by MLC | May 6, 2016 | Martial Law Stories
Source: Rappler.com
The Presidential Commission on Good Government publishes an album of jewels owned by Imelda Marcos and lists the social services that they could have afforded to serve the public instead
MANILA, Philippines – What is the value of a ruby that was once owned by Imelda Marcos? Approximately 52,000 textbooks, according to the anti-corruption agency Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).
The PCGG recently published a photo album of Imelda’s jewels, a part of a collection sequestered by government because the wife of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos purchased them using ill-gotten wealth.
The photos showed equivalent social services that the money paid for the jewels could have purchased to serve the public instead. A 25-30 carat heart-shaped cabochon ruby could pay for 52,631 grade 11 and 12 textbooks, according to PCGG estimates.
These books are in short supply in remote parts of the Philippines. Last year, a call was put out to donate textbooks to Mindanao State University after a Facebook post suggested biology and agronomy were being taught with 1950s textbooks.
A black sapphire brooch, a ring, and earrings that were set in white gold were estimated to be worth the equivalent of 12,400 seedlings for forestry projects.
A set of antique diamond, sapphire and ruby bracelet, pendant, and earrings mounted in silver and gold were also estimated to be worth the full immunization of 20,000 children and pay for the purchase of 17,600 pneumococcal vaccines to senior citizens and infants, according to PCGG.
Pneumonia is the second leading cause of infant mortality accounting for 2,628 deaths, according to Philippines Health statistics. Among adults, it is the fourth highest cause of death according to the Department of Health.
There is also a campaign underway to reduce the cost of the vaccine from $45 to $5 which could make Imelda’s jewels’ value stretch even further.
The collection also includes a cabochon ruby oval and diamond brooch that the PCGG said could “support 1,726 agrarian reform beneficiaries by building farming capacities, providing access to services, and developing enterprises.”
A diamond and pearl tiara also holds enough value to house 1,200 homeless. It is estimated that a quarter of Metro Manila residents are homeless, according to 2014 figures.
The jewels were recovered from the Marcoses in 1986 after the popular People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos administration. Their combined value has been estimated at P1 billion (USD21 million).
The posts came at a time when surveys show that Imelda’s son, vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, is in a statistical tie with Liberal Party candidate Leni Robredo.
Critics hit the timing of the release of photos, saying the PCGG is playing politics during the campaign season.
The PCCG, in a Facebook post said, “Our inventory and caravans have always been done annually but sadly, it is only now that the activities of the Commission are getting attention from the public. It is good that the public is becoming aware now because of this unexpected media mileage.” – Rappler.com
by MLC | Apr 26, 2016 | Martial Law Stories
By: Jene-Anne Pangue
Source: Rappler.com
Former first lady Imelda Marcos says her son, vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, will be the voice of the ‘long abandoned’ region in the national government
WARAYNONS. The Marcoses and the Romualdezes join forces in a campaign rally on April 25, 2016 in Balyuan, Tacloban City. Photo by Jene Anne Pangue/Rappler.com
LEYTE, Philippines – Former first lady Imelda Marcos on Monday, April 25, slammed “government neglect” for Eastern Visayas as she sought to convince voters in the region to support the vice presidential bid of her son, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The Ilocos Norte Second District Representative, who hails from Tacloban, made the pitch at a campaign rally in Balyuan along Magsaysay Boulevard.
“Aadi ako para mangampanya ha iyo ky an Region VIII maiha na nga gnabandona han gobyerno. Kinahanglan magkamay-ada kita hin magrerepresenta ha aton rehiyon,” Marcos said amid cheers.
(I am here to campaign for you because Region VIII has long been abandoned by the government. Thus, we need to have a representative from the region.)
She expressed hoped that her son would get a “solid vote” in Leyte and Samar, just as he is expected to get the same support in the Ilocos region, as she promised that his vice presidency would make the Philippines “great again.”
“Bongbong is an Ilocano by birth but also a Waray-Waray because he gave his heart to the Taclobanons,” she said, and recalled the achievements of her late husband, dictator Ferdinand Marcos, in Leyte and Samar.
Marcos claimed that the government has long abandoned the Eastern Visayas region. Her son, she said, would give the region a voice in the national government.
In November 2013, Eastern Visayas bore the brunt of Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), the strongest typhoon to ever make landfall, which tested the Aquino administration‘s disaster-response capability. More than 7 million individuals were affected by the typhoon, majority hailing from Eastern and Western Visayas.
