Manny,
Marcos made corruption a science, an art and an institution. He became the idol of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in spite of her being the daughter of a president who did not enrich himself in office and was a product of a religious Catholic institution.
While Cory was able to remove Marcos, his cronies and partners in crime are still around unpunished and rewarded like Lucio Tan, Danding Cojuangco, the Benedictos, Juan Ponce Enrile, Fidel Ramos, and many more who made a mockery of Democracy and stole the wealth of the nation.
Most of the problems are still around us because Marcos example has been followed by now millions of Filipinos that it is hard to destroy his legacy of corruption.
And because many of our politicians are now corrupt - congressmen, senators, governors, mayors, councillors, barangay chairmen including tanods, various government departments such as BIR, Customs, Public Works, DENR, Immigration LTO, etc. etc it has become difficult to correct them.
And because even our justice system is corrupt, too long and too expensive, criminals are lording the system. Others are taking the law into their hands.
It is true that Marcos did some good things. He surrounded himself with brilliant honest men like Rafael Salas, Cesar Virata, Carlos Romulo and others to cover up for his hidden agenda. He built a lot of infrastructures - roads, bridges, cultural centers, etc. but this was a way to get more money out of the rich country.
However he cornered sugar with Benedicto as the brain, coconut with Danding Cojuangco as front, even communication and media and many industries with Lucio Tan and other businessmen as his fronts.
They kept the Filipinos poor so that they can buy them during election time.
Filipinos are now used to it like fishes living in polluted water that they are so indifferent and have lost their sense of right and wrong. Even the brilliant and noble men of the Knights of Rizal are defending the crimes of this man.
How can we then clean up our motherland when the hope of our people have lost their sense of morality? We should start with ourselves and see whether we still have a conscience.
Rodel
Visit Rodel J. Ramos site:
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Thanks a million, Rodel.
There's a phrase we Canadians always invoke every Remembrance Day.
This phrase could be an apt adjunct to this your article:
"LEST WE FORGET."
Sincerely,
Sir Manny Bade
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From: Rodel Ramos <ramos123@rogers.com>
To: kor-world@googlegroups.com
Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2011 5:57:08 PM
Subject: [KOR World] Re: Marcos, bayani ng mga magnanakaw, sinungaling at mga mamatay tao.
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TO THOSE WHOSE MEMORIES ARE FAILING, LET THESE BE A REFRESHER. TO PARENTS WHOSE CHILDREN WERE NOT AROUND DURING THE REIGN OF THE MARCOS DICTATORSHIP, IT IS OUR COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY TO EDUCATE OUR KIDS ON THAT DARK CHAPTER OF OUR NATION'S HISTORY, AND TEACH THEM TO REJECT ANY ATTEMPT TO REVISE IT AND DEODORIZE IT BY CALLING THE DICTATOR A "HERO". In these critical times when efforts are being made to re-write history and sanitizing the record of martial law and the Marcoses, let us cure ourselves of this "despicable amnesia" and get back our sense of righteous indignation! Charlie Avila, who has not forgotten what the Marcoses did, reminds us, in his CHRONOLOGY OF THE MARCOS PLUNDER, that in… September 1976: The Marcoses bought their first property in the U.S. - a condo in the exclusive Olympic Towers on Fifth Avenue in New York . Five months later they would also buy the three adjoining apartments, paying a total of $4,000,000.00 for the four and using Antonio Floirendo's company, The aventures Limited in Hong Kong , as front for these purchases. Oct. 13, 1977: Today, after addressing the UN General Assembly, Imelda celebrated by going shopping and spending $384,000 including $50,000 for a platinum bracelet with rubies; $50,000 for a diamond bracelet; and $58,000 for a pin set with diamonds. The day before, Vilma Bautista, one of her private secretaries, paid $18,500 for a gold pendant with diamonds and emeralds; $9,450 for a gold ring with diamonds and emeralds; and $4,800 for a gold and diamond necklace. Oct. 27, 1977: The Marcoses donated $1.5 million to Tufts University in Boston , endowing a professorial chair in East Asian and Pacific Studies