MikeLigalig.com

The Philippines is far outgunned by China, and has sought legal recourse as well as bolstering its security.

By midyear, an international tribunal is expected to rule on a case brought by the Philippines that challenges the legal basis of China's sweeping claims in the South China Sea.

Daniel Russel, top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, said that would be a critical moment for "rules-based" future of the region, although China says it is not bound by the arbitration.

http://www.foxnews.com/

U.S. officials say the pact will also enable it help train the Philippines' military but isn't aimed at China.

"It is not aimed at any country, but rather at improving our bilateral relationship" with the Philippines and boosting the U.S. rebalance to Asia, Goldberg told reporters.

Searight said the administration has notified Congress that it intends to spend $50 million on boosting the maritime security of Southeast Asian nations, and most would go to the Philippines.

U.S. Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino said the Philippines was a "reliable partner" and was looking forward to working with the U.S. to develop the agreed-upon locations.

The implementation of the defense pact comes at a time of heightened tension in the South China Sea and will be opposed by China, which views the increased U.S. presence in the region as an attempt at containment.

The locations are at Antonio Bautista Air Base on western Palawan island, which faces the hotly disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea; Lumbia Air Base on southern Mindanao island; Basa Air Base and Fort Magsaysay, north of the capital, Manila; and Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base on Cebu.

Goldberg said the U.S. is not establishing its own bases as it had in the Philippines until 1992. They were closed amid a tide of Philippine nationalism.

Senior U.S. defense official Amy Searight said Defense Secretary Ash Carter would travel to the Philippines in April to discuss implementation of the pact.

Goldberg said he could not set a date for when U.S. forces would be deployed but he expected movement of supplies and personnel to begin "very soon."

Another of the five Philippine military bases where the U.S. will have access is on southern Mindanao island, where the U.S. is concerned about the presence of Muslim extremist groups.

The 10-year defense pact was signed by U.S. and Philippine officials in 2014, but it only got the green light this January after the Philippine Supreme Court ruled it was constitutional. It is a key part of the Obama administration effort to reassert its presence in Asia.

Philip Goldberg, the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, said the pact would allow the U.S. to rotate more forces and military assets through that country on a basis of mutual agreement with Manila. It can also conduct construction and position supplies, including for humanitarian relief.

US, Philippines agree on locations covered by defense pact

March 18, 2016 
Associated Press

WASHINGTON â€"  The U.S. and the Philippines announced Friday five locations where American forces will have access under a new defense pact, including one facing disputed islands in the South China Sea.

The announcement came at strategic talks in Washington, where the allies reiterated their opposition to the militarization of outposts in those waters, where six Asian governments have competing claims.

China has built artificial islands with airstrips and military facilities as it asserts its claim to virtually all the South China Sea, including land features claimed by the Philippines.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman told me: "We encourage our officers to have a friendly interaction with their followers about their policing activities."

This isn't the first police force that's used social media to laugh at alleged criminals.

In Australia, police had a good laugh posting a stoner's eccentric to-do list. Also in Australia, police took to Facebook to charge Nickelback with crimes against music.

Just as any organization, the police clearly feel the need to use entertainment in order to endear themselves to the public.

Social media creates a medium on which to be loved. In this case it must have given the police, at least for a few minutes, something of a high.

http://www.cnet.com/

Helpfully, he added the hashtags #GetInTouch and #SmileyFaces to his tweet about the note.

Some will find the police's penchant for mirth amusing.

If everyone's using social media to enjoy a little trolling and laughter, why shouldn't the police?

Some might wonder though, whether this was all that funny for a cannabis stash that was reportedly worth 40 British pounds (around $58).

The latest example comes from the UK.

As the Evening Standard reports, police found a stash of cannabis near the Grand Union canal in Camden, London, on Wednesday.

Immediately, they took to Twitter not only to display their find, but also to show off a note they'd left behind in the hole they'd sniffed out.

Sgt. Paul Taylor posted the note that was addressed to the stash-owners.

On Metropolitan Police Service notepaper, it read: "Unlucky."

Police take to Twitter to laugh at alleged drug dealers

British police find some drugs in a stash. They leave what to them was an amusing note and then laugh about it on Twitter.

Tech Culture
March 18, 2016


by Chris Matyszczyk


A policeman's lot is a funny one.
Sgt. Paul Taylor/Twitter screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

It used to be that authority figures maintained a sense of decorum.

They kept straight faces, tight lips and calm demeanors as they set the world to rights.

Then social media came along. Everyone was accusing, laughing and trolling in real time. How could the police, for example, resist?

Operator logs showed the hackers logged in for short periods of time until Feb. 6, according to the report. The four transfers that went to the Philippines occurred on Feb. 4. The report said the hackers have already hit other FireEye clients, though it’s unclear if those include other central banks.

As of March 16, the FireEye team was about half-way through the examination of the central bank’s computer network.

"Complex malwares have been identified with advanced features of command & control communication, harvesting of credentials and to securely erase all traces of activity after accomplishing its task," the report said. It identified 32 "compromised assets" that “were used for reconnaissance and to gain control of the SWIFT servers and related assets."

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Brief Log-Ins

Patrick Neighorn, a spokesman for FireEye, declined to comment on the report or the investigation. An e-mail to Rakesh Asthana, managing director of World Informatix, wasn’t immediately returned. A call to the company’s office wasn’t answered. Subhankar Saha, spokesman for Bangladesh Bank, said he’s not aware of the report.

The assessment found the first suspicious log-in came on Jan. 24 and lasted less than a minute. On Jan. 29, attackers installed “SysMon in SWIFTLIVE" in what was interpreted as reconnaissance activity, and appeared to operate exclusively with “local administrator accounts.”

SWIFT Codes

SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative that provides international codes to facilitate payments between banks globally. It can’t comment on the investigation, according to Charlie Booth from Brunswick Group, a corporate advisory firm that represents SWIFT.

“We reiterate that the SWIFT network itself was not breached,” Booth said in an e-mail. “There is a full investigation underway, on what appears to be a specific and targeted attack on the victim’s local systems.” SWIFT said last week its "core messaging services were not impacted by the issue and continued to work as normal."

Dedicated servers running the SWIFT system are located in the back office of the Accounts and Budgeting Department of Bangladesh Bank. They are connected with three terminals for payment communications.

Fed Accounts

The hackers sent $81 million from Bangladesh Bank’s account in New York to the Philippines, and another $20 million to Sri Lanka. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York blocked transactions worth another $850 million. A bank in Sri Lanka stopped and returned the cash, while the money in the Philippines is still missing, leading to a Senate probe that is riveting the nation.

"Malware was specifically designed for a targeted attack on Bangladesh Bank to operate on SWIFT Alliance Access servers," the interim report said. Those servers are operated by the bank but run the SWIFT interface, and the report makes it clear the breach stretches into other parts of the bank’s network as well. "The security breach of the SWIFT environment is part of a much larger breach that is currently under investigation."

