It’s ironic that both the frontrunner and second placer in the presidential race (at least according to the surveys) are harping on unity in case they win.
The reality is that the two candidates are leading forces that are on opposite poles. And some quarters fear that the polarizing impact of the victory of either aspirant can lead to prolonged social and political destabilization that can complicate the country’s recovery from the pandemic.
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno has received flak for openly saying that Philippine politics has been dominated for far too long by forces aligned with the Marcoses and Aquinos, and that it’s time for the nation to move beyond this family feud.
The observation is of course meant to boost Moreno’s aspiration for the presidency, but it’s true that the battle between the Marcoses and the pro-Aquino forces continues to rage.
Moving on has been difficult because there is still no closure on the abuses of the Marcos dictatorship: no one has gone to prison for the illegal arrest and detention, torture, summary executions and enforced disappearances.
Instead of an admission of guilt or apology from any member of the clan, Imelda Marcos is holding on to her family’s mind-boggling collection of priceless art, jewelry and cash that could probably pay for the trillions in debt accumulated by the Duterte administration for the pandemic response.
Billions in illegally amassed assets have been recovered; those tasked with the pursuit estimate that these constitute only about half of the stolen wealth. But no one has gone to prison for the grand-scale thievery.
And whose fault is this? Former defense secretary Gilberto Eduardo Gerardo Cojuangco Teodoro Jr. shot back this question when we asked him on One News’ “The Chiefs” last week for comment on the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth.
It’s been 36 years, Gibo Teodoro told us, and yet a succession of administrations has failed to secure a conviction. Teodoro, a nephew of business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. and cousin of Noynoy Aquino, told us that he was part of the Marcos defense team led by Estelito Mendoza in one of the cases.
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It’s just like the assassination of Ninoy Aquino; the pawns went to prison and have since been freed, but the mastermind has never been officially identified.
One of those convicted and freed, M/Sgt. Pablo Martinez, provided leads that he said could pin down the mastermind. While still in prison, he had talked of a Marcos crony as the brains.
One morning in May 2014, as Martinez was cycling on his mountain bike along Roxas Boulevard, he was sideswiped by a black Mitsubishi Montero driven by Philippine Airlines employee Henry Roque. Reports said that as Martinez was thrown off his bike, the Montero did not stop but instead rolled over him. Martinez died of fractured ribs the next day in a hospital.
Roque, age 29 at the time, reportedly settled the case. It must have been a persuasive amount; Martinez’s family said they accepted the settlement and did not press charges because they didn’t have the money for litigation. The police ruled the death as an accident.
Gibo Teodoro, who is part of Bongbong Marcos-Sara Duterte’s Senate slate, told us that people are tired of the issues raised against his standard bearer. The survey results so far tend to bear this out.
Mayor Isko has a similar message, although used in a different context: he says it’s time for Filipinos to pick a leader who’s not identified with either the Marcos or Aquino forces. “Yorme” has said victory for either group would only lead to a continuing cycle of vindictive acts against the other.
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Moreno isn’t the only one pitching this political middle ground in the 2022 race. Sen. Panfilo Lacson and even Sen. Manny Pacquiao have positioned themselves in the middle, neither fully pro- or anti-Duterte, and unaligned with the families that have dominated Philippine politics for the past half-century.
Over the weekend, Moreno created a stir after President Duterte’s former agrarian reform chief, John Castriciones, and his volunteer group called the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte National Executive Coordinating Committee released a formal manifesto of support for Moreno’s presidential bid.
Castriciones, a Senate candidate of the PDP-Laban wing led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, raised the possibility that Moreno might get his wish for President Duterte’s endorsement or the party’s support.
Cusi declined to comment, but intriguingly did not give an outright no. As of the weekend, the word from Malacañang was that Duterte was still not endorsing a successor. But his PDP-Laban wing said it would support a candidate who would continue Duterte’s priority programs including the war on drugs.
Duterte had reportedly fumed that his daughter Inday Sara had listened to Marcos instead of her father and agreed to slide down to the VP race, when she had been the consistent frontrunner in the presidential surveys before the filing of candidacies.
The President has called Bongbong Marcos “weak” unlike Ferdinand Senior, and issued a thinly veiled allusion that the candidate is a cocaine user.
If the President, with his still high ratings, does endorse a successor other than Marcos, the two candidates who could most likely carry out what he might envision for a post-Duterte administration would be Moreno or Lacson. If either one wins with Duterte’s backing, it won’t give closure to the crimes of the dictatorship, and without justice or accountability, it’s not exactly moving on. But certain quarters believe it might allow the country to move beyond the feuding Aquino-Marcos forces, and it could be healthier for the nation.
This week the nation remembers the 36th year since the people power revolt that drove the dictator into exile. It truly is an unfinished revolution, and the side that fled in 1986 has not stopped fighting back.
Today being tagged as a crony of dictator Ferdinand Marcos might even be touted as a badge of honor.
It speaks volumes about institutional failure that the dictator’s only son and namesake looks poised to retake Malacañang.