at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The students and professors discovered this and forced the school to reject the donation. To save face, the Marcoses were allowed to finance several seminars and lectures. Nov. 2, 1977: Still at her shopping spree, Imelda paid $450,000 for a gold necklace and bracelet with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds; $300,000 for a gold ring with emeralds and diamonds; and $300,000 for a gold pendant with diamonds, rubies and 39 emeralds. July 1978: After a trip to Russia , Imelda arrived in New York and immediately warmed up for a shopping spree. She started with paying $193,320 for antiques, including $12,000 for a Ming Period side table; $24,000 for a pair of Georgian mahogany Gainsborough armchairs; $6,240 for a Sheraton double-sided writing desk; $11,600 for a George II wood side table with marble top - all in the name of the Philippine consulate to dodge New York sales tax. That was merely for starters. A week later she spent $2,181,000.00 in one day! This included $1,150,000 for a platinum and emerald bracelet with diamonds from Bulgari; $330,000 for a necklace with a ruby, diamonds, and emeralds; $300,000 for a ring with heart-shaped emeralds; $78,000 for 18-carat gold ear clips with diamonds; $300,000 for a pendant with canary diamonds, rubies and emeralds on a gold chain.
After New York, she dropped by Hong Kong where a Cartier representative admitted it was this Filipina, Imelda, who had put together the world's largest collection of gems - in 1978. May 1979: The Marcos couple celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary in a party that cost $5,000,000.00 There was a silver carriage drawn by eight white horses. Nov. 23, 1978: A house was purchased at 4 Capshire Drive in Cherry Hill, New Jersey (actually near to Philadelphia where Bongbong was taking courses at that time) for use by servants and Bongbong's security detachment. The Marcoses did not neglect their annual real estate purchase. During this year and next year, 1979, they purchased two properties - one at 3850 Princeton Pike, Princeton - a 13-acre estate for use by daughter Imee as she attended Princeton . The other was a house at 19 Pendleton Drive in Cherry Hill for use of Bongbong and under the name of Tristan Beplat, erstwhile head of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines. April 1979: In two days in New York this month, Imelda spent $280,000 for a necklace wet with emeralds and diamonds; $18,500 for a yellow gold evening bag with one round cut diamond; $8,975.20 for 20-carat gold ear clips with 24 baguette diamonds; $8,438.10 for 18-carat gold ear clips with fifty-two tapered baguette diamonds; and $12,056.50 for 20-carat gold ear clips with diamonds. June 1980: For $1,577,000.00 in New York Imelda buys Webster Hotel on West 45th Street . She rewards Gen. Romeo Gatan as a limited partner. Gatan arrested Ninoy at the beginning of martial law. The insurgents' ranks grew by twenty percent a year.Meritorious officers in the armed forces experienced low moral due to Marcos' penchant for promoting friends over more deserving officers. Feb. 16, 1986: In Fe's records of monies paid out during Marcos' last campaign, one unusually large item was authorized by "FL" (First Lady) and paid to Assemblyman Arturo Pacificador on this day. A few days later, two carloads of men drove into San Jose , the provincial capital of Antique. Evelio Javier, head of Aquino's campaign, was watching the votes being counted when the men opened fire and killed Evelio after he was still able to run through town but finally got cornered in a public toilet where he was gunned down in front of shocked townspeople. Pacificador was later convicted of the murder. Feb. 25, 1986: Marcos fled the Philippines leaving behind a foreign debt of $27 billion and a bureaucracy gone mad. "Cash advances" for the elections from the national treasury amounted to Php3.12 billion ($150 million). The Central Bank printed millions of peso bills, many with the same serial number. Sixty million pesos in newly printed bills were found in a vehicle owned by Imelda's brother Bejo in the Port Area of Manila, and another Php 100 million aboard the mv Legaspi also owned by Bejo Romualdez. How massive and humongous a loot Marcos took can be deduced from the known losses he left behind. The known losses he left at the Central Bank included $1.2 billion in missing reserves and $6 billion in the Special Accounts. Imelda charged off most