It’s the sort of thorough operation often mounted by nation-state hackers, according to the report, but FireEye’s intelligence unit believes the group, which it has been tracking for some time, is criminal. "These threat actors appear to be financially motivated, and well organized," the report said.

The heist, which saw payments processed through the bank’s accounts at the U.S. Federal Reserve and money moved to the Philippines and Sri Lanka, was part of a bigger attempt to steal nearly $1 billion in total from the central bank. It exposed weaknesses in systems, sparked a dispute between Bangladesh’s central bank and its finance ministry and cost the central bank governor his job less than five months before he planned to retire.

Hackers Stalked Bangladesh Bank for Two Weeks Before Big Heist

by Arun Devnath 
Michael Riley
MichaelRileyDC
March 19, 2016

-Interim investigation report doesn't name possible suspects
-Attackers logged in for short periods from Jan. 24 to Feb. 6

Hackers who stole $101 million from Bangladesh’s central bank stalked its computer systems for almost two weeks beforehand, according to an interim investigation report seen by Bloomberg.

Prepared for Bangladesh Bank by cyber security firms FireEye Inc. and World Informatix, the assessment offers a tantalizing glimpse into how cyber criminals can use banks’ own systems against them. The cyber companies say the thieves deployed malware on servers housed at the central bank to make payments seem genuine.

The report cast the unidentified hackers as a sophisticated group who sought to cover their tracks by deleting computer logs as they went. Before making transfers they sneaked through the network, inserting software that would allow re-entry.

It wasn’t an easy interview, but don’t get me wrong. He wasn’t distrustful at all, opening his doors wide for me, showing me the skylight in the bathroom of the guest room of his Filipino inspired, wooden, glass, steel house, yes, a tour of the entire Paredes home. But Jim isn’t easy to draw, to write about, because he doesn’t keep still, his mind wraps around every concept in his mind like a lover would. The interview was like attending a party and he welcomes you to a buffet of every thought his mind contained, and your brain expands like a stomach would expand after a feast. No wonder he could write songs as naturally as breathing.

I’m glad I asked for the interview. It’s not every day you sit down in conversation with a Filipino and you don’t feel dispirited afterwards, saddled with all the negative thoughts that every normal Filipino would have in times like these. Jim Paredes believes in the country. He has had two chances to break free, but in 1989 he chucked his green card, and when he relocated his family in Australia in the ’90s, he said no to citizenship, my place is in the Philippines, Australia is a good country and my younger children have chosen to live in it, but my place is in the Philippines, from which I will have no exit.

Mabuhay ka, Jim.

http://joeam.com/2016/03/15/

His proudest moments? The first anniversary of EDSA, and the song he wrote, Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo was performed and sang before hundreds of thousands of people, singing in Carnegie Hall with APO, his four books, when he read on-cam the curfew order of Marcos at PTV-4, after which he said, “H’wag natin sundin!”

How would he want to be remembered? “Just build a tiny statue of a man playing the guitar in some small corner in a barangay where kids can gather and play music. Or just keep singing my songs and keep them alive.”
His second most important line in the interview: “The best thing about a democracy is that everybody has a voice; the worst thing about a democracy is that everybody has a voice.” He kept on repeating it, laughing his heart out.

His favorite line in the interview: “To become accident-prone to perfection, by doing it repetitively until it leads to an awakening to the interconnectedness of things and the disappearance of self.” Whew. Figure that out yourself. Or go buy his books at lulu.com. National bookstore? Try, he said.

The guy is perpetual motion personified. Sixty pushups every day. Walking an hour or two. Teaching in the Ateneo: Special Topics in Performance and Practiceâ€"World Music, OPM, Humor, Creativity, and Songwriting. An album of his own coming out this month, a complete departure from the APO signature melody. For the Mar Roxas-Leni Robredo campaign, concerts and maybe two more walk your talk down Ayala Avenue. Twitter feeds for not more than 140 characters, for which he has 973,000 followers as we spoke in interview. Jim’s health is also his wealth. At 161 pounds in a 5’11 frame, he could do “three rounds of tennis and still have sex,” this according to his Australian doctor after his latest medical exam.

“No. People are aware. With social media, we are aware of our freedom to speak out, and it will take a great force to stop people from speaking out. Democracy, with the right to express oneself, is here to stay.”

“Like pushing toothpaste back to the tube?” I asked.

“Yes.”

The man is tireless. He has written four books: Humming in My Universe, Between Blinks, Writing on Water, As Is Where Is. He does not dwell on political analysis in the books, only general observations, to understand life in a silent way. Yes, it’s about Zen.

“Are you not, uhm, in fear of your life?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “I had close brushes in the Marcos years, but this time, no. A friend says someone is following me when we walk through Ayala Avenue, taking pictures, but that’s about it,” he said.

“And do you think too much noise in a democracy will lead to repression in the future?”

But he wouldn’t rest. Moved his family to Sydney, left the two youngest Ala and Mio in Oz to make a life there, came back to the beloved country, sang some, wrote some, marched some, fought some.

He is a familiar face in rallies. Recently, he led a “walk your talk” on Ayala Avenue initially with an anti-corruption message but lately adding an anti-dictatorship theme under the tag #DiNaKoPapayag, planning it with Leah Navarro, Noel Tolentino, JJ Soriano, Cynthia Patag and others. It was basically a coming out party for social-media activists, who, upon taking a stand and hammering on it, walked their talk. They didn’t apply for rally permits, so they just walked in a file, four abreast please, making the least noise, maybe just a gong, and a three-meter by one meter tarpaulin carried in front saying Down with the Binays basically. Three walks already, and all of the events were well-attended. During the first two occasions, Jim was handed a megaphone by one of the marchers, but at the third time, he just approached every grouping among the walkers to make announcements: “Friend us in Facebook for future action, okay?” he says, his voice hoarse.

Horacio de la Costa was a permanent fixture in the Paredes household before and after the tragedy, and it was in this milieu where Jim grew up, loving his music, playing his guitar and piano, catching conversations of the philosophic kind, all the while missing his father.

Years from now, when we look back, we could say perhaps Jim Paredes is one of the country’s philosophers, constantly thinking of country and how to reach out, solidifying his Philippine-view through the music he, Danny Javier and Boboy Garrovillo composed, sang to their audiences, recorded, by doing so they had the time of their lives. Twenty-seven albums. A lifetime achievement.

Edgar Lores of the Society of Honor asked if the Philippines has any philosophers, in other words, are we a thinking people? No one in the talkative group could provide an answer, perhaps it was a resounding no, but no one had the heart to say, “No we don’t have a philosophy of our own, therefore, no philosophers because we love fiestas and siestas, but never thoughts, for we don’t like deep, ‘babaw lang.”

