Impunity and insanity

The announcement by Bongbong Marcos that he will not pursue legal action against President Benigno Aquino III and his cabinet officials for wrongdoings after they step down from office is regrettable but understandable.

It is regrettable because it sends the wrong message. How can one stop corruption when a vice presidential candidate is willing to condone it? The Aquino government has been accused of using DAP whose unconstitutionality has been affirmed by the Supreme Court as a conduit for pork barrel. Bongbong’s stand is understandable because the Marcoses have not been jailed for plunder despite the $5 billion to $10 billion foreign observers estimate they have looted from the country. Impunity seems to be the hallmark of the Marcoses. They still refuse to pay the nearly 10,000 human rights victims the $2.3-billion compensation awarded by US courts.

If BBM thinks he should be elected because he will not punish wrongdoings is the worst policy statement he could have made at a time when Filipinos are realizing that government will not improve when crimes go unpunished.

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This column’s item on the love story of Ysidra Cojuangco and Antonio Luna, although told only within the Cojuangco family, has provoked greater curiosity on just how the family’s fortune was made and why it matters.

There were witnesses and the story should not be left unexamined according to Larry Henares.

“The oral history came from several sources: the family of Eulalio Saulo who brought the gold of Luna from the Ilocos to Ysidra, especially Encarnacion Saulo-Padilla, who was a friend of Ysidra herself; the family of Tiburcio Hilario who also escorted the gold of Luna from Pampanga to Ysidra; from the leaders of the revolution exiled in Guam (Artemio Ricarte, Apolinario Mabini) who told their fellow exile Pedro Abad Santos who then told his fellow socialist Luis Taruc; Archbishop Florentino Cinense (who speaks Pangalatok) listening to gossip in his own hometown of Cabanatuan.”

Mr. Pedro Ukong, researcher at the data bank of the National Historical Commission, tells us that there is no record of where General Antonio Luna was buried, and the pertinent documents relating to the relationship of Antonio Luna and Ysidra Cojuangco are missing from the archives. Is it possible that his body was retrieved by his sweetheart Ysidra Cojuangco, and buried with his love child, Antonio C. Cojuangco, who was among those massacred by the Japanese troops in La Salle during the Battle of Manila? Is it possible that the extra skeleton in the coffin of Antonio C. Cojuangco is not that of his Chinese amah as claimed, but that of his own father? A DNA test of the two skeletons should ferret out the truth and lay this matter to rest. Antonio C. Cojuangco himself died a horrendous death along with his family during World War II. This is a love story that has historical importance. And no doubt the descendants most probably Tonyboy Cojuangco, would like to know. Yet for all his toughness, according to Gen. Jose Alejandrino who was the confidant of General Luna, he was “meek as a lamb” when in front of Ysidra Cojuangco.

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Jose Alejandrino, the former assistant of FVR, requested me to issue a rejoinder regarding the claim of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago that she was cheated of the presidency in the May 1992 election that FVR won.

“Had FVR cheated,” he said, “Maid Miriam would not have won Metro Manila by a wide margin of 240,000 votes.”

“On Dec. 5, 1991 I wrote to Hugh Hara, first secretary of the US Embassy, to request them to send an international observer group to monitor the May 1992 elections. Despite being part of the FVR campaign team, I took this initiative because I wanted to ensure fair and free elections.”

“The Americans acceded to my request. After the May elections, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Solomon stated he had – and here I quote – “not seen reports of significant fraud in the conduct of the elections.”

“These are contained in my memoirs published in the US.”

“The Maid Miriam should stop making accusations that have no basis. I hope these are not bouts of insanity between moments of lucidity.”

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Here is an imagined conversation with the Lord:

“Lord, my country is in shit.”

“Why?” The Lord asked.

“We have four main presidential candidates. One of them lacks executive ability to govern the nation. Another lacks experience. The third lacks integrity. The fourth may be insane.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know, Lord. Maybe you can take them away.”

“Why? Are they sick?”

“Only one, the insane one. But she claims to be healed.”

“Maybe you need the insane one to be president.”

“How is that, Lord?”

“The only way to restore sanity to an insane nation with an insane political system is to have an insane president. Otherwise how will the people realize the insanity around them?”

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Few know that there is a Pilipino version of “The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos.” It was translated by Maria Odulio de Guzman and a thousand copies were printed. That was before my family and I went on exile. I had kept the books in carton boxes that traveled from London to Manila but got destroyed during the shipment of our personal effects. The only copy left was my copyright submission to the National Library. It has now been reconstructed and will be available soon from Flipside. The title in Pilipino is “Ang Natatagong Buhay ni Imelda Marcos.”