It's easy to hate the Marcos Years for the WELL-DOCUMENTED human rights violations such as illegal detention, unlawful arrests, and rampant corruption. What is most often forgotten or overlooked is that the Marcos Years was also plagued with rampant crony capitalism are because of two decades of ECONOMIC PROTECTIONISM under his rule. Yes, that's why I wrote an article some time ago that it doesn't make sense to criticize Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. if you love economic protectionism. It's useless to compare Marcos to Adolf Hitler if you don't see that the latter too was a supporter of economic protectionism.
Some are objecting to the celebration of Marcos Day, right? Yes, Marcos is no hero (in the sense of great accomplishments for the better) but I have no qualms about burying him in the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani or the Graveyard of the Heroes.What's even better is that Marcos was buried with another "hero" named Carlos P. Garcia who started the Failipino First policy - a policy that made Filipinos a failure. In fact, I won't even mind if Noynoy Aquino will get a heroes' burial in the same place as long as the body is near Marcos. But Marcos is indeed a hero - a hero for protectionist lovers. It really is so dumb how the Yellowtards and Reds hate Marcos but love protectionism. They defend 60-40 as "beneficial" never mind that the protectionist years of Marcos was the one that gave rise to the OFW program, crony capitalism, and why the debts by the Marcoses are NOT PAID until now. How can it be paid by future generations when protectionism is rampant? Until now, the same policies that gave rise to crony capitalism are well-carried out in the form of economic protectionism. The only ones blessed by it are the oligarchs but NOT the Filipino people. They want to exhume the remains of Marcos from the LNMB but they want Garcia to remain there? Please, if you want Marcos' remains exhumed then do the same thing for Garcia too - their policies didn't work well for the Philippines.
Think protectionism is good and golden? Well, one needs to restudy the Marcos years from the economic angle. Don't just talk about how much Marcos stole or the Marcos wealth. Talk about Marcos' economic policies that caused the Philippines to be unable to pay the debt. Protectionism had allowed the Marcos cronies to enrich themselves because there was hardly any competition. Worse, Marcos seized businesses for himself and the cronies. Although businesses today are not seized by regimes after Marcos yet protectionism still preserved the oligarchy. The oligarchy has only given high costs and lower quality services as a result of HIGH DEMAND and LOW SUPPLY. Worse, others are still propagating whatever lies they can about foreign direct investors (FDI) in order to preserve their power. Didn't the Marcos years commit the same mistake?
If you love protectionism then you might as well celebrate Marcos' birthday as a national holiday. After all, Marcos' protectionist policies are still living today. But if you don't want a Marcos Day then support economic liberalization. Support liberating the Philippine economy from oligarchy control by opening up the free market. Let the oligarchs compete against FDI and they will be forced to give better services at a lower cost when SUPPLY IS UP and demand will inevitably lower as a result.
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