blame people; you must be clear of blame yourself…Otherwise, you are just fooling yourself. People have brains and eyes; Mr. Aquino…Some Filipinos watching are even more educated and more intelligent than any of the people working for you…
[Reply]
J.B. Reply:
April 18th, 2011 at 7:36 pm
@The Goldon,
Did you check how old Enrile currently is? I don’t think he’ll still be alive at that time. If bongbong captured the highest office of the land, do you think he would still then have enough power to choke Enrile’s empire? Times have changed.
[Reply]
WOW! Imelda Marcos got ripped off! LOL
[Reply]
Is this about Imelda or Ferdinand?
yah with this article I agree Imelda should not be allowed to be buried in Libingan ng mga bayan.
[Reply]
Ray Roriguez Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 2:03 am
But what if the proposal is to bury here there alive papayag ka na?
[Reply]
The Gorgon Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 2:56 am
Malacanang is indeed considering Marcos’ burial in LNMB: http://interaksyon.com/article/2012/palace-see-nothing-wrong-with-inclusion-of-marcos-in-afps-hall-of-heroes
[Reply]
bobo ni Pnoy talaga
[Reply]
Filipinos are immune to this: “Those who forget history are bound to repeat it”. We are immune because we pray everyday.
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Atroxxx Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 10:35 am
da pinoy has a “ningas kugon” mindset
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I’m serious guys. I never had an accident because I pray everyday.
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It is part of a psychological strategy. The burial of Macoy will be another reinforcement to the “Bong bong for Pres” strategy. Once he gets buried with all the honors, the Pinoy amnesia will be complete. Yehey, vote Bongbong for president. Magdusa kayo mga Pinoy. You deserve it.
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Hyden Toro Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 12:28 pm
We live in the present; not in the past…The burial issue must not be politicalized. We, the Filipino people must not take sides on the Quarrel of Political Dynasty Families…we have a lot of problems in our country, waiting to be solved. We must not use our time, to take sides, in the quarrel, who got to be buried, or not…We are more mature and responsible, than these people…because, we care for our country and our people…
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AlvinEternal Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Obvious troll is indeed obvious. It’s ok that President Marcos will be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani since he’s a war hero. Honestly, Pinoys are suffering due to Noynoy…
Hyden Toro has a point: we live in the present. We should be more mature and responsible.
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The article was written by one of those Yellow Horde Nazi propagandist; to deflect the blame and incompetence of the Aquino Administration. Who has the right to determine who can be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani? It is not the Aquinos; who were Japanese Imperial Army collaborator. They deprived also the people of Tarlac, by owning such large tracts of land, called Hacienda Luisita. This caused the Huk Rebellion, and the present NPA rebellion. The MV Karagatan episode was covered up; along with the massacre of the Hacienda Luisita tenants.
Marcos loot and wealth is like chasing after the “El Dorado -famed City of Gold”; or the “Fountain of Youth, chased by Ponce de Leon in Florida…It may, or it may not be there. However, they were used by Cory Aquino, to cover up her incompetence in governance. It is now again being used by his imbecile and incompetent son: Noynoy Aquino…
When will these people accept responsibilities on their decision? And, start doing their jobs to solve the pressing problems of the country? We are very tired of their immaturities and irresponssibilities.
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The Gorgon Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
@Hyden I don’t work for any Yellow Zombie Horde apparatchik nor to any Marcos loyalist fan group. I presented the facts as they are and quoted articles from people whom I’m not sure if they have political alliances between the two dynasties. Anyway, let’s have fun and analyze the facts as they are. Being objective is the key in identifying the problems that continue to hound this country. Cheers!!!
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Hyden Toro Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Live in the present…don’t BITE the Aquinos’ Yellow Horde tactic, of pulling all us down to the Past. Marcos is long dead, already…He is no longer part of the EQUATION. Our country is suffering; our people are suffering…difficult times are here now. We don’t have the luxury of what Noynoy Aquino is playing; amusing us by his: blame game; diversionary tactics; his sister Whore, Kris Aquino’s antics; his imaturities; his double talking; his irressponsibilities; etc..