Backtrack a bit, to the time when Jim was five years old. He is the ninth of ten children. His father Jesus Paredes, Sr., Horacio de la Costa, S.J., and Leon Maria Guerrero were in the same honors’ class in Ateneo, all graduated summa cum laude. Both Paredes and de la Costa had a calling for priesthood but it was only Horacio de la Costa who responded to the call. When Jim was five, his father died in a plane crash. The plane was called Mt. Pinatubo, so named because it was the tallest mountain in Zambales, the province of the plane’s main passenger. It was a presidential plane, carrying the late President Ramon Magsaysay, crashed on a mountainside in Cebu, killing all passengers. If the plane hadn’t crashed, Jim’s father, Magsaysay’s speechwriter and adviser, would have been appointed as Secretary of Education.

He has 27 albums which he shares with Danny Javier and Boboy Garrovillo of APO, he who was a 100 per cent ingglisero being Ateneo de Manila born and raised, but had to learn Tagalog to make APO’s songs more lasting, give them a common touch, so people can own them. They had about three songs in English who made the grade, but almost all their songs in Tagalog ring loud and true as Original Pilipino Music or OPM, sparkling diamonds in the days when the country would not have its fill of foreign songs, even up to the present time.


Photo courtesy of Jim Paredes

I asked him to divide an imaginary pie into the things he likes to do, for example, what part music, what part politics for social change. “The whole pie is music, it just so happens that I am a liberal democrat and everything I do speaks of my stand on certain issues, but on the whole, my life is about music, just music,” flashing the same boyish grin that has endeared him to the population, across the sexes.

First, the elephant in the room: Is he or isn’t he an Australian citizen? “No,” Jim says, “my two younger children chose foreign citizenship, exercising their option to choose, but I remain a Filipino citizen, so does Lydia my wife.”

As if to silence his critics once and for all, he confides that he did surrender his United States green card in 1989, after the most serious coup that almost toppled Cory Aquino’s government. “I deprived myself of an exit,” he said. “If I will fight for democracy I will stand and fight to the finish.” Thoughts of Sun Tzu came to mind: never fight an enemy who has no exit. He will not compromise, having no means to retreatâ€"heavy casualties on both sides, a costly war. Meet Jim Paredes of APO Hiking Society fame, musician, singer, book author, writer, poet, patriot, warrior.

The World According to Jim Paredes

March 15, 2016
The Society of Honor by Joe America


Photo courtesy of Jim Paredes

By Wilfredo G. Villanueva

It gets you. How come surveys do not indicate intelligent choice? Will we depart from Daang Matuwid just when Bloomberg has called our country the strong man of Asia? Will we lose democratic space because voters seem to prefer a would-be despot, or our growth upended by a new dynastic kleptocracy? The head spins, but a conversation with Jim Paredes helps to regain balance and perspective. I wrap up the interview as if I have climbed a mountain, the rolling hills and plains under my feet, breathing rarefied air, gaining understanding. The musician-philosopher, 64 years old, but still, uhm, spoiling for a fight, says we’ll be all right.

oops, careful, lest one trips one's self.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/93658/plunder-graft-rap-filed-vs-cayetano-couple-taguig-officials

Van Cotthem shares his extreme success in his YouTube video, demonstrating his homegrown herbs including rosemary, parsley, celeriac, chives, garden sage, basil and stevia.

The range of vegetables Van Cotthem has grown is equally as diverse. His bottles grow celery, tomatoes, bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet fennel, beets, and several varieties of lettuce, including red and green chicory, red curly, escarole, and endives.

According to the Mother Nature Network, vertical gardens such as the bottle tower method make gardening accessible to a range of people who may otherwise not grow their own food. Limited yard space, poor quality soil, pest invasion, weed growth, urban living, and conditions such as arthritis or fibromyalgia no longer have to be barriers to gardening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9vN2eudWcQ

http://diyeverywhere.com/

Once your tower is constructed, it's time to plant your seeds.

Using a sharp knife, cut a small, three-sided "window" into the bottles below the funnel and water tank. With your finger, push into the soil creating a vacant space where seedlings can be planted.

Before you know it, new roots will form, young plants will grow, and you'll have fresh tomatoes, bell peppers and rosemary with every meal!


Willem Van Cotthem

Willem Van Cotthem

Remove the lids from the next three bottles. Cut their bases and fill with potting soil. Now stack all four bottles, using simple wires to keep the tower standing.

When you are satisfied with the height of your tower, push the bottleneck of a bottle without a lid into the soil of the top bottle. This will be your funnel.

A final bottle topping the funnel will act as a water tank. In this final bottle, make a very small hole in the lid. It is best to use a drill to make a 1 mm opening, through which water can slowly run. This is effective because water gradually runs from the water tank into the funnel, moving slowly through the entire tower and moistening the soil.

Willem Van Cotthem

Begin by cutting the bottom part of the first bottle. Leave the lid screwed on the top. Next, use scissors or another sharp object to perforate the wall of the bottle, 2 to 4 inches from the top of the lid.

To make a drainage hole, cut diagonally across the bottle. The purpose of these holes is to allow surplus water to drain out of the container.

Fill 1 to 2 inches of the bottle with potting soil.

Congratulations! You've built the base of your tower.

How to make a kitchen garden using 'bottle towers'

BY ROXANNE GOLDBERG



Willem Van Cotthem has a solution for everyone who has ever wanted to garden but thought he or she did not have the space. His bottle tower method is an efficient and sustainable way to grow vegetables and herbs while also recycling plastic bottles.

Van Cotthem, an honorary professor of botany at the University of Ghent in Belgium, made a YouTube video to demonstrate how the inexpensive method can be adapted to fit the needs of any space and the wishes of any grower.

To construct Van Cotthem's bottle tower garden, you need recyclable containers such as plastic bottles, pots, and buckets.

QuoteBesides writing such books, academics can compile â€" online and offline â€" a list of credible references about Martial Law. A historiography of Martial law.

And we need to engage the Marcos lovers online, by vigorously challenging their delusions and their attempts to erase history.

The Marcoses destroyed our country and now they are covering up for their crimes. -from reply #31

just so martial law babies and the generations after them may know and make informed decisions...

This is what I call my “Macky watch.” It’s a gold watch that was given to guests during his birthday celebration in 1977. It was given to me by a dear friend.

The barb wire symbolizes the impunity of the Marcos dictatorship. The watch symbolizes the extravagance, especially of Imelda Marcos.

Remember the Marcos myth â€" si Malakas at Maganda?

That should be changed to â€" si Marahas at Mapurot â€" ugly and undesirable.

http://raissarobles.com/

Please note that during Martial Law, a seminar like this would have been impossible. All of us would have been arrested within an hour.

That we are speaking freely now is a testament to how far we have gone in our democracy. That we are still talking about the Marcoses’ probable comeback to center stage shows how dangerously we are regressing and forgetting.

I would now like to show you two souvenirs from that era.

On the night the Marcoses fled Malacanang Palace, my husband scrambled over the gates of Malacanang. But before that, he took this piece from the barb wire outside Malacanang.

Marcos was afraid of his own people.

Besides writing such books, academics can compile â€" online and offline â€" a list of credible references about Martial Law. A historiography of Martial law.

And we need to engage the Marcos lovers online, by vigorously challenging their delusions and their attempts to erase history.

