Oh, Bongbong Marcos! what do I do with you?!
(Photo Credits: Bongbong Marcos Website)
I worked for one of the largest broadcast investment firms here in the United States many years ago in Princeton, New Jersey. Our offices used to be on Witherspoon Street, walking distance to this Ivy League school called Princeton University. This was where I saw Chelsea Clinton when she visited the university at the time when she was deciding to go to Princeton or Stanford.
There is also this bar right across the university that we frequent. It’s called Triumph and I’ve made friends here. When they recognized that I was Filipino, some of the locals here started telling me tales and folklore about Bongbong Marcos. Yeah, let’s just say they were urban legends because I have no clue if what I heard were true. They even told me about “The White House” that the Marcoses owned and where he stayed. It’s on Route 206. I drive by this “White House” everyday of my life going to work. It’s huge, it’s gated, its beautiful, and it’s painted white, just like the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Although a lot of the people I talked to tell me that Bongbong Marcos went to Princeton University, you will not find this in any of his online biographies. Instead, you will find Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Check it out yourself. If I missed something, let me know.
As you all know, Bongbong Marcos is running for the Senate. Surveys have it that there is a high probability that he will be elected.
I happen to be one of those guys who look at Bongbong as Bongbong and not as Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator. I want to believe that Bongbong is his own man, and that he should be judged as Bongbong and not as Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator or Imelda Marcos, with her shoes.
I might not be one rabid tree-hugger but one of the things that I like from Bongbong Marcos was his push for renewable energy. It might not be pleasant looking in terms of landscape, like how they hated it in the Netherlands, but I believe it’s about time that the country explores the benefits of renewable energy.
Yes, I do like Bongbong Marcos.
However, I do recognize the fact that the Marcos Family still has a lot of explaining to do to the Filipino people. Which is why, when Noynoy proclaimed that he will create a commission to look into the Marcos loot, I look forward to the closure of this issue.
Read the following:
1.) PCGG, Marcoses forging P140-B midnight deal, grandmother of all midnight deals
2.) In the know: PCGG and the Marcos ill-gotten assets
3.) Marcos rights victims oppose ‘obscene’ deal
As I think about how much wealth the Marcoses have, I could only say: Lord, have mercy on us Bicolanos or even the rest of the hapless Filipinos!
People from Mindanao and Visayas traverses the entire Bicolandia yet we don’t have a decent expressway that spans from Manila all the way to Matnog, Sorsogon! What we have is a photo-op elevated expressway that ended abruptly in Alabang! Don’t even dare convince me that we have a highway in Bicol. I meant an expressway without a tricycle or a carabao in the middle of the road.
I want those monies back into the national treasury. I want those monies to be used to build a bridge from Matnog, Sorsogon to Samar to truly bridge the Filipinos. I want those monies for infrastructure and erase all the Talahib Highways in the barrio.
You want to fight poverty? Make it easy for people to conduct commerce. Road and bridges makes it easier for commerce to flow. It fosters entrepreneurship. For how do you market you products when all you have are Talahib Highways? Talahib Highways do not contribute to the nation’s GDP much less per capita, trust me. I come from the Barrio.
The Marcoses have wealth that god probably would not even have nary a clue on how to explain. Their wealth is just beyond imagination and the Presidential Commission on Good Government is simply a disaster. Why PCGG is negotiating for stolen wealth – that I don’t understand. But who am I to judge if they were stolen?
Much as I like Bongbong, I do find it bizarre that he is out there on stage with their dreaded enemies. But what’s surprising in Philippine politics anyway? Ask Loren Legarda. Right? Then again you could say, what a burning obsession of the Marcoses to be really back in power.
Until he started defending the Marcos dictatorship.
“In a recent TV show, he staunchly defended his father against charges of gross human rights violations given the fact that his father was never indicted for human rights abuses. This is highly insulting and totally baseless, especially to the thousands of Filipinos who filed a class suit and won a judgment against him in the United States Federal District Court of Hawaii.”