Administration standard-bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, who was interior secretary at the time, was slammed by critics for his supposed missteps in responding to the massive devastations post-Yolanda. But last week, Leyte Representative Martin Romualdez acknowleged that Roxas had “risked his life” to save people during Yolanda. (READ: As Roxas campaigns in Leyte, Martin Romualdez makes amends)
Romualdez, a senatorial candidate, is the nephew of Marcos, and a cousin of Leyte Mayor Alfred Romualdez, who had a run-in with Roxas after the local official claimed that the latter had politicized government relief efforts in his province.
Vote for Marcoses, Romualdezes
At the campaign rally of her son, Marcos also pushed for the candidacies of her other relatives vying for local and national positions.
She assured the crowd that if they vote for the Marcoses and the Romualdezes, the latter will have a nanay (mother) who will support them along the way, a fellow Waray like them.
She also encouraged them to vote for leaders who love, care, and serve the people, especially those who will never leave them in times of need.
Marcos said she was campaigning in behalf of her fellow Warays, describing them as “the most beautiful people in the world.”
She then cited herself as an example of Waray beauty who, at age 86, still looked like a teenager, and always strived to make herself look beautiful.
Joining her on stage were her son, Representative Romualdez, Councilor Cristina Gonzales-Romualdez who is running for Tacloban mayor, Yedda Romualdez who is running for Leyte first district representative, Mayor Romualdez and former Tacloban Mayor Alfredo “Bejo” Romualdez.
Tacloban City is a political bailiwick of the Marcoses and the Romualdezes. There are 2.6 million voters in Eastern Visayas. – with reports from Chris Billes/Rappler.com
by MLC | Apr 24, 2016 | Martial Law Stories
By: Patty Pasion
Source: Rappler.com
Mar Roxas is asked if he would give a Cabinet position to Bongbong Marcos if the latter wins as vice president
SHE’S BACK. Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago during the 3rd Presidential debate at the PHINMA University of Pangasinan in Dagupan City on April 24. Photo from the Manila Bulletin
MANILA, Philippines – Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago said on Sunday, April 24, that when elected, she would call a referendum to answer the age-old question: should the late President Ferdinand Marcos be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery)?
Santiago is the standard-bearer of Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late strongman. What she said was a little different from her statement last year that she was not against the burial of Marcos’ remains at the Libingan.
Other candidates “close” to Marcos Jr was also asked of their position on giving Marcos a heroes’ burial.
Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, a friend of Senator Marcos, went straight to the point and said he would allow it.
“Yes, definitely, yes, because it has divided the country until now. Almost all Ilocanos are mad why it has not happened yet,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.
On the other hand, Senator Grace Poe said that she would follow Republic Act 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013.
“’Yung batas ay nagsasabing hindi p’wede. RA 10368 na nagsasabi na kilalanin ang mga nagsakripisyo nung panahon niya,” she said referring to victims of human rights violations during the martial rule.
(The law states that it is not allowed. RA 10368 says that we should honor those who sacrificed during his time.)
Poe is the adopted daughter of celebrity power couple Fernando Poe Jr and Susan Roces. The late President Marcos and wife former First Lady Imelda Marcos were their principal sponsors during their wedding.
Roxas ok with Marcos as VP
Meanwhile, Aquino ally and Liberal Party standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II was asked if he would give Marcos Jr a Cabinet position should the latter get elected as vice president.
Roxas said, yes, noting that only if the senator wins. “Naniniwala ako na ang mananalo si Leni Robredo,” he said, referring to his running mate. (I believe that Leni Robredo will win.)
Marcos is the leading candidate for vice president, based on pre-election surveys. Robredo is close second, tied with Senator Francis Escudero. – Rappler.com
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by MLC | Apr 15, 2016 | Martial Law Stories
Source: Rappler.com
This is to cover the $1.966 billion awarded to them by a US jury in 1992, and the $353-million compensatory judgment by the US District Court of Hawaii in 2011
MANILA, Philippines – Victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime have asked the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan to forfeit in their favor part of the Marcos family’s art collection.
This is to cover the $1.966 billion awarded to them by a United States jury in 1992, and the $353-million compensatory judgment by the US District Court of Hawaii in 2011, they told the court.
