Bongbong Marcos wants RP glory during father's time revived

MANILA, Philippines - If he could have his way, Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. wants the Philippines to bask in glory just like when his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos, was still running the country.

Marcos, who will be making another run for the Senate next year elections (he lost in the May 1995 polls), made this promise during the birthday celebration of his older sister Imee Thursday night at their ancestral home in San Juan.

He hinted, although very vaguely, that Filipinos may have committed a mistake in ousting his father in February 1986, forcing the family into exile in the US while Cory Aquino, wife of slain opposition Sen. Ninoy Aquino, was catapulted to the presidency.

“I believe that when we look at our country, and we see our country’s recent history, we are driven to the conclusion that in the previous years, maybe we have taken a wrong turn in our history and are now facing a historical dead-end,” he told the guests.

Marcos, who was formerly governor of Ilocos Norte, said this is also partly the reason why he wanted to run for senator, because “we need to find a way out of this (crisis).”

The House deputy minority leader also underscored the need for a new brand of politics, where the “only way” to replace traditional politicians “is to replace the politics as we see it now.”

It is about time, according to him, that the government deliver on its promise of success to hard-working Filipinos, who have been mired in poverty for a very long time.

“This is a promise that we have made to the Filipino people a long, long time ago. And we have continued to make this promise for a very long time since. We saw a semblance of that fulfillment perhaps in my father’s time, but we have failed our country since,” Marcos said.

“We must replace the politics of inertia with politics of leadership. We must replace the politics of ordinary and moribund ideas with the politics of vision. These are the things that I believe we can do in the future,” he added.

Among those who attended the birthday party were Marcos’ mother former first lady Imelda Marcos, his wife Liza Araneta, sister Irene and husband Greggy Araneta, and cousin Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, nephew of Imelda.

Senator Manny Villar, standard-bearer of the Nacionalista Party where Marcos has been included in the Senate slate, came. So did Senator Loren Legarda, a vice presidential candidate under the Nationalist People’s Coalition. But the two did not sit beside each other.

Birthday celebrant Imee, Bongbong’s predecessor in the Ilocos Norte district, denied she had any political plans, but said she will just be helping her brother as PR and media coordinator when he runs for senator in May 2010.

Meantime, a federal appeals court said in an opinion issued Friday that a US District judge’s lax oversight of more than $30 million tied to the late President Marcos is “curious.”

A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that a new judge give a fresh accounting of the $33.8 million previously entrusted to Los Angeles-based US District Judge Manuel Real. – With AP