Source: AKBAYAN: Bongbong Suffers Selective Amnesia under Villar’s Protective Wing
They say that in order for forgiveness to happen, there has to be an acceptance. So, is Bongbong Marcos ignorant and clueless about the human rights violations of the Marcos dictatorship?
And then I read what sounded like a response to my question. This was actually a statement from the former PCGG Commissioner Ruben Carranza:
Bong Bong Marcos defends the dictatorship because he continues to profit from it. Here’s what I can remember with some detail:
1. He and his sisters are named beneficiaries of the Liechtenstein/Swiss ‘foundations’ created by his parents to house their ill-gotten assets. Remember that the earliest of these ‘foundations’ (if I recall correctly, more than 50) was set up as early as 1969 — before Martial Law.
2. If he and Imee want to keep up pretensions of being some kind of decent/modernizing politicians who want to transcend crude trapo behavior, then they better instruct Bruno de Preux (and other Swiss lawyers they still retain) to give up hiding their assets. The bulk of those assets are still out there; the $680 M we recovered in 2003 was merely the low-hanging fruit that still took 15 years to pick.
3. His so-called education in Princeton? Paid for by taxpayer money, including an expensive residence in the Princeton area where he stayed.
4. His trips to Europe – to visit his relatives in Austria? Probably timed to the transfer of assets that, at least when I was working on tracking them, would emerge from time to time in bank clearing houses across Europe. The Disinis are in Austria, living faux-royale lives at our expense. (One of my favorite feats at PCGG was in forcing Herminio Disini to post bail when he thought he had put it all behind him.)
5. Not asset-related but more urgent: if it looks like Marcos Jr. will win (thanks in part to the NDF), two steps have to be done ASAP by an Aquino presidency: (a) replace Sabio et al in the PCGG, replace the Arroyo SolGen appointee and invoke the mutual legal assistance provisions in the UN Anti-Corruption Treaty to freeze anything linked to Marcos Jr. in countries other than Switzerland- and (b) refile the Marcos victims compensation law, and seek a multi-party commitment to pass it, just to isolate Marcos Jr. and potential allies.
Yes, I want to believe that Bongbong Marcos is his own man.
Quite honestly, I don’t know what to make of him.
I’m at a loss.
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reynz is one Uragon and a Filipino-American, has many years of public accounting & auditing, broadcast investments, housing tax credits and equity investments as his background. Based in the US, he maintains his personal and humor blog at reyna elena dot com. A graduate of Aquinas U, he went to GWU and Temple U in the United States.
aminin, fafable sya….jejejejejejejejemon
noon oo! hahaha! pero now? first love ko na si Gilbert Remulla hahaha!
bulol naman si gilbert remulla. hahahaha
ay mali, jejejejejejej 
Si Adel Tamano mas fafable, hehehehe.
fafa ni viki bela yan e. jejejemon!
fafa ni dra. vicki belo yan e. jejejemon!
His platform for renewable energy is a good one. However, medyo contradicting na siya lately. Ay ambot!
Not voting for him…maraming pang mas magaling at matinong kandidato sa Senado katulad ni Doc. Bautista at Biazon!
Tandaan B, kailangan ang B; Biazon at Bautista sa Senado, hehehe.
I want to vote Bongbong but then again his family name is such a nega. Hindi pa ako nagkakaroon ng amnesia gaya niya.
I agree. I like that he is articulate and well-educated but I think he should remain in service of the ilocandia and stay away from national politics. Andaming biktima noong martial law time. I don’t think the nation will ever be ready for another Marcos, especially another Ferdinand Marcos.
On human rights violations: was Marcos caught with a direct order to inflict pain on the victims? I think his liability is by virtue of command responsibility; he was in command and therefore, responsible. Fine, but how do we treat claims of human rights violations and damage claims against Cory’s, FVR’s, Erap’s, GMA’s governments. If Marcos should pay, so should the rest, right? No, we’re fixated on Marcos.