The 1992 ruling was based on a finding that the Marcos regime “committed torture, summary execution, and forced disappearances” against the 9,539 petitioners.
The 2011 ruling was a penalty accompanying a contempt ruling against former First Lady Imelda Marcos and her son Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr for “contumacious conduct” for violating an injunction that barred them from dissipating assets of the Marcos estate. (READ: Marcos Jr barred return of stolen P1.9B – PCGG)
The Marcos widow is now Ilocos Norte Representative while her son is running for vice president in the May 9 elections. (READ: The Scrum: Why Bongbong Marcos might win as VP)
In their Motion for Intervention and Complaint-in-Intervention filed with the Sandiganbayan’s Special Division on April 11, intervenors Zenaida S. Mique and Hilda B. Narciso said they are representing the victims of human rights violations that won the original class suit against the Marcoses in Hawaii.
They clarified that the intervention is limited to the claim of the government over the same art collection covered by the Motion for Partial Summary Judgment filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) on on February 24, 2016.
The group informed the Sandiganbayan that the Philippine government has already waived its sovereign immunity and submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the US Federal Court in New York City in May 2014 concerning a separate lawsuit. This is to recover some 200 pieces of paintings and other artworks allegedly purchased with public funds between the 1970s to the 1980s.
This means that the government removed a legal obstacle to enable human rights victims to collect compensation in the event that the US court ruled in their favor, and against the Philippine government and the Marcoses who are also claimants to the art collection.
According to the group, the District Attorney of New York has already seized two paintings purchased by Mrs Marcos and another $15 million proceeds from the sale of another painting recovered from the position of Vilma Bautista, a former aide of Mrs Marcos.
“The New York Country Supreme Court ruled the seized property was in custodial egis. The 150 pieces of artworks are virtually all included in the list identified in the 2012 case against Bautista. Herein intervenors have a legal interest in the subject matter of the (government’s) Motion for Partial Summary Judgment,” the human victims rights said.
They added that such interest would be adversely affected if the court should grant the government’s petition and forfeit the Marcos art collection in favor of the state.
This is because under Republic Act 6657 or the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law, all proceeds of recovered ill-gotten wealth the Marcoses and their associates must be remitted to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. – Rappler.com
by MLC | Mar 30, 2016 | Martial Law Stories
By: Bea Orante
Source: Rappler.com
‘Martial Law did not result in real peace. Instead, it fomented greater social unrest and promoted a culture of violence throughout the country.’
DENOUNCING ABUSES. Members of the Miriam College community slam Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr for defending his father’s regime and refusing to apologize for the abuses perpetrated at the time. Photo by Jasmin Dulay/Rappler
MANILA, Philippines – Concerned teachers and students of Miriam College (MC) joined the Ateneo community and other Catholic schools in deploring vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr for defending his father’s regime.
“We denounce the Marcos campaign’s characterization of the dictatorship of former President Marcos as an era of ‘discipline’. We reject the suggestion that this kind of ‘discipline’ was, and still is, a necessary step toward obtaining peace and prosperity,” they said in a statement circulating online.
“It is an affront to the thousands of Filipinos who were systematically harassed, arrested, tortured, and summarily executed by state agents,” concerned members of the community added. (READ: #NeverAgain: Martial Law stories young people need to hear)
They also refuted “all claims that the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos was a time of peace and economic prosperity,” saying that the administration’s projects were marred by corruption and “bankrolled by ever-increasing amounts of public debt.” (READ: Marcos years marked ‘golden age’ of PH economy? Look at the data)
For them, “true peace and lasting development” can only be attained through “people’s participation in governance at all levels” and not through repressive means.
They affirmed their commitment to “democratic ideals and institutions – institutions that guarantee every citizen’s right to participate in governance, and to demand transparency and accountability from government.”
Keeping the conversation alive
With many of today’s martial law supporters being young, how do college professors, especially those teaching History, feel about the positive view of martial law that is spreading online?
Christine Lao, who teaches in the MC’s International Studies Department, and many of her colleagues noted how many students learned of martial law on social media.
“We shouldn’t be angry at the youth,” Lao said. Educators should instead “expose them to how things were,” she explained.
This means opening the conversation and keeping it alive — and educators have to start it. Lao said MC professors gave out movies about martial law and encouraged students to have open conversations with their parents about the period.