of her spending sprees to the PNB or Philippine National Bank which creatively wrote off her debts as "unresponded transfers". Ver also used PNB funds to finance his "intelligence" operations. The known losses at the PNB amounted to Php72.1 billion. At the DBP, the losses Marcos left behind totaled Php85 billion; at the Philguarantee, it was Php 6.2 billion ; and at the NIDC or National Investment and Development Corporation (NDC) - the losses amounted to Php 2.8 billion. These losses were primarily due to cronyism - giving loans to cronies that had little or no collateral, whose corporations were under-capitalized, whose loan proceeds were not used for the avowed purpose, and where the practice of corporate layering was common, i.e. using two or more companies with the same incorporators and officers, whereby one company which gives the loan owns the company which obtains the loan, or similar arrangements. The cronies enjoyed their closeness to Marcos. With him they formed a Grand Coalition. They participated in the exercise of dictatorship. But Marcos owned them. The wealth of the cronies belonged to him. Because of the free rides taken by Imelda, Marcos and the cronies, the Philippine Airlines was in debt by $13.8 billion. The conservative Grand Total for losses Marcos left behind (and therefore the kind of loot he grabbed and hid) amounted to $17..1 billion. The Central Bank, the PNB, and other financial institutions badly need an audit. The special review (not regular audit because there seems not to have been any - there are no records anyway) did not uncover Imelda's spending - her name never appeared - and Ver's intelligence fund. The review gave no hint of theft or missing money, only "downward adjustments" and "proposed adjustments" to "deficiencies" and "shortages of money". Feb. 26, 1986: A few hours after the Marcos party landed in Honolulu , their luggage arrived - 300 crates on board a C-141 cargo jet. It took twenty-five customs officers five hours to tag the bags and identify the contents. The process was videotaped because of all the money and jewelry found inside. There were 278 crates of jewelry and art worth an estimated US$5 million. Twenty-two crates contained more than Php27.7 million in newly minted currency, mostly P100- denominations worth approximately US $1,270,000.(It was illegal at that time for anyone to depart the Philippines carrying more than Php500 in cash.) There were other certificates of deposit from Philippine banks worth about US$1 million, five handguns, 154 videotapes, seventeen cassette tapes, and 2,068 pages of documents - all of which were impounded by Customs. The Marcos party was allowed to keep only US$300,000.00 in gold and $150,000.00 in bearer bonds that they brought in with their personal luggage because they declared them and broke no US customs laws. There were 24 one-kilo gold bars fitted into 2 0$17,000 hand-tooled Gucci briefcase with a solid gold buckle and a plaque on it that read, "To Ferdinand Marcos, from Imelda, on the Occasion of our 24th Wedding Anniversary. " February 1986: When Marcos departed the Philippines , the losses in the three Central Bank accounts surpassed Php 122 billion (more than $6 billion). The big bulk of losses was attributed to the RIR account mainly due to two items: forward cover and swap contracts. Forward cover referred to foreign exchange provided by the CB at a fixed exchange rate to importers of essential commodities. Swap contracts referred to CB's receiving foreign exchange from banks in exchange for pesos at the prevailing rate with a promise to deliver the foreign exchange back to them at an agreed future date. There was no mention of losses due to CB transactions in gold or foreign exchange. Feb. 28, 1986: On this day, Jim Burke, security expert from the US Embassy, was tapping on the wooden paneling in Imelda's abandoned Malacanang bedroom when he heard a hollow sound. It was the walk-in vault. Inside were 35 suitcases secured with locks and tape. They contained a treasure trove of documents about Swiss bank accounts, New York real estate, foundations in Vaduz , and some notepaper on which Marcos had practiced his William Saunders signature. They also contained jewelry valued at some US$10..5 million. March 16, 1986: Did Marcos steal any gold from the CB? The CB always refused to comment. Why? Today the LA Times reported that 6.325 metric tons of gold was unaccounted for in the Central Bank. Between 1978, the year Marcos ordered all