I will help you on Marcos hidden wealth:
http://ricelander.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/doy-laurel-from-the-lips-of-a-dying-president/
http://ricelander.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/on-marcos-wealth/
http://ricelander.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/noynoy-read-this/
That’s for the lawyer’s to argue. I know a number of painful stories in our barrio and I’m sure there’s a lot more.
thank you for the link. i briefly read the Laurel part and it says:
Obviously, I can’t argue about the refusal, but this is telling me that indeed the Marcos wealth is true!
I was curious… you are telling me that it was Cory’s fault why the hidden wealth is still unresolved?
I’ll read the rest sometime.
Read the link to the Enrique Zobel deposition taken by the Blue Ribbon Committee headed by Senator Nene Pimentel sometime in the late 90s for the proper context. It’s kinda long though. Yes, the hidden wealth is true. Is it Cory’s fault? you be the judge.
Sure, this will be an interesting read. Thanks again for the heads up.
I have read this refusal of Cory at one point. I am inclined to believe because a story stright from hte mouth of a dying man is very hard to refute. For even the hardened criminals always tell the truth on the verge of their death or remain quiet and take a secret to grave. But for them for concoc a story by death bed? Hard to believe. Anyway. what it tells me is – she was just human, she was a wife who lost a husband, the father of her children.
A road bridge between Matnog, Sorsogon and Allen, Samar! Yippee! About time! I hope Bongbong can help make this dream come true. Then we can all drive from Manila to Leyte, visit Mrs. Marcos’ beautiful province. Lots of beautiful places in both Samar and Leyte will be me even more accessible to tourist traffic. Sadly, like you, I’m not sure what to make of Bongbong yet. The proof of the pie is yet to be. This PCGG deal will make him a direct beneficiary of so much unaccounted for and unaudited wealth. Looking at my crystal ball, I see … Bongbong as Senator Bongbong. I’m betting on my best fifty peso bill.
i have relatives in Samar that i could not even visit because i hear stories about all these swirling seas by San Bernardino Strait hehehe who knows when there will ever be a bridge there u know. heard so many stories that there was already a study and that it is not feasible because the trench are just too deep and all. leche! if they can send man to the moon build islands in dubai, connect eastern virginia to virginia beach via cheasapeake y can’t they connect sorsogon to samar? hahaha! wishful thinking!
Or if that’s not feasible, gawin naman efficient ng konti and ferry system noh! I used to travel by land from Pasay to Davao via Philtranco kasi wiz ko afford mag erpleyn at sawa na akong matulog sa economy accomodation ng sulpicio – palagi na lang natatapat ang bed ko sa tabi ng exhaust – makina at tabutso ng lintek na MV Dona Marilyn nung araw, grrr. Saka sa Philtranco, maka sight seeing pa ako ba. Alam mo nung araw, pagdating sa Matnog, isang ferry lang ang bumibiyahe! Minsan na miss namin ang ferry, naiwan yng bus namin kaya wait pa kami na mag return yung lintek na ferry from Allen which is like 6 hours after yata, grrrrr. Pagdating sa dulo na Leyte patawid pa Surigao, naiwanan ulit kami, waaahhh!
I think that bilang isang archipelago, the Philippine government, should be supportive of the ferry system as opposed to building bridges between islands kasi mas cheaper and low maintenance ang ferry. Venice nga canal lang napag kwartahan ang mga gondola davah?
In early 2000, the Strong Republic Nautical Highway was lauched – it’s about connecting islands by bus/RORO boats from Manila to Mindanao. Not sure what happened to that. Ofcourse madaming glitches in the beginning – mga bus na naiiwan ng barko sa sobrang traffic sa metro manila pero I think, if we continue to update/innovate/improve the SRNH, it will greatly improve travel from Manila to Mindanao.
yuck….
Yes, that Matnog/Allen bridge is a long time coming. There is no science against it,not when developers can submit plans for an ocean floor superfast train system connecting Hong Kong to San Francisco or Europe.
project ba talaga ni marcos yung windmills sa ilocos? kasi from what i know DONATION yun ng european gov. di ko lang sure kung netherlands or what
marcos forever!!!
amen??? ameeeen!!!
