Private lives, public lives

Recently I watched in Netflix “The Last Czar.” (I’m still watching “Roman Empire.”) These are stories in different times and places. So are the personalities but it is interesting that these have the same theme. Private lives with traumatic incidents that shaped a person who becomes rich and powerful.

Closer to home is the Untold Story of Imelda Marcos, once First Lady of the Philippines. When she became a public figure, close relatives and friends were told “they were not to speak about her past as a poor girl in the province of Leyte.”

When I read from my colleague Danton Remoto’s column that there was a premier showing of “The Kingmaker,” a documentary by Lauren Greenfield, it was time to say my own piece. My family and I went on exile for 20 years when friends said our names were in the arrest list. The young generation may have forgotten how the story of Imelda was written in the first place.

A documentary “Imelda and Me” was also made by Veronica Pedrosa (she writes every Saturday in the From a Distance column) eight years ago for Al-Jazeera and can be seen in YouTube which tells the full story of the abuses in the Marcos regime. So Lauren Greenfield’s “The Kingmaker” is nothing new.

I join the voices against the abuses of the Marcos regime and suffered for it.

While many see only the excesses of Imelda’s public persona they were unaware of the devil, a past she wanted to forget that haunted her.  Her untold story was the driving force of her public life. Her wish to forget that past drove her to overcompensate for the poverty and the rich Romualdezes that she had suffered.

In time that past would become an obsession.  Only a few knew of her sad childhood in tragic circumstances because of a broken marriage that led to her to grow up in a garage. The few would not tell the story nor did they understand the effects it would have on her when she became a wealthy and powerful First Lady. The story begins from the most sensitive first ten years of her life.

Back to the Greenfield “The Kingmaker.” The documentary links the Marcos family to the presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte, now the President of the Philippines. “They financed his campaign; he allowed them to bury the dead dictator at the Heroes’ Cemetery when he won. It’s a deadly tit-for-tat, a dance of the macabre: it’s a history drenched in blood.“

But if this is an attempt to destroy Duterte through this documentary it is unjustified. I was a victim of the Imelda and Ferdinand regime but I am for Duterte.

He did say that he will use the strongest tools to impose law and order and counter security threats.

We need a strong man to rule this ungovernable country. Moreover he speaks in a language the masses understand.  “He is one of us.”

“If I cannot do miracles for this country, then I will just say that, you know, let us just respect each other... Huwag ninyong sobrahan (Don’t go too far). Do not force me to do something,” he added.

He cited the urban poor group Kadamay’s occupation of Bulacan houses intended for soldiers and the supposed takeover of land in Sagay, Negros Occidental that resulted in the death of nine farmers.

“From now on, there will be no confiscation of other people’s or somebody else’s property. Do not do that because you are sowing anarchy,” he added.

“Jose Ma. Sison, give me a good reason to go back to the bargaining table. If there is none or if it’s just a repeat of what we have discussed earlier, then that will not suffice,” he said.

I think the badmouthing of parts of the Western press against Duterte started when he declared that from here on the Philippines will have an independent foreign policy from the US, its former colonizer. The Philippines will be friend to everyone.  He said it in his first visit to China after he won the 2016 elections. The crowd, mostly Filipinos, applauded enthusiastically.

The question was addressed by Quora, a website for debate. It was an appropriate question to Filipinos, both to those who actively campaigned for him and those who sided with the Liberal party’s candidate Mar Roxas who was roundly defeated. The score: Rodrigo Duterte PDP-Laban 15,970,01838. (6%) Manuel Roxas Liberal Party 9,700,38223. (4%).

Duterte also threatened to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States if Washington does not reverse cancellation of Senator Bato’s visa.

Tit for tat. He would also prohibit US lawmakers from entering the Philippines who voted in favor of a Senate committee report which seeks to ban foreign officials involved in the “wrongful imprisonment” of opposition Senator Leila De Lima.

The 1998 VFA is the first of two agreements between Washington and Manila about the treatment of their troops when they are in the US or the Philippines.

The VFA can be terminated by either the Philippines or the US by writing to the other party that they want to end the agreement.

The roads he built, his peace and order program, his campaign against drugs and government aid for victims of disasters spring from a strong character that is unfazed by power or wealth.

His legacy to his people is to have  the will to fight and win true independence.

Of 1,200 Filipino adults, 82 percent told SWS they were satisfied with Duterte’s performance as chief executive, while 10 percent were dissatisfied and 8 percent were undecided.

Duterte’s net satisfaction reached a new record +66 in December 2019 in Balance Luzon, up by 12 points from +54 in the previous quarter.

It also stayed “excellent” in both the Visayas and Mindanao, increasing by 4 points in the Visayas from +75 to +79, and by 5 points in Mindanao, from +76 to +81 in December.

Not bad for a leader…err – a king.