Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. is NOT a hero. Neither is Carlos P. Garcia the founder of the Filipino First Policy. Both of them deserve to be buried next to each other at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani. Now, it's September 21 and it's really more than time to remind people about the WELL-DOCUMENTED Marcos human rights violations. It's very easy to say #NeverAgain to Marcos. However, #NeverAgain to Marcos will only make sense if you actually knew that his highly PROTECTIONIST regime actually allowed him to do what he did. I don't see how economic protectionism is a blessing except for the Marcos cronies or for the oligarchs. The Filipino people suffered dearly under his protectionist regime and unjust declaration of martial law. It was protectionism that empowered Marcos and his cronies to operate at full force.
How can we say protectionism allowed the Marcos years abuses? A free market would easily get information more spread than usual. What was more interesting was that ABiaS-CBN had dirty connections with both Marcos and the communists. Marcos' protectionism grip allowed him to shut down 464 media outlets without a problem. Protectionism also allowed Marcos to seize ANY business he wanted. Slowly but surely - a lot of companies moved away from private ownership to crony capitalism. Marcos' move to put utilities as government-owned is really a socialistic move. Do you think Marcos could easily seize those businesses for his cronies if the Philippines were a free market? Too bad really that Diosdado Macapagal of the pre-Marcos Liberal Party lost the reelection. Macapagal was planning to revert the moronic Failipino First Policy (because it made Filipinos FAIL hard) by Garcia. Marcos ended up strengthening the foundation of Garcia and so did the post-Marcos 1987 Constitution. Cronyism was a product of economic protectionism.
Just consider the INFLATION RATE from 1965 up to 1986. You can see that the Marcos Years were not even the golden years. However, it's never enough to keep bitching about how it wasn't the Golden Years without understanding how economic protectionism played a vital role in Marcos' tyranny. Protectionism has been heavily used by the worst tyrants such as Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong. Hitler himself was also a protectionist central planner and protected the German industry from foreign investors. I don't think Hitler could easily massacre the European Jewish businessmen if Germany didn't get into an era of protectionism under him. Mao's protectionist regime has been heavily marked with human rights abuses that today's China can only dream of. Sure, the Uighurs are being mistreated or reeducated but think of how Mao's China was truly a bloody regime. Mao's two movements The Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution would make today's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pale in comparison. Deng Xiaoping though infamous for the Tiananmen Square Massacre can never match up to his predecessor Mao's bloody regime. Not that I'm giving post-Mao China a slide - I'm just stating that protectionism made Mao's regime worse.
Should we be surprised that Marcos himself was a tyrant due to protectionism? Not at all if you consider a link between protectionism and the worst dictators. So what's the use of criticizing Marcos all over again for the woes of the Philippines if the current laws still continue his economic protectionist platform?
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