The Marcoses destroyed our country and now they are covering up for their crimes.

What we can do as Filipinos

My husband, who is also a journalist, has repeatedly pointed out to me that Berlin has a documentation center for Nazi crimes. We need to have the same that document what the Marcoses did: especially the actual records of torture, Amnesty International reports of that era and first-person accounts from all sides, including those of the Marcoses.

My husband has compiled a short list of sources in his satirical website hotmanila.ph. But he has been unable to work on it. Hotmanila is the oldest satirical site, put up 14 years ago. It broke the story on the Love Bug virus.

A Berliner told me last October that school children are told of Hitler’s crimes. The Marcos crimes should be written down as well â€" in black and white â€" in our history books.

Associate Justice Artemio Panganiban who penned the decision wrote then that:

“The waiver of all claims against the Marcoses would be a virtual warrant for all public officials to amass public funds illegally, since there is an option to compromise their liabilities in exchange for only a portion of their ill-gotten wealth.”

That is the message of Marcos to all politicians, actually. If you must steal, steal big.

A third reason, I believe, why Marcos has been rehabilitated and the Marcoses are back in power is the kind of leadership we have had since 1992 â€" or six years after the Marcos  fall. As soon as President Fidel Ramos warmed his seat in Malacañang, plans were afoot to forge a compromise settlement with the Marcoses.

By 1993, one was drawn up and it went something like this: 75% of the Marcos loot would go to the government. But the Marcos family would keep 25%, tax free. All their cases would be dropped. And who’s to say what the total loot really was.

Just think. If the late Atty. Frank Chavez had not petitioned the Supreme Court to stop this deal, the Marcoses would have walked off with billions of pesos, no sweat.

President Joseph Estrada, who succeeded Ramos, tried to push the same deal. Fortunately in December 1998 the Supreme Court threw out the deal and all future talks of compromise.

But what about keeping a historical truth constant? Making sure the truth survives generations?

By 2011, Ferdinand Marcos had made a remarkable comeback in public consciousness. When SWS asked respondents to identify their “top three most identified Filipino heroes,” Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio and Ninoy Aquino topped the list in that order.

However, Marcos even made the list â€" cited by 5.1% of respondents. One could say that is the loyal Ilocano vote at work. However, he even bested Ramon Magsaysay and Lapu-Lapu.

Remember the cultural norm, do not speak ill of the dead?

In 1998, SWS’ Dr. Mahar Mangahas wrote about “a remarkable softening of public opinion towards Ferdinand Marcos”.

Mangahas gave two reasons.

He said,

“Part of the softening towards Marcos is simply due to demographics. The old pass away, and the youth take their places.”

He added that:

“Another part, in my view, was due to the fact that in 1986 Marcos was still alive and unrepentant in exile, whereas in 1995 he was already dead.” He added that the survey results were “not about the character of Marcos but about the character of the Filipino people. Not many of us would care to hold a grudge against someone long dead, not even someone like Ferdinand Marcos.”

Dr. Mangahas talked about holding a grudge against Marcos.

The Marcoses are now using Facebook and YouTube to project their father as the greatest president this country ever had.

HOW ATTITUDE TO THE MARCOSES HAD CHANGED

The Social Weather Stations has tried tracking public sentiment regarding Ferdinand Marcos. By 1998, 12 years after he was booted out, SWS took a poll and compared it with previous similar polls it had taken.

SWS said it found the following:

On the statement that Marcos was a “thief of the nation’s wealth”, public opinion “shifted from unfavorable in 1986 to neutral in 1995 and 1998.”
On the statement that he was a “brutal and oppressive president”, public sentiment shifted “from a split opinion in 1986 to a favorable opinion in 1995 and 1998.”

On the statement that Imelda Marcos was definitely guilty or not guilty of graft, SWS found that half thought she was “definitely guilty” and only 14% said she wasn’t.

Imee Marcos held a “Little Macoy and Imelda sing-alike”, a “Marcos quiz”, a “Marcos heritage trail free tour.”

In 2012, the family published a book on the arts and culture of the Marcos era.

And of course there is the year-round exhibit of Marcos’ waxed figure as well as a museum of remembrance.

All these are intended to project the Marcos version of history. Before Facebook and Twitter came about, such goings-on would have been confined in Ilocos. But not anymore.

Understandably, the dictator’s children are trying to reinstate their father politically.

But they are doing it with our tax money.

For instance, many key activities of Governor Imee Marcos for Ilocos Norte is intended to praise her father Ferdinand Marcos. Last year, she held the:

1. “President Marcos cup” for practical shooting;
2. A rock concert called “DaReal Makoy Concert 2”;
3. A “Marcos fiesta 2013 Flash Mob Full” which details the life of Marcos in dance; and
4. “The First Ferdinand Marcos Sirib Intercollegiate debates 2013.”

September 11, Marcos’ birthday, was dubbed “Marcos Day”.

In answer to my questions, he told me he would continue to pursue a compromise settlement with the government on the Marcos cases and frozen assets. But he refused to confirm that he was named a beneficiary in the Swiss accounts.

Here is a direct quote of what he said when I asked him to confirm that he was a named beneficiary of multi-million dollar accounts in Switzerland:

“I cannot confirm because I haven’t seen or read them. We â€" I don’t know. I cannot â€" I cannot say that I know. Definitely the Swiss money were there. Or are there now. It’s for us â€" again this constant â€" that people are saying â€" more and more participating in that â€"”

Poor boy, he hasn’t read them. And yet I have read copies of those documents which his father forgot in Malacanang Palace as they left in haste in February 1986.

The fourth cultural norm has very serious implications for the country’s future. And this is â€" Do not bring the sins of the father on his children.

Even the left-wing activist, former Congressman Satur Ocampo, justified Bayan Muna’s strange political alliance with Bongbong Marcos in 2010 using this very argument. Ocampo said, “We are not collecting from the son.”

But the son has long been in cahoots with his father and mother. He early on tried to get someone to withdraw the stash from Switzerland. In fact the son is now the legal executor of his father’s estate. And long before that, the son was one of the named beneficiaries of the US$356 million Swiss bank accounts.

You see, the Marcoses’ secret Swiss accounts were all under pseudonyms. But the Marcos couple had to sign separate documents saying they owned these accounts. They also had to sign another set of papers naming their beneficiaries in case they died.

In February 2011, I was lucky enough to be seated at the same luncheon table as Senator Bongbong Marcos during a press conference of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. I was also able to ask him questions.

The third cultural norm that Marcos lovers throw at critics is â€" Forgive your enemies.

A person who does not forgive his enemies is often labeled vindictive. And if he’s a politician, he’s called politically vindictive.

I remember that during the presidency of Corazon Aquino, the board of censors chief Manoling Morato said the public should stop demonizing Marcos in the spirit of reconciliation.

We are now reaping the consequences of that advice. Marcos’ children and his wife to this day insist their father did no wrong; there were no human rights abuses; and he is the country’s greatest president.

