Seeing the end of the Marcos-Aquino-Romualdez-Cojuangco feudal era in the #Philippines

I could say that it is good BS Aquino (and his sister Kris, with her STD) has practically undone whatever legacy Ninoy and Cory supposedly handed over to history. If we are now to believe some of the articles coming out of media and otherwise, Ninoy and Cory are not heroes, but are actually traitors for trying to sell Sabah, for one, and are simply part of the oligarchy (via Hacienda Luisita) that has been sucking the blood of the nation. Supposed legacy of the two, therefore, was just a media creation. The Aquinos were the darling of media to a great extent, of course, for they are perceived as the principals in bringing back the multi-billion business of the media industry. So, there is poetic justice in P-Noy blundering so badly with his incompetence and total stupidity.

But, that is not the worst thing one could hear about the top personalities in PHL politics. If we are to believe the older generations, PHL politics is just a saga of greed and lust for power brought about by personal rivalries among persons who happen to think that national and local government could be their personal playground and personal fiefdom. The citizenry, of course, was never a part of that saga, or if they had a role to play, it was a role to be used and discarded at the pleasure of the top, i.e., depending, again, on the personal needs of the politicians.

If only briefly, we could pick up the saga from where the brilliant lawyer, accomplished orator, supposed multi- medalled war hero (jailed, but influentially freed, killer of Nalundasan), Ferdinand Marcos (FM) was eyeing the presidency. Standing on his way was the popular, well-loved, tough talking, and surprisingly unrefined despite being an Atenean, Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson. He was the presumptive Nacionalista Party standard bearer and was the one banging then the very young and very beautiful Miss Manila, who happened to be one called Imelda Romualdez. Imelda, of course, was the love-child (some say, out of too much booze) of the patriarch of a very wealthy Visayan clan, the Romualdezes, with a maid, or a laundry woman. Marcos had to get rid of Arsenic Lacson, and he lusted for Imelda.

Marcos got his first wish when Lacson died of a heart attack (some say out of unnatural cause). Some say Stone Hill, a Manila based US businessman and a big political financier (as well as being suspected of being a deep CIA agent) was hesitant in supporting Lacson for he was character too hot to handle. With time running out and with Hill's hesitancy becoming more obvious, Lacson became more anti-American in his radio talk show, and that may have cost him his life, but we will never know the real story.

With the presidency now within easy reach of Marcos, Imelda should also prove to be an easy little project . There was a political rationale in running after the Visayan beauty queen. With a recognizable family name as Romualdez, things could be finagled so that she could be an asset in the South, as Marcos was already sure he had the North and Luzon. But alas, Imelda had too many suitors, and one of them happened to be a glib-tongued, a very young, brilliant investigative journalist by the name of Ninoy Aquino, who also happened to be one of his fraternity brothers.

Everybody underestimated the deep seated ambition of the naive looking beauty queen who had an axe to grind with every facet of her being. Imelda knew by sheer instinct where sure money was, and she had no choice, but the sure-to-be president, Ferdinand. Of course, we should also never underestimate the shrewdness of FM in fulfilling the lust of his life at that point in time, for indeed he was shrewd in everything. We will never know if it was a one-sided lust, but it did prove to be a marriage where each one simply used the other for selfish ends. It also proved to be a dangerous combination for the nation — a love affair that eventually had direct national (and international) ramification. Compare that with Lee Kwan Yew of Singapore who had compartmentalized his simple family life from his philosophically driven public life, or that with Park Chung Hee who had so much self-discipline both in his private and public life.

It must have been at that point, some say, that the jilted Ninoy resolved to oppose FM at every turn, even if that meant later in jeopardizing national security. He eventually of course found as a partner a more powerful name, the Cojuangcos, to rival the Romualdezes. So, "up yours, FM", he must have been saying, "stay with your nymph and you ain't going nowhere." Cory was the typical highly educated, quite refined, also French speaking, gal that one would expect from high society, gals who are typically cloistered, so that they are so exclusive by nature. (Should we even wonder then why PNoy is so obstinate with his KKK?) And this is manifested by Cory when she spend hours playing mahjong with the same friends all the time. (So, why wouldn't PNoy play computer games for long hours and find solace in the shooting range with exclusive buddies?)