gold producers to sell only to the CB, and end 1984, the Bureau of Mines reported that 124,234 pounds of gold were refined. But the CB reported receiving only 110,319 pounds during this same period. That left a difference of 13,915 pounds (6.325 metric tons). March 1986: Jokingly referring to themselves as the Office of National Revenge, a vigilante team led by Charlie Avila and Linggoy Alcuaz received a tip in the morning that Marcos' daughter Imee had kept a private office in the suburb of Mandaluyong at 82 Edsa. They obtained a search warrant, then rushed to Camp Crame to pick up some soldiers. After devising a plan, they boarded four cars and drove to the premises, arriving around midnight. The soldiers scaled a fence and sealed off the area. Avila , Alcuaz, and their men moved in and found documents in cardboard boxes, desks, and filing cabinets. Gunfire could be heard outside,but it didn't deter the search. The documents revealed the names of offshore companies and overseas investments of Marcos and his cronies - a late link in the paper trail that had been started abroad by the teams of Avila , Steve Psinakis, Sonny Alvarez, Raul Daza, Boni Gillego, and Raul Manglapus. March 09, 1986: A Greek-American, Demetrios Roumeliotes, was stopped at the Manila International Airport before he could leave with eight large envelopes stuffed with jewelry that he admitted belonged to Imelda - valued at US$4.7 million. March 15, 1986: Ernie Maceda, Minister of Natural Resources, revealed today that some 7 to 14 tons of Philippine gold are sold to the Binondo Central Bank annually and then smuggled to Sabah , Malaysia - this gold being part of some 20 tons produced by 200,000 panners all over the country. Maceda's query was whether part of the gold they produced was siphoned to the "invisible gold hoard of Ms. Imelda R. Marcos." "We deliver to the Central Bank," the miners said. "If it happened (the siphoning), it happened in the Central Bank." Is it true that Marcos propagated the Yamashita myth to hide the fact that he looted the Central Bank, that its gold bars were melted down and recast in odd-size bars to make them look old (how does gold look old, anyway?). Marcos claimed that he "received the surrender of Gen. Yamashita" after a battle with his guerrilla outfit. History has recorded that Yamashita surrendered to Lt. Co. Aubrey Smith Kenworthy and that there was no battle. Yamashita's peaceful surrender had been arranged at least two weeks before the event. In one entry in Marcos' diary he noted, "I often wonder what I will be remembered for in history. Scholar? Military hero…?" In a supreme irony, he did achieve what he so vainly sought - lasting fame - but not in the way he envisioned: * The largest human rights case in history - 10,000 victims. * Guinness Book of Records - the world's greatest thief. * The largest monetary award in history - $22 billion. Sept. 30, 1986: Questioned by Philippine and US lawyers about his hidden wealth, Marcos took the Fifth Amendment, 197 times. Imelda followed suit, 200 times. December 1989: An American jury found the Marcos estate liable for $15 million in the killing of anti-Marcos activists Gene Viernes and Silme Domingo. Manglapus, Psinakis, Gillego and other erstwhile exile oppositionists testified at the trial. Nov. 4, 1991: Today, a Sunday, the circus came to town. The Swiss Federal Tribunal had ruled the year before that the Philippine government must comply with the European Convention o Human Rights, especially due process. There had to be a lawsuit filed within one year. Thus, the solicitor general's office filed all sorts of cases against Imelda and the government had to allow her to return to answer the charges. "I come home penniless," she tearfully said on arrival. She then repaired to her suite at the Philippine Plaza Hotel which cost $2,000 a day and rented 60 rooms for her entourage - American lawyers, American security guards and American PR firms. December 1991: The Central Bank had accumulated losses of Php324 billion in the Special Accounts. Nov. 30, 1992 The Central Bank; losses were Php561 billion and climbing. Cuisia asked that the CB be restructured. Sen. Romulo asked to see the 1983 audit of the international reserves. He couldn't get a copy. It was "restricted" . Jan. 5, 1993 Imelda didn't show up for the scheduled signing of a new PCGG agreement. She kept vacillating on the terms and conditions - demanding she be allowed to travel abroad for thirty-three days to confer