COLUMN -DU30: THE LONG VIEW – Duterte and his children are under attack. What would Ferdinand Marcos do? by BY RACHEL A.G. REYES, TMT
HISTORY is always a good place to start when trying to determine one’s future actions. “Learning from the past” is an irritating truism that is supposed to save one from making further mistakes, or turn oneself into a more virtuous person. But the valuable lessons history can impart might also serve less meritorious ends. Flagging tinpot dictators, for instance, could learn a thing or two from their more successful predecessors.
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As it is by now well known, President Duterte thinks quite highly of Ferdinand Marcos, our most infamous strongman who skillfully instituted Martial Law and made the country grateful to him for killing democracy. In this particularly testing time for his family, Duterte may well be asking: “What would Ferdinand Marcos do?”the last week or so, President Duterte, along with his children Paolo, Sara and even Veronica (nicknamed ‘Kitty’), the youngest (and as yet un-tattooed member) of his brood, have been assailed by a storm of scandalous allegations.
The first bomb to explode in Duterte-land was the videoed testimony of Eduardo Acierto, whose credentials seem impeccable. A graduate of the country’s prestigious military academy (1989), Acierto is a police colonel, the former deputy director of the Philippine National Police drug enforcement group, and has two decades of investigative experience. In 2017, he submitted an intelligence report to his superiors alleging that Michael Yang, a Davao-based Chinese businessman close to the President, and who was at one time his “economic adviser,” was connected to drug smuggling.
Duterte was outraged. He combined his noisy, blustering defense of Yang with shredding Acierto’s credibility, and the thunderous demand to know why this impertinent ex-cop had not yet been properly disposed of.
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Before we could collectively pull up our jaws that had dropped to the floor, the second and third bombs exploded. These were two damning videos that claimed Paolo and his little half-sister Kitty, (yes, Kitty who is so fond of celebrating birthdays and shopping in Uniqlo in Hong Kong), were principal beneficiaries of drug
Curiously, no outright denials were issued. Paolo, who is running uncontested for a congressional seat in the mid-term elections this May, thought he knew his shadowy accuser who claimed to have seen the dragon tattoo on Paolo’s back, a corporeal piece of art work that supposedly marks the President’s eldest son for life as a Chinese triad member.
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No time to let that sink in. The fourth bomb was the online publication of a meticulously researched report authored by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). Based on a close scrutiny of official statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs), the report tracked the escalating wealth of the Dutertes, particularly Paolo and Sara, and the latter’s allegedly unregistered law firm and undisclosed business interests.
Again, President Duterte was livid. He accused the journalists of being bribed. He admonished the public, yes that is you and me, for sticking our noses into the business interests of the presidential family. “Don’t mess with us,” he said.
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So, from allegations of coddling drug lords to enriching themselves on the proceeds of illicit drug smuggling, it is really all getting too much. What with defending his children, himself, his cronies, and threatening a revolutionary government, Duterte is reaching the end of his tether. The other day he tried to calm himself down by telling a jokey anecdote about his sexual virility, a story that I think had something to do with his ability to hang a hand towel on his manhood.
Ferdinand Marcos, one can imagine, would have sneered at such signs of impending meltdown. It was never Marcos’ style to rant and rave and boast about being “highly equipped” inside his underpants. In 1971, Marcos had to contend with a bunch of obstinate critics, the swath of middle and upper classes worried sick about the spread of drug abuse, principally heroin, that was killing their children, and the general, prevailing social conditions of disorder, crime, corruption, violence and gangsterism. He put these elements to work in his favor.
Marcos decisively declared Martial Law, jailed his critics, and won everyone’s support by finding a drug lord, a Chinese heroin trafficker by the name of Lim Seng, to publicly hang.
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