When Ferdinand Marcos died in 1989, his family and supporters exploited a second cultural norm: Do not speak ill of the dead.

This one goes against the very writing of history. I understand that the history major in UP is now an endangered specie. This is crazy. This is sad. This is pathetic. A nation cannot move forward without drawing lessons from its past.

I salute those who continue writing history despite financial challenges.

“Have you seen Rustan’s”, I remember one of them telling me. “No,” I said.

They led me to a room beneath Imelda’s room. All her shoes were there. Plus stacks and stacks of underwear and brassieres. But one thing that struck me was inside her bathroom. It was a HUGE bottle of branded perfume which was nearly as tall as I am and which was nearly full. I don’t think you could have finished it by spraying it in one lifetime unless you bathed in it.

I also remember that every room had bunches of wilting flowers. Imelda Marcos spent a princely sum on imported flowers, according to PCGG findings.

TWO â€" Another reason why we have this serious memory gap about the Marcoses’ evil deeds is that they and their supporters are exploiting certain cultural norms and Filipino values to help them propagate their own version of reality.

Here are four such norms:

The first norm is â€" Respect your elder.

Ferdinand Marcos exploited this by calling himself “Apo”, which in Ilocano means “elder person in authority.”

And Imelda Marcos, no matter how foolish she sounds and how much in debt she sunk the Philippine treasury because of her wanton shopping sprees, is still accorded similar respect because she’s old.

One of the things I vividly remember the day after the Marcoses fled was my visit inside Malacanang Palace. As a political reporter for Business Day newspaper, I was able to get inside the palace and I could go anywhere.

Bea Zobel, wife of Jaime Zobel and and her friend Mercy Tuazon were both inside helping to tally up the goods that had been left behind.

Unfair?

Not at all. Marcos himself disclosed that one of the things he studied in preparation for declaring Martial Law was how Hitler took control of Germany.

By the way, it is not true that no Marcos was ever criminally convicted.
Imelda Marcos was convicted of corruption on September 24, 1993 and sentenced up to 24 years in jail. But President Fidel Ramos’ solicitor general inexplicably â€" some would say explicably â€" threw the case away by telling the Supreme Court to was wrong to accuse her.

The public does remember Imelda Marcos’ jewelry but in the wrong context. The jewelry projects her as a patroness of the arts and a lover of “the true, the good, and the beautiful.” It does not remember her as the shopaholic who diverted for her own pleasure the tax money that should have helped the poor.

For Marcos lovers like Irene Vinluan, such displays of corrupt practices apparently does not matter. She wrote on the Facebook page of Marcos’ daughter, Imee:

“I love the Marcoses! During the time of his Presidency, despite of his corruption, at the same time, he also did good for the country, the streets was cleaner, not much street crimes, the Philippines was one of the richest in Asia.”

Let’s replace the word “Marcos” with Hitler; and use Germany instead of the Philippines, and see how that reads:

“I love Hitler! During the time of his Chancellorship, despite of his corruption, at the same time, he also did good for the country, the streets was cleaner, not much street crimes, Germany was one of the richest in Europe.”

Bongbong Marcos and his family have never apologized to the human rights victims. They don’t exist as far as they’re concerned.

This raises serious questions why Bongbong Marcos wants to be president in the first place. Is it to quash all pending cases against the Marcos family and to retrieve the assets?

The government has hinted it will auction off the jewelry.

That would be a gross mistake. The jewelry belongs to the Filipino people. It was acquired with the blood of human rights victims, and the shattered promise of a better future. It is part of our process of remembering as a people the grand-scale plunder and corruption that took place during the dictatorship, and that should never ever happen again.

Do you know that I tried to obtain photos of the jewelry from PCGG and I was told not yet because this is under litigation? But do you know that the same pieces of contested jewelry have been published in a coffee-table book called “Thoroughly Imeldific”?

On top of that, there is the grinding poverty symbolized by Manila’s Smokey Mountain and the export of Filipinos as slave labor to the Middle East.

Please consider this: According to the 2003 judgment issued by former Supreme Court chief Justice Renato Corona on Civil Case 0141 or the civil forfeiture case against the Marcoses’ Net Worth was US$957,487.75 or under ONE MILLION DOLLARS when they fled in 1986.

So how do the Marcoses even account for the US$356 million which the Swiss government unilaterally froze in 1986 and later gave back to the Philippine government with interest?

In addition, how does Imelda Marcos account for her three jewelry collections worth a combined US$4 million? Last month, one collection was awarded to the Philippine government. But last week, Senator Bongbong Marcos submitted an appeal to have the decision reversed, saying the government never specified this particular collection in its forfeiture suit.

He also said a curious thing last week â€" he said Pres. Benigno Aquino should apologize for the botched rescue of Hongkongers who were taken hostage in a tourist bus in 2010. He said, “the refusal to apologize I find hard to understand.”

The Presidential Commission on Good Government that was formed in 1986 estimated that the Marcoses had managed to loot up to US$10 billion. That’s 40% of what his regime borrowed.

But those who love him never talk about the foreign debt his government left behind. Nor do they talk about one other key achievement of his governance â€" the substantial devaluation of the Philippine peso.

When Marcos was elected in 1965 on the promise that “This nation will be great again”, the value of the peso was P3.90 to the dollar.

When he proclaimed Martial Law in order to build a New Society in 1972, the peso had sunk to P6.77 per dollar. When Senator Benigno Ninoy Aquino was assassinated in 1983, the peso plummeted to P11 per dollar. And when the Marcoses fled in 1986, it was P20 per dollar.

Those are the real achievements of Marcos â€" a US$25 billion increase in foreign debt; a nosediving peso from P3.90 to P20; and possibly US$20 billion in payoffs.

Marcos redrew the southern Philippine map, wrenched Palawan away from Mindanao, partitioned the south, and gave these to his various military commanders to govern.

Marcos’ actions in Mindanao and the ignorance of the people of Luzon about these, would fuel mistrust between the two populations and add to the misunderstanding of why the Muslim south wants autonomy.

Let me go now to Marcos’ “achievements” during Martial Law. It is true that he built those buildings and that bridge in the 20 years he was in power â€" from December 30, 1965 to February 25, 1986.

But at what cost? And how much was his commission? His tongpats?

When he became president in 1965, the Philippine foreign debt was less than US$1 billion. By the time he and his family fled, this had ballooned to US$27 billion â€" a nearly US$26 billion increase. That’s over US$1 billion per year.

Every time that happened, my mother had to take it out of our food budget. I remember there were times that we were able to eat only because a customer of my mom, who sewed dresses, would suddenly pay her.

And so, even though I wasn’t an activist, I knew first-hand the consequences of dissent against Marcos.

And that’s not all. Marcos and his in-laws, the Romualdezes, had nearly total control of Philippine media â€" the TV, Radio and newspapers.

The Marcos-Romualdez-controlled media did not show the true extent of the Mindanao wars â€" the wars when Nur Misuari, Hashim Salamat and Murad Ebrahim fought as one under the banner of the Moro National Liberation Front.

