Marcos plundered to 'protect' the economy? Makes no economic sense
Let’s not sugarcoat it: what the Marcoses did was quite possibly the biggest presidential plunder in historyJC Punongbayan
Published 11:00 AM, September 11, 2017
Updated 11:47 AM, September 11, 2017
Two weeks before Ferdinand Marcos’ hundredth birth anniversary, President Rodrigo Duterte revived public discussions about the Marcoses’ wealth.
In a speech before new appointees, the President said that a “spokesman†of the Marcoses intimated they might soon “return†some of their wealth – including “a few gold bars†– to help the government tide over its larger budget deficit this year.
But what struck me the most was the claim that President Marcos “hid†the money to “protect the economy.†The President said he accepted this explanation by the spokesman.
This statement is wrong on two accounts: First, the Marcoses did not “hide†money; they plundered from the Filipino people. Second, plundering to “protect†the economy makes no economic sense at all.
In the early 1980s the country was gripped by a severe debt crisis where we direly needed funds to repay our oversized debts. Offshoring vast sums of money in these circumstances did not “protect†the economy. In fact, it exacerbated capital flight and helped bring about the country’s deepest postwar recession.
I’ve written about the Marcosian economy before (READ: Marcos years marked ‘golden age’ of the PH economy? Look at the data). But in this article I take a closer look at the country’s debt crisis, and why it matters in the revived talks about the Marcoses’ wealth.
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