Archbishop Rosales asks for recovery of Marcos wealth

Only a few days ago, there was a report that some people wanted the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be recognized as a national hero by having his refrigerated remains buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Now Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales has come out with a strong statement as to why to this late date the Philippine government has not taken any step to recover the alleged billions of dollars that were allegedly stolen by Marcos during his dictatorship. Instead the country is more interested in the "Hello Garci" tape and the jueteng pay-offs.

The best thing that can happen to this country is if corrupt politicians were charged, convicted and jailed. And, of course, all things point to former dictator Marcos as the most corrupt politician in our times. Archbishop Rosales made it clear that he is not against investigating present corruption. That should go on. But if we don’t do something about past corruption, then all the investigations being conducted on present corruption will be forgotten as soon as more corruption take place.

Archbishop Rosales has also sent a plea to former First Lady Imelda Marcos and her son Ilocos Norte Gov. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos to voluntarily donate the money back to the people. We should like to add that they should be allowed to choose the government projects where the money will be used. We would just like to suggest that they should not forget the street children. They should be provided with adequate homes and the opportunities of acquiring a good education. They are the Holy Innocents of our times. When we say Holy Innocents, we are, of course, referring to the new-born children that Herod had killed when he heard that Christ was born.

Another good project would be to provide adequate housing for persons living along the railroad tracks. These would involve transferring them to a better location where they would have access to better homes and possibly jobs.

We sincerely hope the Marcos family would respond to Manila Archbishop Rosales’ appeal. Our country has a lot of problems and sometimes the private sector is in a better position than the government itself to respond to the problems. It should be good if the Marcos family would be remembered for what they voluntarily did to help people in distress. It is never too late to right any wrong.