An estimated 60,000 to 80,000 civilians and rebels died in Mindanao between 1972 and 1976. Over one million residents fled.

Every time that happened, my mother had to take it out of our food budget. I remember there were times that we were able to eat only because a customer of my mom, who sewed dresses, would suddenly pay her.

And so, even though I wasn’t an activist, I knew first-hand the consequences of dissent against Marcos.

And that’s not all. Marcos and his in-laws, the Romualdezes, had nearly total control of Philippine media â€" the TV, Radio and newspapers.

The Marcos-Romualdez-controlled media did not show the true extent of the Mindanao wars â€" the wars when Nur Misuari, Hashim Salamat and Murad Ebrahim fought as one under the banner of the Moro National Liberation Front.

An estimated 60,000 to 80,000 civilians and rebels died in Mindanao between 1972 and 1976. Over one million residents fled.

Trajano’s mother filed a lawsuit in the US against Imee Marcos. The mother won the lawsuit.

Although I was never an activist I knew arrests were going on, because my father, who was a UP Law Professor, played a role in getting some of them out of jail. One was Gerry Barican. I’m not sure if another was Herminio Sonny Coloma. Another was someone who I believe would have made my father turn in his grave today. His name was Gary Olivar â€" President Gloria Arroyo’s propagandist.

This is interesting. All three became presidential spokesmen.

I can laugh about this now. But at that time, my father’s actions had serious consequences for my family. The Bureau of Internal Revenue suddenly told my father they could not believe he was that poor. If only the BIR had conducted a home visit, it would clarify what they thought was his unexplained poverty.

The BIR kept hounding him for high tax payments. In desperation, my mother turned to a neighbor employed at the BIR. He told her that the assessment for that year would be settled provided she paid something “for the boys”.

It was really only after the Marcoses fell that Filipinos got to know the full horror of his New Society. There were at least 10,000 human rights victims who were killed, or were tortured and survived.

Just to give a rough calculation of how bad the human rights situation was and the extent of dissent against his New Society â€" for every month that Marcos held on as a dictator while his wife, Human Settlements Minister Imelda Marcos, indulged in shopping sprees abroad, 700 human rights victims would be added to the roster.

Or for each day he was in power as dictator, there were 23 new victims. Or almost every hour of the 14 years he remained a dictator, nearly one citizen was killed or tortured.

Even the beautiful Governor of Ilocos Norte, Imee Marcos, has blood on her hands. A student from Mapua named Archimedes Trajano once questioned her â€" whether the daughter of the President had to head the Kabataang Barangay.

Trajano was later found dead. Investigators claimed he died in a frat rumble.

Marcos called his regime a “benevolent dictatorship”, a “smiling Martial Law”. The reality was that fear prevailed throughout the country and the smile was grotesque.

In the Catholic school which I attended, a directive came down from the nuns after Martial Law was declared. Henceforth, during lunchtime, we were banned from eating three or more to a table. Because that would be a form of “illegal assembly.”

What do girls not even in their teens know about subversion? I had no idea what it meant at that time.

But that was how much Marcos controlled the population.

The military and the police could also pick up anybody at will on the street or right in their homes.

And one had to be very careful about making jokes about the Marcoses and the “New Society” in public.

In the absence of an extensive history covering the Marcos regime, the Marcos family was able to hawk the following myths to new voters:

1.That Martial law was a “benevolent dictatorship”

2.That there were no human rights abuses during the period. As Senator Bongbong Marcos said, the alleged victims are only after money.

3.That the economy boomed under Marcos

4.That Marcos was the greatest president since he built the most number of infrastructure, notably the Cultural Center, Folk Arts Theater, Film Center, Heart Center, Kidney Center, Lung Center and San Juanico Bridge. You can see this particular claim all over the social networking sites Facebook and Youtube.

I’ll take these up now one by one.

Part of the reason is that many intellectuals who could have written about that era were co-opted by the dictatorship to become propagandists or to turn out think tank reports. They are therefore ashamed to reveal what they did during Martial Law.

The building where the UP Asian Center used to be was the seat of Marcos’ think tank. It was called the Philippine Center for Advanced Studies or PCAS. Its head was Col. Joe Almonte. Whatever study Marcos wanted, it churned out.

I know because as a young graduate, I was hired to do radio scripts for its Kasaysayan ng Lahing Pilipino series. I quit before the series touched on Marcos.

Let me offer two three reasons.

ONE â€" The foremost reason is that the generation that overthrew the Marcos conjugal dictatorship thought that the regime was so brutal and so greedy in its accumulation of wealth and power, that people did not need further reminding of it.

The People Power generation forgot to document all these for future generations.

Sure, Nick Joaquin came out with the book Quarter of the Tiger Moon. And there was that coffee table book on People Power.

But to this day, the History of the Filipino People written by UP historians Teodoro Agoncillo and Milagros Guerrero â€" which a lot of schools continue to use as their history textbooks â€" has not been updated to include the Marcos years and the years afterward.

Consequently, the succeeding generations really have no idea why si Malakas at si Maganda â€" the Powerful and the Beautiful â€" that was the myth propagated by the Marcos couple about themselves â€" are really si Marahas at si Mapurot.

In Waray, “mapurot” means ugly and undesirable.

Let me try to deconstruct how Ferdinand Marcos, a brutal, murderous and greedy dictator, could even be considered a hero by a number of Filipinos 25 years after his death and 28 years after his tyrannical rule.

Let me try to deconstruct how his widow Imelda and their three children are now back in the highest rungs of society. And much admired.

It’s a key lesson to all grafters: Steal small, you end up in jail. You’ve got to steal big like the Marcoses.

I use the word “steal” without equivocation because the Swiss Federal Court itself described in its 2003 landmark ruling that returned close to US$1 billion dollars of what the Marcos loot had become â€" that all that money was â€" and I quote â€" “of criminal origin.”

If that is the case, why is no Marcos in jail? In fact, why are three of them in positions of power?

Good morning. Before I begin, let me tell you a personal story.

This building, once upon a time, was where I first met Imee Marcos. She was the main actor in a Tagalog version of Animal Farm directed by Prof. Jonas Sebastian. And I was the play’s stage manager.

I recall that Jonas had to change some of her lines because these would hit too close to home. Because Animal Farm was about a revolution that went bad. Just like what was then happening with Marcos’ “Revolution from the Center.”
Well, Marcos was overthrown. And slowly, succeeding governments turned into versions of Animal Farm.

Today, the Marcoses are back, and behaving as if the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution never happened.

A growing number of Filipinos â€" many of them born after EDSA â€" are even hoping to put Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos in Malacañang Palace two years from now.

Stopping the Marcoses from erasing their crimes from history

By Raïssa Robles
February 9, 2014

Here is the video and text of my speech on My husband’s lovers: Why Martial Law babies to the present generation love and hate Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, for the  forum sponsored by the University of the Philippines Third World Studies Center.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgRZzvYvZN0

I would like to thank the Third World Studies Center, its director Dr. Ricardo Jose, the forum moderator Dr. Luisa Camagay, and Dr. Teresita Maceda for inviting me to speak at the forum.