with bank officials in Switzerland , Austria , Hongkong and Morocco to work out the transfer of the frozen funds. Actually, she was hoping a guy she had authorized, J..T.Calderon, would be able to move the funds just as the order was lifted, before the government had a chance to transfer them to Manila . When the government discovered the authority, all negotiations with Imelda were halted and her requests for travel suspended. Aug. 10, 1993: Georges Philippe, a Swiss lawyer of Imelda, wrote today a confidential letter to the Marcoses' old Swiss lawyer, Bruno de Preux, who handled almost all of the Marcos family's hidden accounts in Switzerland . Philippe requested de Preux for the status of: A $750 million account with United Mizrahi Bank in Zurich; various currency and gold deposits at the Union Bank of Switzerland, at Kloten airport and at Credit Suisse; A $356 million account (now in escrow and worth almost $600 million) which was being claimed by the PCGG. 1994: The human rights jury awarded the victims $1.2 billion in exemplary damages, then $766.4 million in compensatory damages a year after that, for a total of $1.964 billion. Two days after, another $7.3 million was awarded to twenty-one Filipinos in a separate lawsuit. 1995: The US Supreme Court upheld the $1.2 billion judgment. March 29, 1995: The Swiss Parliament passed a law (an amendment to a previous act) that removed the need for a final judgment of criminal conviction of the accused (such as the Marcoses) in the case of criminally acquired assets which could now therefore be returned to claimants (such as the Philippine government) by Swiss court order. July 1996: In part because of the torture of Roger Roxas, $22 billion was awarded to his Golden Budha Corporation. Dec. 10, 1997: The Swiss Supreme Court promulgated a landmark decision that took into account the March 1995 Swiss Parliament act and the fact that new criminal cases had been filed against Imelda Marcos. The court held that there was no need for any criminal proceeding; that a civil or administrative proceeding would suffice, and the Marcos Swiss deposits which had been "criminally acquired" can be returned to the Philippines in deference to the final judgment of the Philippine court as to the ownership of these deposits. The Swiss court also announced that the interest and reputation of Switzerland was at stake if it would become a haven for money launderers laundering money obtained by crime. Therefore, in the case of the Marcos deposits, because "the illegal source of the assets in this case cannot be doubted" the Swiss court ordered that the money be returned to the Philippines to be held in escrow account in the PNB to await the judgment of the Sandiganbayan in the forfeiture case. By the way, on Jan. 17, 1975 a secret decree not made public until after the Edsa insurrection was signed by Marcos stating that in the event he became incapacitated or died, power would be turned over to Imelda. On June 7, 1975, in his own handwriting, Marcos amended the January 17th decree and clarified Imelda's role as chairperson of committee with presidential powers. In February 1979, Imelda was named chairman of the cabinet committee, composed of all ministries, to launch the BLISS (Bagong Lipunan Sites and Services) program, an ambitious attempt to centralize control of all economic and social development. She assumed responsibility for the "11 needs of Man" codified in her ministry's mufti-year Human Settlements Plan,1978-2000. By 1986, the number of Filipinos living below the poverty line doubled from 18 million in 1965 to 35 million. And the ecological balance of the country had degraded from 75% to 27% forest cover remaining - with 39 million acres of forest falling victim to rampant logging. This was BLISS. She was also the head of the Metro Manila Commission, which by year-end 1985 had managed to accumulate debts of Php 1.99 billion (which included $100 million in foreign loans) in its ten years of existence. Imelda had accomplished nothing and left the people embittered and even more disillusioned. In September 1992, Marcos was found guilty of violating the human rights of 10,000 victims. The ruling occurred just after a judge found Imee Marcos-Manotoc guilty of the torture and murder of Archimedes Trajano, a 21 year old engineering student at Mapua who had the temerity to ask Imee after a speech she gave whether the Kabataang Barangay (a national youth group) "must be headed by the President's daughter?"
