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BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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Friday, October 27, 2017
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SINCE day one that Rodrigo Duterte was elected President of the Republic, the battle cry of the “sore losers” aka “devotees to the cult of the yellow ribbon” is that President Rodrigo Duterte is the reincarnation of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.
For these “devotees to the cult of the yellow ribbon” now known as the “shabu white-clad” members of Tindig Pilipinas, it has always been the classic fight between “good and evil”; them of course, yes, you guess it right, the “good” while Marcos, and now Duterte, “evil.”
How can they be “evil” when their spiritual leaders and inspiration are the corpses of the “slain martyr” Ninoy and “sainthood interrupted” Cory who were both infallible? If you recall, Cory became President because Ninoy was assassinated and their son Noynoy became President because Cory died of colon cancer.
For them to be relevant, these “devotees to the cult of the yellow ribbon” need a bogeyman. During the time of Cory it was Marcos and in Noynoy’s watch it was former President Gloria Arroyo.
Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for them, Mar “Daang Matuwid” Roxas lost to Rodrigo Duterte despite the massive votes from his bailiwick, the Precinct Count Optical Scanners or PCOS machines.
So now they need to bring Duterte down so that the “new Cory”, that “barefoot Lady from Naga” Leni Robredo who managed to sneak in as Vice President courtesy of Mar “Daang Matuwid Roxas’ bailiwick, becomes President.
And what better way to do this than to use the tried and tested playbook of painting Duterte as “evil”, make him the reincarnation of that “evil” personified Ferdinand Marcos with the hope that it will outrage the natives and force Duterte down.
So far everything seems to backfire to them considering the fact that these “devotees to the cult of the yellow ribbon” have almost zero credibility.
Anyway, to make it more interesting let’s see if we can indeed compare Marcos to Duterte and find out if they’re twins separated at birth as what these “devotees to the cult of the yellow ribbon” are shouting.
For starters, both belong to the male specie, both have this reputation as a “ladies man” and almost all their offspring are in the “family business” which is politics, of course.
Marcos placed the entire country under martial law with Proclamation 1081 on Sept. 21, 1972 and lifted it on Jan. 17, 1981 while Duterte placed the entire island of Mindanao under martial law with Proclamation 216 last May 23, 2017 and is still in effect today.
Marcos and Duterte do not have exclusive bragging rights as the Presidents in the modern era that declared martial law, as former President Gloria Arroyo also did it through Proclamation 1959 placing the province of Maguindanao under martial law on Dec. 4, 2009 which was lifted on Dec. 13, 2009.
To say that both Duterte and Marcos are strongmen moi disagrees, Duterte yes but Marcos not really.
When Marcos declared martial law, moi was a college freshman and saw, not to mention experienced, all the abuses of the Philippine Constabulary or PC as they were the main implementers of martial law.
Here are some samples:
During the first months of martial law as soon as the schools were opened, the PC went to all schools and required all male students to have short hair. One inch above the collar was the standard; having long hair was not allowed. All female students are required to wear skirts just two inches above the knee, miniskirts are not allowed; failure to comply means you’ll be arrested.
All radio stations were forbidden to play rock music and the Japanese cartoon show Voltes V was banned from television.
Please tell me what has all this got to do with “rebellion, insurrection, subversion and imminent danger” to the republic which were the reasons martial law was declared?
On top of all these the general mode of the country was fear as anytime you could be arrested by the Philippine Constabulary.
What was worst was that all these PC constables acted with impunity as if they were the lords of the country.
Let’s not forget all the desaparacidos, the tortures, etc., all courtesy of your “friendly neighborhood” Philippine Constabulary.
And Marcos was particularly allergic to dissent.
All these abuses were happening right under the very noses of Marcos and not a word from him just to discipline his people.
And you know who was the Chief of the Philippine Constabulary? None other than Fidel Ramos who later on also became President.
Marcos liked to fancy himself as a strong leader with his booming voice and speeches when in reality he was not. He had no control of martial law; it was former Defense chief Juan Ponce Enrile and PC chief Fidel Ramos and the cronies running the show.
Marcos was just all form but really no substance. At the end of the day his soldiers didn’t even defend him as the hordes ransacked Malacañang. He left broken and defeated, so much for being a strong man.
Flash forward to present time, when the ISIS/Maute invaded Marawi, President Duterte declared martial law throughout the entire island of Mindanao. The general feeling, particularly the natives in Mindanao, was a sigh of relief. To say that they welcomed it was an understatement.
The entire time war was raging in Marawi till the final victory, there was not a single report/complaint about human rights abuses, a far cry from the Marcos’ martial law when human rights abuse was the norm.
President Rodrigo Duterte welcomes dissent; in fact he encourages it as long as you don’t break the law.
The irony of it all is that there is now a growing clamor by the natives to declare a revolutionary government to give way for genuine reforms and to free the country from the oligarchs. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
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