My speech was based on documents and my personal experiences during and after Martial Law.

There are, however, some variations between the text and my actual speech since I inserted some additional explanations and anecdotes during the speech.

I also added a third reason to explain why the Marcoses are back in power.

A Moral Example

Against the backdrop of the above ethical dilemmas, permit me to ask: Has there ever been a poor politician?  I need to raise the question because the miasma of the Binay manifestations are toxic and too confronting, and one needs an antitoxin to refresh one’s faith in humanity.  The existence of such a politician should be curative and instructive.

Perhaps we can call Jose Mujica, the president of Uruguay, one.  He was a former Marxist who belonged to a notorious guerrilla group that was engaged in bank robberies and kidnappings.  He served 14 years in a military prison.  As president, he shuns living in a palace and prefers to live austerely in his farmhouse.  He drives an old Volkswagen Beetle.  And he donates 90% of his salary to charity.  As if that were not enough, he has pushed a liberal agenda on abortion, same-sex marriage and the legalization of cannabis.  And still if that were not enough, he has opened his arms to the first wave of Syrian refugees.

There may be a lesson in this for us: leftists, like Teddy Casino, Walden Bello and Risa Hontiveros, and ex-convicts (or detainees) who fought for righteous causes, like Senator Trillanes and unlike Erap and the Ampatuans, should win/stay in public office for the uncommon perspectives they bring.

http://joeam.com/

This reverse sense of the term hews closer to the definition of moral hazard provided by Wikipedia:

In economic theory, a moral hazard is a situation in which a party is more likely to take risks because the costs that could result will NOT be borne by the party taking the risk. (Bolding mine.)

The distinction is made between two kinds of moral hazard as to whether the behavior occurs before an event, that is ex-ante, or after an event, that is ex-post.

The act of Binay selling his farm to a front, if true, would be an example of an ex-post moral hazard; he has successfully hidden his wealth and is now able to under declare his SALN to fool the people.

His act of under declaring a SALN, if true, would be an example of an ex-ante moral hazard in his run for the presidency.

Lastly, if Binay wins in 2016, the silence of Grace et al would be an example of a grievous ex-ante moral hazard.

Conceivably, the term can be applied to Grace Poe, Ralph Recto, Rene Saguisag and other prominent Filipinos who continue to remain silent and do not speak out in any way, shape or form against the transgressions of the Binays.

In a way, I am applying the term in almost a reverse sense. The risk that Grace et al are taking may be hard to see because they are not providing misleading information nor are they seen to be taking any unusual risks.  The risk is almost impossible to detect, or even classify as a risk, because it is the peril of silence. In truth, Grace et al are calculating the hazard of whether to speak out â€" and by how much.  But if, as a result of the silence, if Binay is able to weather the storm of public opinion, if he runs and wins in 2016 and things go badly, it is the Filipino people â€" and not Grace et al â€" who will suffer.

Moral Hazard

Moral hazard is a situation in which someone who is protected from risk will behave differently than if they didn’t have protection.

The term is used in the insurance industry where a customer takes unusual risks or provides misleading information to obtain an advantage.  We encounter this in the case of a home owner who becomes less vigilant and leaves his doors open because he carries home contents insurance.  In the extreme case, we encounter this in a businessman who over declares the value of his business property, and then razes the property to the ground for its inflated value.  Insurance companies would distinguish the first example as a morale hazard â€" note the ‘e’ â€" whereas the second is a moral hazard arising out of character flaws of the criminal kind.

It would be one of the greatest ironies in politics if Mar is able to hitch a free ride to Malacanang Palace on the narrow shoulders of Jejomar.  And it would be the second or third greatest tragedies after Marcos and GMA if Binay got a ride, free or not, to the presidency.  I am certain some will contradict me and say Binay would be the mostest.  They will point out and say the first two were mere conjugal partnerships and not a caboodle.

On the full-speed gravy train, there are several free riders and free rides:

    #Nancy got a free ride to the Senate by virtue of her father’s name, the Makati sister-city connections, and the willful ignorance of the Filipino voter.

    #Hillmarc’s Construction Company got a free ride by rigged bidding to obtaining several juicy contracts with the Makati City Government under 3 successive Binay regimes of the father, the son, and the unholy mother.

    #According to recent news, the three Binay mayorships got a free ride, receiving 13% kickbacks from Hillmarc’s.

    #Makati vice mayors, councilors, department heads, various city employees, and COA auditors got a free ride, pocketing 1% â€" 6% of kickbacks from infrastructure projects.

    #And, not the least, Mar Roxas in the survey polls is getting a free ride to higher public approval rates without any effort exerted on his part.

Free Rider

A free rider is someone who enjoys a benefit from resources, goods, or services without paying the cost for the benefit.

Unlike the first and third concepts, this is a popular term and a commonplace idea.  I bring it up because of the prevalence of free riders on the gravy train in Makati.  And as a caution.

One is almost tempted to say that all politicians are free riders, especially in the just-now past age of the pork barrel. Politics is a business where the cost is a gift in horse-trading and a gift of the gab.  As the Filipino expression goes, “laway lang ang puhunan.” And the benefits seem to be enormous and unquantifiable, the sky being the limit, depending on how brazen you are.  And, indeed, how brazen they have been!

I am aware the analogy is a bit stretched but I would like to stress that while the elevation of the members of political dynasties into public offices is a matter of democratic public choice, one cannot be blind to the allegations against the Binays.  The members of the dynasty are claimed to be taking advantage of their positions in many forms, which have been revealed by Senate subcommittee on the Makati Parking Building.  These forms include rigged bidding, overpricing, the demand for kickbacks and substandard infrastructure.

The tragedy of the commons that is represented by the tragedy that is the Binay family may well be the tragedy of the nation.

I would apply this concept to all political dynasties and in particular to that of the Binay family.  I would ask these questions of the Vice President:

    #Are you aware, sir, that by allowing your spouse and your progeny to compete for public office you are limiting the resource of political opportunity to non-dynastic candidates?

    #Furthermore, sir, by allowing dynastic families to lord it over the land, is not the resource of economic opportunity confined to a few families like yours, thus exacerbating the problem of inequality?

Tragedy of the Commons

The tragedy of the commons is a situation wherein individuals, acting in their own self-interests, will deplete a shared common resource, which in the long-term is contrary to the interests of the whole group.

Examples of this ethical dilemma abound from sheepherders sharing a common but limited pastureland, through to the concerns for overpopulation, and now to the threat of global warming.

The dilemma for the individual sheepherder is that by adding a sheep to his flock, which is to his own interest, he intensifies the problem of overgrazing and thus hastens the depletion of the grassland and its ability to sustain the flocks of all sheepherders sharing the resource.

