Scrap RP-US Friendship Day — Imee

Eighteen years after her father was ousted from the presidency and forced into exile in the United States, Imee Marcos is still hurting from the fate that beset her family and now wants Filipino-American Friendship Day scrapped from the Philippine calendar.

The re-elected Ilocos Norte congresswoman and daughter of the late strongman Ferdinand said celebrating July 4 every year "only reminds Filipinos of their colonial past and further bolsters perceptions (that) there is no real independence in this country."

"Instead of these bogus celebrations, we must instead commemorate each year the day we rose as a nation against the colonizers from Spain, the United States and Japan who occupied our country," she said.

Marcos’ anti-US statement was issued yesterday, the day her mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos, celebrated her 75th birthday. The young Marcos said she was "surprised" to learn festivities are held every Fil-Am Friendship Day.

"Our historians must point out that July 4 is the Americans’ Independence Day, and never really signified friendship between our two nations," she suggested, insisting that an independent nation like ours has "no business" commemorating others’ "days of glory."

"Besides, why must we glorify American heroes like MacArthur, Taft, Dewey when we have our own share of Filipino heroes to be proud of," she reiterated, apparently referring to local heroes such as Lapu-Lapu and Andres Bonifacio, among others.

The Marcos daughter further accused the Americans of "exploiting Filipinos by passing one-sided economic treaties like parity rights, making the Philippines dependent on the Americans long after it gained independence."

Imee, on her third and last term as a member of the House of Representatives, was one of the anti-US congressmen who walked out when US President George Bush addressed Congress during his visit to Manila in October 2003. She joined other left-leaning lawmakers who boycotted the joint session.

The Marcoses were forced to leave the Philippines in 1986 after the popular uprising known as People Power I. They however gradually returned to the home country, beginning with Mrs. Marcos in the early 1990s, after the dictator’s death in 1989.