Why so fearful of a second Marcos presidency? Indeed, the most popular — no, the only — argument detractors of Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr have against him is the “horror” of the years that allegedly marked his father’s “regime”. Unfortunately for them it is also a weak argument.
In simple terms, the logic being used by Marcos vilifiers goes like this:
IF: Bongbong Marcos or, for that matter, any Marcos ascends power;
THEN: the Philippines will be plunged into another era of authoritarianism.
In short, a Marcos return to power will be a cause of a return of tyranny to the Philippines.
So let’s now ask ourselves: Where is the sense in that logic?
First of all, does a cause-and-effect relationship exist between a Marcos ascent to power and the threat of a dictatorship taking over the Philippines today? Believing so is like betting that lightning will strike the same spot twice. The Philippine society that Bongbong Marcos faces today is vastly different from the one his father dealt with back in the 1960s and 1970s. Saying that Filipinos will once again be suckered into a Marcos-era-style dictatorship is tantamount to a vote of no-confidence in the strength of the Philippines’ democratic institutions as they stand today.
In short, people who wail and gnash their teeth at the thought of another Marcos presidency are showing an absolute lack of faith in the ability of the Filipino to chart their own destinies by channeling their power to do so via the democratic governance they enjoy today. They are the ones who have little faith in the measures in place in today’s Philippine democracy to mitigate the risk of another tyrannical regime running roughshod over its institutions.
Second, these shills forget that it is the very people who will be trooping to the polls in 2016 who were a party to the overthrow of the Marcos “dictatorship” in 1986. So their choice in 2016 will be by virtue of that same power they exercised in 1986 — only, this time, that power will be channeled via the now-mature democratic institutions put in place by the government of the late former President Cory Aquino in 1987. Whoever the Filipino people choose to be their leader in the next election — whether it be a Marcos or someone from another family — will be the vote of the Philippine electorate.
So to those who are on a tililing rampage over a possible Marcos presidency claiming that a Marcos in Malacanang will be a cause of the next “evil” Philippine dictatorship should get a grip and snap out of the emo spell they are in.
Think like a 21st Century human being for a change, stop insulting peoples’ intelligence, use a human brain rather than a simian one for thinking, and quit those idiotic clucking tirades that seem to be meant to do nothing better than influence little coloured circles in so-called “mood meters”.
There is NO causal relationship between a future Marcos presidency and a future Philippine dictatorship any more than going straight to bed after taking a shower without drying your hair thoroughly will cause you to go blind overnight.
The hope here is that Filipinos will not be as stupid as they were in the past. Whether there is substance in said hope is, of course, another matter for debate. But here’s the more interesting thing to ponder for now: You kinda wonder about people who seem to harbour an irrational aversion to “cool, handsome, glamorous” people. Perhaps it is because they are everything but.
If you want Filipino voters to stop acting stupid, then stop saying stupid things to them. Now that logic makes sense.
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