‘Memory of Marcos misdeeds fading’

Ferdinand Marcos transformed the Philippines from a promising democracy to a basket-case dictatorship, but 20 years after his fall from power surprisingly few people have bitter memories of him.

While government agencies are still struggling to find the billions that Marcos and his cronies allegedly stole during his 20-year rule, members of his family have bounced back into politics by getting elected to Congress and local posts.

A nationwide survey by Pulse Asia last July gave Marcos an approval rating of seven out of 10, higher than all his successors. Incumbent President Arroyo only rated a four.

In July 1998, just 12 years after an Army-backed people power revolt toppled Marcos, a nationwide survey found that 58 percent disagreed with the assessment that he was "a brutal or oppressive leader."

Charges of human rights abuses, widespread election fraud and the massive plunder of the economy have all faded from public memory. Even the lines between pro- and anti-Marcos forces have vanished as new political alliances have taken shape.

Born in 1917, Marcos seemed destined for greatness. He proved to be a brilliant and charismatic lawyer, politician and public speaker who married Imelda Romualdez, a local beauty queen.

Not even charges that he murdered his father’s political rival in 1935 could slow him down. He was handily acquitted after arguing his own case before the Supreme Court.

Promising swift progress, a better crop output and an end to corruption, Marcos was elected president in 1965 and again in 1969, becoming the first person to be elected to two terms in the Philippines.

While the country was still in the grip of powerful, feudal political families, it enjoyed an outspoken democracy and an economy that in Asia was second only to Japan.

The democracy was to prove fragile. Banned by the Constitution from standing in 1973 for a third term, Marcos imposed martial law in September 1972 — supposedly to save the country from the small communist insurgent movement.

He jailed his political opponents, closed down all independent media and ruled by presidential decree.

Although Marcos would later allow the creation of a parliament, true power always remained in his hands, along with that of his ambitious, jet-setting wife and key members and friends of the family.

Marcos awarded virtual control of key industries like sugar and coconuts to his cronies, creating the term "cronyism" to describe this form of economic mismanagement.

He politicized the military, appointing selected military officers to civilian posts and fueling a hunger for power in that once-apolitical institution.

While neighbors like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand surged forward economically, the Philippines amassed a huge foreign debt and sank into poverty. — AFP