#NeverForget, #NeverAgain

Forty-nine years have passed since the dictator Marcos declared Martial Law in 1972. He was toppled from power in 1986.

Once more, all Filipinos are reminded to #NeverForget and to #NeverAgain allow such dictatorship in this country.

What should all Filipinos remember always?

One, the thousands/more victims under Marcos regime.

For speaking out openly against the dictator and/or his family members, Amnesty International estimated about 70,000 people imprisoned and 34,000 tortured.

The Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act noted more than 11,000 victims of summary execution, torture, enforced or involuntary disappearance and other human rights violations.

Freedom of speech, assembly, even of movement were curtailed and punished.

Many family members, close friends, classmates, colleagues were falsely accused, unjustly imprisoned, and worse, killed during the Marcos dictatorship.

Until now, victims and the families of the dead and missing victims are still crying out for justice!

What else should we remember?

Second, the plunder of our nation’s coffers.

According to data from the World Bank-United Nations, “Marcos started amassing an estimated $5-billion to $10-billion in ill-gotten wealth from 1965 to 1986.”

UP Professor Eduardo Tadem (2018) explains more about the Marcos Debt at https://www.cadtm.org/Philippines-The-Marcos-debt/.

“In the 1970s. Marcos took out huge amounts of foreign currency loans that by the 1980s his regime could not repay.

By then the economy was in a free fall: GDP growth dropped 5.3 percent, prices of primary export commodities fell by 50 percent, workers’ wages were reduced, and unemployment hit one-fourth of the labor force.

The crisis worsened with the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in August 1983

Cronyism became more rampant as Marcos prioritized the bailout of companies owned by his friends and close business associates.

The Freedom from Debt Coalition cited the proliferation of behest loans with government guaranteeing the procurement of borrowed capital without complying with banking rules and procedures.

The most notorious case was the $2-billion Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, completed in 1985 and total repayments, which ended only in 2007, at $22 billion, with a debt service of $140 million a year, $12 million a month, and $388,000 a day.

Ibon Databank reported that the Philippine debt in 1983 comprised 91 percent of GNP and 509 percent of export earnings.

When Marcos became president in 1965, the total debt was $600 million; by the time he was ousted in 1986, it had ballooned to $26 billion—a 4300-percent rise.”

Of interest, Tadem added: “in April 1986 COA “accused Marcos of diverting US aid funds, particularly the interest earnings of P236 million from the Economic Support Fund (ESF) illegally disbursed and classified as “confidential fund” via a Malacañang memorandum. The COA also reported the “irregular and illegal” diversion of P35 million to the “confidential fund” of the ESF Council headed by Imelda Marcos.”

The UP School of Economics student council debunked the so-called Marcos golden era by sharing:

Fact 1. “The $1/P2 exchange rate, was recorded during the 1950s– years before Marcos stepped in.

Fact 2. “The peso devalued from P3.9/$1 in 1965 to P20.53/$1 in 1986, at the end of the Marcos regime due to country’s debt crisis.”

In May 1986, the UP School of Economics reported:

“The foreign debt incurred by the old regime is one of the biggest obstacles to Philippine economic recovery, with the Philippines one of the world’s most heavily indebted countries: seventh in size of debt, sixth in debt to exports ratio, fourth in debt to GDP ratio, and ninth in debt service ratio.”

More importantly, through the years, Filipinos of all generations should

#NEVERFORGET --   to reject the dictator’s family’s continuing lies, denial/evasion of court-proven charges, lack of remorse/refusal to return stolen public funds, and,  to #NEVERAGAIN -- allow any Marcos or other dictator ever!