“They would not have the conversation if we had not started it or given them the material,” she said.
Sisters on the streets
Miriam College rejected Bongbong Marcos’ version of his father’s administration, saying, it “does not square” with their “personal and institutional experiences of life under the Marcos regime.” (READ: ‘Bongbong Marcos knows what to apologize for’)
Members of the school, including the Maryknoll sisters, joined the protests against the regime, “documented cases of arrests and torture, and cared for activists.”
One of them, Sr Helen Graham is one of the founders of Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, which began when one of her students was taken. She was able to find the bus with the detainees and was allowed to enter.
While inside the bus, she was able to record the detainees’ names and contact details, which she used to help families contact their missing loved ones.
According to the statement, protesters from the school were arrested and were witnesses to the brutality against dissenters.
The community said: “Martial Law did not result in real peace. Instead, it fomented greater social unrest and promoted a culture of violence throughout the country.”
Like the Maryknoll sisters, other prominent Catholic leaders and institutions were key to the downfall of Marcos.
Jaime Cardinal Sin, who was the Archbishop of Manila at the time, prompted the February 25 protests with his announcement over Radio Veritas.
Catholic educators were also prominent protesters at the time. Aside from the Maryknoll sisters, the Benedictine sisters were also part of EDSA I while the Jesuits belonged to a movement to protect ballots during the snap elections of 1986.
Their efforts, along with thousands of others Filipinos, toppled the regime. However, 30 years later, the Marcoses still firmly hold on to power.
The MC community ended the statement by calling on Filipinos to never “allow a Marcos in our government.” However, the Pulse Asia survey conducted from March 8 to 13 and released on March 22 showed Bongbong Marcos was the frontrunner for the vice presidential race, getting 25% of the vote.
Senator Marcos’ closest rival, Senator Francis Escudero, received 24%, while administration bet Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo got 20% of the respondents. Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV, and Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan II, the United Nationalist Alliance bet, received 13%, 6%, and 5%, respectively. – Rappler.com
by MLC | Mar 28, 2016 | Martial Law Stories
By: Agence France-Presse
Source: Rappler.com
Aside from pictures of the jewels uploaded regularly, there are postings explaining what the jewels cost the country
FOR AUCTION. A Filipino employee displays a necklace seized three decades ago from Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady of the Philippines, during an appraisal at the Central Bank of the Philippines in Manila, Philippines, 27 November 2015. File Photo by Francis R. Malasig / EPA
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine authorities are staging an online exhibition of jewelry owned by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his family to try to educate a new generation about the corruption of that era.
The postings on Facebook and Twitter by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) come as the family tries to extend its political comeback in elections in May.
“The PCGG will be posting selected jewelry items to show and remind the present generation of the excesses and extravagance of the Marcoses in their two-decade dictatorship,” the anti-corruption agency said on its website.
“The Virtual Jewelry Exhibit” began in mid-March with regular postings showcasing valuables recovered after the dictator was ousted by a military-backed popular uprising in 1986.
Aside from pictures of the jewels uploaded regularly, there are postings explaining what they cost the country.
A picture of a diamond tiara comes with the caption: “can fund… the treatment of 12,052 cases of tuberculosis.”
The PCGG, which plans eventually to auction off the Marcos jewels, has previously said that international auction houses have appraised their total value at more than a billion pesos ($21 million).
Marcos and his jet-setting wife Imelda were accused of massively enriching themselves during their years in power while the country sank deeper into poverty.
Imelda was known for her extravagance, amassing jewelry, art masterpieces and a huge collection of shoes.
Although the family fled abroad during the 1986 revolt, they were allowed to return home after the former dictator died in exile in 1989.
Since then the Marcoses have made a startling resurgence, with members not only evading criminal charges but winning elections to prominent positions.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr., previously elected to the powerful Senate, is now running for vice-president. Widow Imelda Marcos is seeking re-election to Congress and her eldest daughter Imee is running for another term as governor of the family bailiwick in the north.
Despite a campaign by victims of the Marcos regime against his candidacy, surveys show Marcos Jr. is second in the race for the vice-presidency.
Imelda Marcos has previously said she hopes her son will eventually become president.
Critics say the generation that grew up after the Marcos years has no memory of the abuses, setting the stage for the family’s return to power.
Both Imelda and her son have long denied any wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the two could not be contacted for comment. – Rappler.com