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The Gorgon Reply:
April 13th, 2011 at 5:35 am
There’s no problem burying the dead really. There’s plenty of ground and vacant space for that. The issue here is unabashed arrogance, the lack of delicadeza, the culture of impunity and the absence of accountability and repentance. We can’t just dismiss all the facts and the prima facie evidence as baseless and propaganda. Somehow there must be a level or degree of guilt in there for those things to surface in the absence of conviction or trial. Let’s bury Marcos where he’s supposed to be buried. But being buried in a place called LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI is never going to be like Valhalla and doesn’t necessarily erase and clean the reputation the deceased had left.
We can bash all the Presidents, public officials and politicians who earn our ire and disgust ad nauseam, but in the end, the scales of time shall weigh them against the legacies they left provided our memories and reason won’t falter in handing them over to the generations that will follow us.
The Gorgon Reply:
April 13th, 2011 at 5:44 am
Of course PNoy is playing the Marcos Burial trump card to distract people from his incompetence while at the same time granting it to be buried in the LNMB will surely boost his popularity rating knowing there are slightly more people who are in favor of the burial than those who oppose it. He gets to play the “Magnanimity” and “Reconciliation” card. A win-win solution for him.
I was born before the EDSA so honestly I don’t have an idea how Marcos had run this country during their regime. But after seeing films about how Filipinos were treated back then, I came up to the conclusion that how Marcos governed Philippines was way far from how you would treat a future successful country like Singapore. This is also a proof how our system is so messed up, we have the evidence staring at our faces and yet we can’t do anything to detain this suspects and worse we let them in again. IMHO the only motivation that Bong bong have to run again for congress is to get back to those guys who helped dethrone his father. Grow up! It’s unlike SK bong, don’t treat our country like your small barranggay.
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Hyden Toro Reply:
April 12th, 2011 at 6:22 pm
Ask the Political Opportunist: Enrile…Enrile was the right-hand man of Marcos. He looted with Marcos, the National Treasury. He was also the Martial Law Administrator. Enrile also knows much about Ninoy Aquino, Jr.; the NPA-Ninoy Aquino Jr. tie-up, and convenient relationship. The MV Karagatan incident; the Plaza Miranda Bombing, the Catholic Church-NPA relationship, etc…
Ask the political turn-coat and opportunist Ramos, also… He is the “Bastonero” of Marcos, at Camp Crame Concentration Camp….They know much about Marcos and his governance…He is also a partner in looting the National Treasury…These people are still alive…but they are not talking…because they are enjoying their loots…
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Marcos should be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. it is one of the privilege of becoming a president of the phil! the rule is absolute regardless whether someone is a corrupt or not, competent or not. End of story
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Jay Reply:
April 13th, 2011 at 2:49 am
True enough. Its funny that his image has become somewhat vilified and tarnished yet when Cory died, everyone bought in the fact to hype her up to sainthood and refer to her as everyone’s Tita.
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Pots telling the kettles black and where their rusty selves will be turned to scrap.
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non sense article
no substance writer
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The Gorgon Reply:
April 13th, 2011 at 5:48 am
Thank you for the critique. Will polish it next time.
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AlvinEternal Reply:
April 13th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
You mad, Yellow Zombie?
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Bury Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani only to afford him the privilege as a former president. But that doesn’t necessarily make him a hero and doesn’t erase or cleanse his legacy of profligacy and excess.
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As usual, perception is reality. Regardless what the facts are, people already have their own “truth”. Fact is, Marcos was a war hero who fought against the Japanese in WW2, he served the country both in legislative/executive position, regardless what the media says – many Filipinos love him and consider him a real hero. But I don’t expect the Filipino public to honor what the late President is entitled to have (a hero’s burial). After all, Filipinos were the same people who elected someone like Noynoy to lead the country, and Estrada was consider 2nd best option – someone who run a respectable campaign, with clean records, having impressive legislative/executive experience and a graduate of Harvard didn’t even come close.
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