Imee and brother Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. have been active in the political scene.. Bongbong, who finished 3 terms as Ilocos Norte governor, is now running for Senator under Presidential bet, Manny Villar's senatorial slate.. He has been quoted as saying that if given a chance, he'd like to run for President one day...(gads). Bongbong is now a Senator, Imelda is governor of Ilocos Norte and Imee is in Congress. The MARCOSES are back in full force thanks to our "despicable amnesia".
Visit Rodel J. Ramos site:
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DAPAT ILIBING SI MACOY SA LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI!! Kung gaano kadami ang naghinanakit sa palakad ni Macoy during his term at gaano kadami ang nakinabang - mas disqualified ang lahat nang Philippine Presidente who succeeded him - why HINDI DAPAT ILIBING SA LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI? What is more devastating than to go abroad after Marcos regime, thousands of applicants paying exhorbitant placement fees for jobs that do not exist and those jobs that exist place applicants in most horrible, horrendous, miserable, dangerous, and fatal circumstances that affect millions of OFWs who suffered and their families - worst than the subtle, insidious, and corrupt politicians, like Macoy, has been considered by many? I went to US in 1971 - all that was needed was a passport from DFA that required a birth certificate which I didn't have. I submitted a sworn affidavit of 2 witnesses in lieu of birth certificate, an NBI clearance that cost me P6, 2 passport photos, an application for passport notarized and submitted to DFA for the passport fee of P60. The passport was issued after 3 days - WALANG LAGAYAN!!!!! I obtained a permit from Malacanang (as a government employee of the Civil Service Commission) to travel to US to observe women's club activities, deposited P50,000 in the bank, went to the US Embassy for a visa - issued a B-2 on the strength of my purpose to travel. bought PAL round trip ticket Manila-Los Angeles-Manila for P3,200, flew to California on October 1971 and returned in July 1972. WALANG LAGAYAN!!! Meantime, I applied in June 1973 to study nursing in the United Kingdom. I only typed a letter of application enclosing my undergrad college transcript, and got an acceptance letter within 4 weeks to study nursing instructing me to bring the letter to the British Embassy on Roxas Blvd. I only spent for the cost of an airmail stamp to send my application to England, spent jeep fare to the British Embassy which issued me a certification that a student visa will be issued to me 2 weeks before I leave for England to start school February 4, 1974. WALANG LAGAYAN!!!!! I resigned from my work at St. Thomas's Hospital, returned to Manila and picked up the first batch of 2 children who entered the US with me. By January, 1981, 4 children and my husband were in the U.S. WALANG LAGAYAN!!!! One child who was second year high school at Letran opted to remain for a while and arrived in US, June 1981. WALANG LAGAYAN!!! At that time during Marcos years, WALANG POEA, OWWA, and DOLE interference. Foreign employment was between the applicant and the foreign employer. After Marcos years, the POEA, OWWA, and DOLE became the arbiters and facilitators in the matter of foreign employment. Instead of harping the best intentions for OFWs, these offices served more than bottlenecks for job applicants. There are thousand of RECRUITERS, fake and genuine alike WHO BECAME VERY INNOVATIVE IN EXACTING PLACEMENT FEES FOR PROMISED JOBS THAT DIDN'T NET MUCH FOR THE OFWS WHO ARE REQUIRED TO PAY FEES, ACCOMMODATION, ETC. Some jobs did not even exist. Excerpts from > Date: May 28 04:11PM -0400 > Url: > > Happy Birthday Sir Rey! Regards to first Lady Monica. > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry > > -----Original Message----- > From: Manny Bade < angelprince123@yahoo.com> > Sender: > > > >
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WOW! It has been many years and looking at the picture of former President Ronald Reagan with the Marcoses, he was really and truly the handsomest and the most attractive of all US Presidents. BTW, thanks for my 2014 Reagan calendar.
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