WARNING: THE MORAL HAZARDS OF THE BINAY FAMILY

by Edgar Lores
October 12, 2014



Recently I came across three concepts in economics that I think may be applicable to the eruptions of corruption surrounding the Binay family. 

These concepts are:

Tragedy of the Commons
Free Rider
Moral Hazard

Except for benefiting personally from the corruption, perhaps a faulty, selective assessment?

There is just one practical way for Bongbong to make amends to the Filipino people. Apologize, and back it up by returning the rest of the ill-gotten wealth.

Otherwise, he is just as evil as his father and mother, and should be rejected resolutely.

http://joeam.com/

Why does this happen? My personal theory is that the fable that there was once a golden era and there is a chance it can be restored is a soothing one; it eases all the pain and angst these kids are undergoing, and that things are not in their control. There is a saviour, a white knight that will banish all their demons and magically restore their broken lives. And that messiah, albeit a false one, is a Marcos.

Not all of these Marcos loyalists are youngsters, though. On Raissa Robles’ website, I was able to converse briefly with an elderly loyalist. Intrigued as to her authencity, I requested her to provide bona fides. To my surprise, she did. Unfortunately, she never replied back, probably spooked as to how I was able to sniff out her real identity. I was most interested in having a real conversation with a person who lived through all those years and still come out in support of the Marcoses.

The head-scratching thing about it, though is that due to the absence of educated and responsible adults in their lives, these kids lap it all up, when all they have to do is ask around and read the reputable news sources. They are content to just read the Marcos-supplied propaganda, many coming from non-reputable sources.

A close parallel are the youthful ISIS recruits who are so disillusioned and distraught with their personal lives that they succumb to this romantic notion that joining ISIS is a noble adventure that would give meaning to their personal narratives. Female recruits are sold the fantasy of meeting their future husband-warriors in ISIS.

Lucky are those who have aunts and uncles or grandparents who can take over parental responsibilities, but they generally cannot give the constant attention and teaching, specially on political awareness.

It is a very gloomy world these kids live in, full of frustration and despair. They see the country as hopeless, and their futures bleak.

Enter the Marcos camp. Making full use of internet-era tools like Youtube, Facebook and blogsites, they create alternate universes of reality â€" that the Marcos era was a morally upright one, and cite its dubious achievements while glossing about the corruption and the abuse.

A Brief Primer on these Neo-Marcos Loyalists

Most of the original Marcos loyalists â€" the politicos comprising the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, the corrupt military men, and the civilians are either very old or have died by now. Kit Tatad, the youngest then in Marcos’ Martial Law cabinet is already in his late seventies. So who are these new supporters of the Marcoses?

Intrigued by this development, I investigated this phenomenon some years ago by engaging a number of these neo-Marcos loyalists in online and face to face conversations. And this is the disturbing and sad insight I got: Many of these kids come from very dysfunctional and broken families. The absence of responsible adults in their lives make them vulnerable to targeting by the Marcos camp. Some have one or both parents who work abroad, and multiple problems emerge from this set-up: many of the marriages break down, one parent carries an affair and the long periods of separation lead inevitably to alienation amongst the family members. Gradually, all crumble. The kids are adrift. They have to fend for themselves â€" either economically, socially, mentally and for the unfortunate ones, in all of them.

And for levity, Boying has this to say in a separate article:

“Yes, I think Marcos Jr. running for president would be a great idea for the following reasons:

(1) He wouldn’t win. . . .
(2) Bongbong would speak (and say crazy things). . . .
(3) Imelda would be in the spotlight again, speak (and say crazy things). . . .
(4) It would force the Marcoses to tap and move their hidden billions. . . .
(5) It would remind young Filipinos what Marcos Sr. did to the country. . . . “[Why Bongbong Marcos should run for president in 2016]

The senator shows no remorse about his family’s role in Philippine history.

“I felt it to be an advantage, a blessing and I’m very thankful that I am a Marcos. . . . I am very happy that I was born into the Marcos family. I never felt it to be a burden.” [Bongbong: ‘I’m thankful I’m a Marcos’]

This comment has earned some sharp rebukes, and I hope the President and others in civil society will take up the cudgels and rebut the Senator.
Here’s the best tongue-in-cheek response to Bongbong, written by Boying Pimentel for the Inquirer; Boying was a veteran of the student protest movements in the eighties.

“It’s tough to know what’s going on when there’s so much partying going on. And as we now know from the home movies retrieved from Malacanang after the Marcoses were chased out of the country, the dictator and his family loved to party!

So how in the world would Bongbong know about the repression and the plunder that was taking place around the country. How was he supposed to understand this dark era of pain and brutality when all he saw were bright party lights and happy times.” [Bongbong Marcos is right: Why should he say ‘Sorry?’]

Marcos Squid Tactics

Bongbong is not the least apologetic. He re-frames constantly, avoiding direct responsibility for anything, and tries to dangle alternatives to make people forget their track record.

“We are here to serve. That has always been the culture in my family.”

“Many cases have been brought to court here and in the US. But if you talk to people, they are not concerned about that. Filipinos are concerned about their lives today. They want answers: ‘Why are there drugs in our streets? Why is the crime rate going up at an alarming rate? Why is the educational sector miserable? Why is distribution of wealth not happening? Why is the government not doing anything?’ . . . This is what people are worried about, and that’s what I will address.”

“What happened in 1986 happened already. These things have already been decided. To analyze it belongs to those historical scholars. But I am not a historical analyst. I am a public servant. All I look at is what people want from their public servants. It’s very simple: leadership, a plan, a program, policies to improve their lives.” [Marcos: Filipinos want solutions, not history talk]

RETURN THE ILL-GOTTEN WEALTH FIRST, BONGBONG (#SAANGALINGANGPERAMO)

Posted by Joe America on October 10, 2015


Young Bongbong . . . out of touch?

by Andrew Lim

With Bongbong Marcos running for Vice-President in 2016 sans standard bearer and party nomination, one easily sees it as a tactical move, one that sets a higher future objective: becoming President of the Republic. It is a test, now or never, and would be the Marcos family’s last chance since Bongbong’s siblings are not interested and their matriarch is near the end of her life. A last chance to artificially cleanse their legacy and revise history.

A common rationale â€" “he is not his father”, used in the past by the extreme Left when the Nacionalista Party adopted Satur Ocampo, and used lately by the plummeting Binay does not hold water because of the massive ill-gotten wealth. In both instances laughable since all their principles went out the window. Where exactly did the Marcos wealth come from?

An even weaker argument â€" one that this writer believes is a product of the “easy forgiveness” culture encouraged by the dominant religion here- is that we should forgive and forget, and move on. As if the pursuit of justice is not as central and important to one’s faith as forgiveness.

Despite this, tactically just one legal judgment spreading a little legal light on the issues in the region would be significant. It would, ever so slightly, increase the role of law, not history or political might, as the most sustainable route to an eventual resolution of the South China Sea travails. For that reason, the Philippine move is an important one, and its outcome, beyond all the arcane details and the confusing context, potentially highly meaningful.

http://www.policyforum.net/