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Tag: Ferdinand Marcos

SC decision on Marcos burial preview of Bongbong’s election protest vs Leni?

How the Supreme Court voted. Infographic from ABS-CBN online.
How the Supreme Court voted. Infographic from ABS-CBN online.

Is the voting in the Supreme Court decision allowing the burial of Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani reflective of the sentiments of the justices towards the Marcoses?

Will that be the same alignment in the election protest of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr against the election of Vice President Leni Robredo?

That is what Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV expects.

In his statement, Trillanes said: “The Supreme Court effectively rewrote history. In their purely legalistic eyes, the EDSA People Power which was emulated globally and which we celebrate yearly, never happened. We should now expect Bongbong Marcos to be the Vice President of the country soon.”

Looting the Marcos loot

Imelda Marcos loves jewelry. Photo from http://imeldific2012.blogspot.com/2012/09/imelda-marcos-muse-of-manila-iron.html
Just because the Presidential Commission on Good Government would be abolished, it doesn’t mean that the hunt for the people’s money looted by the Marcoses and hidden in bank accounts abroad or in properties under the name of some friends, should also end.

As PCGG Chair Andres Bautista said, the job could be continued by the Department of Justice. The reasons he gave, one of which as that Marcos- loot- hunting by the 200-man agency is no longer cost effective, makes sense.

So far, in its 27-year existence the PCGG has recovered $4 billion (P164 billion), only a tiny fraction of what was estimated to be a $10 billion loot in 1986. Just imagine how much the unrecovered would be worth by now including the interests.

The executive order creating the PCGG was the first issued by President Cory Aquino on Feb. 28, 1986, three days after the Marcos fled early evening of Feb. 25, 1986 as millions of Filipinos rose in a bloodless revolution called People Power.

Please, no more study groups, Mr. President

Resuming the tradition with foreign correspondents
It is within the rights of President Aquino to deny the desire of the Marcos family for a state burial for President Ferdinand Marcos.

If Aquino thinks that Marcos’ dictatorship nullified the latter’s two-term presidency and disqualified him for a state burial, he is entitled to that opinion.

Since Aquino is the president now, his decision will be followed in political matters, which the Marcos burial issue, has become.

At the forum hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines last Wednesday, Aquino announced his decision to ignore the recommendation of Vice President Binay whom he had tasked to study the issue that his three predecessors – Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, and Gloria Arroyo, did not want to handle.

Aquino cited the many victims of Marcos’ martial law that includes his father, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

PCGG to probe Marcos’ secret wealth in Australia

VERA Files in Yahoo

The Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) will look into the reported ill-gotten wealth of the late president Ferdinand Marcos in Australia believed to be under the name of a former swimsuit model whose daughter was reportedly dropped from a reality TV show after producers learned her father was the Philippine dictator.

“We will look at the money trail and see if the amount to be recovered would be worth the lawyers’ fees we would be spending for it,” PCGG Chairman Andres Bautista said, adding that he only learned about the alleged Marcos wealth in Australia Thursday when his staff showed him a news item that appeared in an Australian newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, about Analisa Hegyesi, an interior designer, who was axed from the reality show “Renovators” when she told producers she was the daughter of Marcos.

Hegyesi, 40, is the daughter of Evelin Hegyesi, 64, a swimsuit model in her younger days who had an affair with Marcos in the 1970s. Marcos, who ruled the Philippines for more than 20 years, was known to have affairs with actresses and fashion models.

Marcos Australian daughter dropped from reality show

Dennis Garcia’s Facebook wall carried this news item from today’s issue of The Daily Telegraph. A 2004 article in the Sun-Herald gave an interesting background on Analisa’s mother, Evelin, and the awesome money that Marcos gifted her. The article tells us how much money were taken away from us. Just imagine if those money were used for the Filipino people.

Ferdinand Marcos’ girl is shown the door

Analisa Hegyesi
Take one home makeover reality show, add a contestant with serious interior designing credibility – and then apparently take it all away at the last minute because her dad was a corrupt Asian dictator.

That’s what Bondi designer Analisa Hegyesi – an Australian-based daughter of former Philippines leader Ferdinand Marcos- says she was told when production company Shine Australia rang her on Monday to say she was no longer part of its planned Renovators show.

The Channel 10 series starts filming next week, with a team of professionals locked down in an apartment block and taken to various properties to make them over.

Hegyesi told us she made it to the final cut after months of auditions and interviews – but was dumped after she mentioned who her father was to producers last week.

US judge OKs payment of $7.5M to Marcos victims

From GMA-7 online

Marcos at the height of his power with Imelda beside him
HONOLULU — A federal judge on Thursday approved the distribution of $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by thousands of victims of torture, execution and abduction under the regime of the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos.

The distribution provides victims their first opportunity to collect something since they sued in 1986.

Each of the 7,526 eligible members of the class-action lawsuit will receive $1,000 under the plan approved by US District Judge Manuel Real. Distribution is expected to begin in mid-February and take about a month.

Robert Swift, the lead attorney in the case, said the payments were an important milestone for victims who have been fighting for years. Most of the victims or their surviving family members live in the Philippines.

Interesting appointments

There is something amusing in the latest batch of appointments of President Aquino.

Alex Magno; Ronald Llamas

Like in the high-paying positions of Board of Directors of the Development Bank of the Philippines. Gloria Arroyo defender and Philippine Star columnist Alex Magno is out. Ronald Llamas of Akbayan is in.

I don’t know if Llamas specifically asked for DBP because of Magno but the mere mention of the names of the two reminds me of their verbal wrestling many years ago.

Magno greeted Llamas: “Hello, the last of the socialist.”
Llamas replied: “Hello, the first of the opportunist.”

Between legend and truth

by J.B. Baylon
Malaya

This holiday season has allowed me to do something I like doing a lot – and which costs very little.

I refer to my habit of going to a bookstore, and staying there for an hour or two, sometimes even three – while I browse the many books available, taking my own sweet time paring down the purchase options to one, or two, or three, sometimes even five books I would finally go home with.

And so, over the last five days I have visited the different branches of Fully Booked daily, and the National Book Store in Greenbelt 1 twice as well, as a result of which I now have seven books added to my list of “next to read” tomes.

Etta: don’t forget Marcos’ victims

Etta Rosales, former partylist representative and now chair emeritus of Akbayan, has written another open letter (two weeks ago it was addressed to Liberal party presidential candidate Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on the Hacienda Luisita issue) , this time to Nacionalista presidential candidate Manuel Villar, comrade in the fight against the Marcos dictatorship Satur Ocampo, and Marcos son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr, representative of Ilocos Norte (2nd district).

Etta was writing this letter as chair of “Claimants 1081”, a group of victims of Marcos’ martial rule under Presidential Decree 1081.

Here’s Etta’s letter: