Bygones be bygones: #BongbongMarcos should be evaluated as his own man rather than as 'a Marcos'

I don't think it is about Bongbong Marcos being "guilty of his father's alleged sins." It is just that this is an emotional issue for a good many. In my case, it was my family, or our clan to be exact, that was one of those that was directly hit by the systematic grab by FM of profitable businesses. Our old people in the family owned the magnetite iron mines in the North. The business was no near in size to say, those of the Lopezes, Jacintos, etc, so it didn't warrant any headline when it was grabbed as say when ABS-CBN, Meralco, Iligan Steel Mill, San Miguel, Metrobank, Security Bank, etc were taken over by Marcos henchmen. No, we were never in that league, and yet it was taken over — maybe, Marcos saw its future potential.

It was one of those that pioneered in export business and counted big names like Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, etc among its regular and satisfied clients. I was very young then, but I can remember it afforded us comfortable living. I can talk like this without emotion, maybe because I am of the generation of grandchildren. But, you only have to watch my uncles when they see Imelda on TV or the broadsheets, and you'd know the hurt is deep. They almost would want to throw a shoe at the TV set. Half of the clan went to the US with nothing in the aftermath; some living in mobile homes, scraping the bottom for years before things got better. One of my uncles, the president of the company, contemplated suicide; the other, trying to find a professional hitman with his last bottom pesos to do FM in. Luckily, he didn't find his hitman.

We are also acquainted with two families, as the fathers were employees of the company, who had sons, one each, who can be counted among the deparacidos. One mother just spent all her savings going around the country pursuing leads in search of her son. When she ran out of money, she borrowed heavily. She died heavily in debt and totally heartbroken, if not almost insane. Yes, we can't blame FM directly for this. There were Palparans then like General Ver, Kabise of Metrocom, the boss of the young Ping Lacson, Berroya, Catapang, etc, who might have been overzealous in following FM and overdone things.

Yes, I am trying to think of this objectively even if I will also admit that I have this subconscious aversion to the name Marcos. So, I don't know if I can be believed if I say I have been trying to get hold of that privilege speech of Bonget re BBL that they claim was fantastic and brilliant, worthy of a senator in the traditional sense when Congress was still occupied by giants in statesmanship. I could believe it for his father was without doubt an oratorical genius who mesmerized the English speaking world. Unfortunately, it was a speech that didn't get headlines as it was eclipsed by the interest of media re the foundling issues re Grace Poe.

The point is: if I have this, which I hope is an understandable, aversion to Marcos, I feel this unexplainable hatred now for the Aquinos, specifically PNoy. Although I didn't vote for PNoy, for I voted Gibo, I must admit I kept some kind of a yearning inside that I hope he would succeed if only to prove the Marcoses were totally wrong. Maybe, if PNoy succeeded, then the Marcoses might be urged to apologize to those they have wronged — actually that is all we want to hear from the Marcoses, any one of them.

But alas, PNoy has proven to be a total disaster. What makes matter worse is that he is demonstrating this mentality that PHL owes the Aquinos. Since when did Ninoy and Cory demand payment for their sacrifices? — they didn't, because they knew they were also acting in their self interest — PHL's needs then just happen to coincide with that self interest. So, how can PNoy act like he owns PHL? That is worse than the Marcos mentality. At least, the Marcoses had a dream of a "Nation Great Again". In the process, they incurred collateral damages, and my family happen to be one of them, but I can also see in retrospect there was nothing personal about it. PNoy, on the other hand, has no dream except for an entitlement to the presidency. As far as I am concerned that is double betrayal, he failed a worthy cause and he degraded the presidency. Maybe it is triple betrayal, he also failed on all his promises. All in all, he miserably squandered a golden opportunity. Of course, he is full of shit and hypocrisy, for that is the traitor's character. His loyalty is to himself alone. Outside of that, he can drop anybody like a hot potato. Look at what he did to Purisima and Napeñas.. His is a mind of a pure utilitarian, undiluted. Bonget has now put him to shame, instead of the other way around, if you got the drift of what I have been saying.

Yes, I will agree with you, Benign0, that we should judge our politicians by their accomplishments, their demonstrated ability to perform and deliver. And, that will have to include Bonget Marcos, despite what I feel subconsciously. (From a practical point anyway, Bonget seems more qualified than Grace Poe, Duterte, and Mar Roxas combined.)

Yes, let bygones be bygones.

The only thing I don't understand is what has Catholicism got to do with this. As far as I can remember, my family in general have long forgiven the Marcoses, i.e., especially after things got better for us. I will of course count a couple of exceptions, but these are older family members, the emotional ones. But I know we have forgiven, because we could even now laugh a lot about the past in family get- togethers. I don't think we can be that forgiving if we were not a Catholic family. Lee Kwan Yew, in fact, said that this is the problem of PHL, we easily forgive and have short memories. His is the other way around of what you are saying.

Be that as it may, I will repeat, let bygones be bygones. History is interesting for its twists. We still don't know if ours will be a farce, tragedy, comedy, a saga of resurrection and reconciliations, or just plain politics at its worst, or at its best. Maybe, it is time to be surprised after a pathetic six-year by 2016. Let us allow the mind to over-rule the heart.

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http://getrealphilippines.com/blog/2015/06/newsflash-bongbong-marcos-is-a-philippine-senator/#comment-1174485