But alas, Cory was no beauty queen, and Ninoy must have hated FM the more, we wonder. Even then, the stage was set for the rivalry between the steel-willed homey and the society climbing beauty queen who eventually surrounded herself with Blue Ladies from high society and who managed to rub shoulders with the royalties of the world and the captains of multinational industries. We don't know who ended up in the wrong side of history for the history still being written.

But, that is just a snippet of the saga, a very small one at that. If we are really going to dig into the tsismis and supposedly real stories, written and unwritten, we should be able to fill up the historical archives with volumes that should rival the saga of Moses and the Pharaoh. But, unlike the saga of others where we might learn something, ours, salacious and sleazy as they may be, will make us vomit as already the above tabloid should make us. What is clear, and it should be very clear, is that this personality centered politics has damaged the nation. We are a basket case, and worse, we had all the opportunity at one point to rival Japan if we wanted to, and that is a fact — not wishful thinking. Now, we can't even challenge China with a simple Putang Ina, we have to whisper it. Putang-ina.

Hopefully, the Mamasapano has ended the era of the Marcoses and Aquinos, the Romualdezes and Cojuangcos. But, that wont happen by itself; we have to guide it so that that could happen, especially since something like this is easier said than done. Maybe, let us start by thinking that Bonget and Noynoy are history, over and done with, at the very least as far as the presidency is concerned. You allow Bonget room to maneuver, then Kris mounts a comeback, and before we know it, our children will have Bimbi or Josh… oh shit, that would be the day when our children will beg the Abu Sayaf to bomb Metro Manila.

But, we have to realize that it will be a while before we detoxify our system. See, the system has within it already: Grace Poe, the daughter of FM and Rosemarie Sonora — amazing, a neophyte but she showed natural knack in being a TraPo; just read her report on Mamasapano. Binay, the trusted fixer and runner of the Aquinos during the martial law years — wow, they, wittingly or unwittingly, rewarded him with a hacienda as well. If ever, Jinggoy. gosh, his father was really just a pimp for FM so that any beautiful starlet was made available when Ernesto Maceda was not around to pimp . You know Jinggoy just sat almost whole day in Club 409 in Wilson Street playing tong-its yet was making a mountain of money when his father was VP and Prez. Why? Because he has managed to set-up with a group "toll gates", quite invisible from the public, at every port, through which every smuggler had to pay "homage". And, Bonget was no different during his time. He sat practically every night at the Hyatt Kalesa Bar, listening to jazz music, and banging the likes of Lorna Tolentino, a beauty in her younger years, and etc etc when he was tired of jazz, when he should have been in England studying. — yet, he was making money even in those seemingly idle time. Of course, PNoy was no different too. He just goofed around all the time with the bodyguards while his mother was prez. Dont think he made money though while doing that for as one PSG said Noynoy is just a bum by nature, and they like that from a rich kid. ..Who else? Ping Lacson? Well, he was together with Kabise the Palparan of FM. He too had to make a lot of money because of the harem of beauties he was keeping while in PNP. He made more than he needed…Etc, etc, etc. . ….so how are we going to flush the system of dirt for the list is long of personalities who look so honorable and yet so low life in outlook, and mentality like Napoles –we have not even scratched the surface. …..Point is, every contender for the Prez and VP should be checked for skeleton in the closet. But, the moment we do that also, we are allowing ourselves to be sucked in into the personality cult syndrome.

Maybe, we should concentrate in brain-storming the qualifications of a good president, instead of siding with any of the current presidentiables — just wondering if this also good for improving the psychology of the voters if that could even be done. 

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