Hmmm…iboboto ko pa rin siya. Hehehe
Haaaay naku!!! Marcos masama, aquino santo!!! nakakasawa na!!!! Buti na lang, extravagant si imelda. kung hindi, wala tayo LRT, at mga hospital. Kay Cory, demokrasya!!! nung panahon ni Marcos, mababa ang tuition fees sa mga school, kaya marami nakakapag- aral. May Pag-ibig Fund!!!1 haaaaay! it was so unfortunate that FM died. But when he was still alive, he was really telling Cory that he would explain where all those money came from but to no avail. everything is all conjectures!!!!
Parang ang sarap pagkukutusan nitong mga bata na to na walang malay sa mga nangyari nung panahon ni Marcos.The mere fact that the Marcoses refuse to give back to the people what their parents stole from the country is proof that they are not worthy of any government position. And the fact that 3 Marcoses are now in public office ay pruweba ng KAGAGUHAN ng napakarami Filipino. I live overseas at kapag tinatanong ako ng mga foreigner how come the Marcoses are still in public office, I just shrug my head, thinking if I should deny that I am a Filipino. Sa totoo lang, nakakahiya sa buong mundo.
isa lamang ako sa mamayan ng ating bansa at isa ding botante na walang sino man ang maaring bumili ng aking boto.hindi din ako isang mamayan na mahilig sumama sa agos ng mga panaginip na nagpasama ng ating kasalukuyang sitwasyon sa ating bansa.gumagawa ako ng ikauunlad ng bansa ng walang marahas o ano mang pakikipag ugnayan sa kanino mang grupo laban sa pamahalaan.
Kung talagang magagaling itong patuloy na nagsisi alipusta bakit hannga ngayon ala kayong mapatunayan sa ibinigbintang nyo sa dating Presidente Marcos. Malinis ba ang kinikilala nyo at ipinagmamalaki.
Sa Kalikasan na lang ano ang pinagagawa sa panahon ng mga ipinagmamalaki nyo.Halos lahat ng kabundukan natin pinanot at pati yung mga National Park patuloy na sinisira.Tulad ng pag agaw at pagsira sa gobyernong inaakala nyong masama kasama na winasak ang kinabukasan ng mga kasalukuyan at darating pang henerasyon.Yung panahon ninyo na sabi nyo alang demokrasya ngf panahon ni Pres.Marcos bakit minahal nyo ba ang dati nyong mga kasama na nagising sa katotohanan di ba nagkakamatay sa harap ng Malacanang.
Umasenso ba kayo,Kayo nga maari na nakadikit pero itong poorna naghirap sa mga rally nyo halos di kumain.Ano nangyari dito sa mga poor farmers lalng naabaon sa kahirapan.Be fair sana.Kahit sino nakaupo tumutulong ako para sa ating mga kababayan at walang maaring tumapak na sino mang lahi sa akin at sa ating kababayan sa ibang bansa ng panahon na akoy nasa ibang bansa.
Halimbawa na dyan sa Libya.Doon pinatunayan ko sa isa sa Quadaffi family na di lahat ng Filipino maaring utusan ng mali at di rin lahat mabibili ng pera.magagawa nyo ba ito sa bansang ito.Sana alagaan nyo ang reputasyon ng ating bansa di yung gumagawa ng akusasyon pati anak at pamilya nung tao niruruyakan nyo.Masakit tuloy na kung naglalakad kami sa markrtplace sa middleast pag Filipino alang tiwala ang mga arabs.
Salamat sapages na ito at sanay laging maging parehas at sanay pagtulungan natin ang laban ko para sa ating Kalikasan na sa kasalukuyan pinagpipiyestahan ng ating mga Pulitiko,”Save Sierra Madre Mountain, Save Angat River.Ito ang Pag asa ng Metro Manila,Bulacan at Pampanga.Maging Botanteng Matalino,Hwag ipagbili ang Karapatan.
I agree with you! I thought Bongbong was different from his father?
By the way, we can never be like Singapore… especially with Marcos still in power!! We’d be worst!!!!
Besides, there is only one Lee Kuan Yeu!