It's More Than Time To STOP OBSESSING Over What If Marcos Never Rose Into Power, Get It?

A Rappler article called "Were it not for Marcos, Filipinos today would have been richer" by JC Punongbayan and Manuel Leonard Albis makes me think how often people get stuck in the Marcos narrative. I don't consider Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. a hero and neither is Carlos P. Garcia. I don't even think the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani is as sacred as we want to make it out to be. Both Marcos and Garcia deserve to be buried right next to each other. I don't really care if Antonio F. Trillanes IV, Gary Alejano, and Noynoy Aquino get buried in that same place. Garcia started the "Filipino First Policy" which only caused decades of protectionism. Later, the Marcos Years were the golden years for the oligarchy at the expense of Filipinos. That's why I'm that dead serious in saying that if you love protectionism then why not make Marcos' birthday a HOLIDAY. I'm not saying it's wrong for Punongbayan and Albis to raise that issue. The problem is that they don't really mention another important key factor in Marcos leading Filipinos to ruin -- ECONOMIC PROTECTIONISM! Besides, Nutribun is a socialist program and Marcos was already comparable to a communist dictator -- enriching himself at the expense of the country.

EDSA Revolution's 35th birthday is coming. I'm not saying that overthrowing Marcos was a bad thing. In fact, it saved the country but only for a moment. My reason for saying it is because the 1987 Constitution was just a band-aid solution to the 1973 Constitution. What's even worse is that the lie that the 1987 Constitution is the best in the world has been propagated by schools and media for several decades. Yet, where was the promise of progress after EDSA? It shows that overthrowing dictators is ineffective as long as a similar system that allows dictators to rise in power arrives. What I even find so annoying is that many older folks love to bring up the dark horrors of the Marcos Years yet they're still loving economic protectionism. They are still in the narrative of Benigno "Ninoy" A. Aquino Jr. as a supposed "hero" and "martyr". The same narrative led to the presidency of the late Cory Cojuangco-Aquino (who KNEW nothing about politics), the presidency of Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino. The big issue is that if Noynoy should suddenly die -- maybe we might have Kris Aquino run for politics. Though the other alternative might be to make a martyr out of Antonio Trillanes IV and let his wife Arlene become the new Cory. I wonder have people TRULY learned the mistakes of the post-EDSA Years and the mistakes of the Marcos Years?

It's one thing to bring up the problem of a dictator who rose into power. It's another thing to obsess over it for several decades. I don't deny that the damages of the Marcos Years were that huge. The big issue is to keep obsessing with what if Marcos never rose to power rather than focus on solutions. After EDSA, history books did publish the horrors of the Marcos regime yet tend to ignore the failures of the Cory Regime. It's so stupid that it's already been 34 (going 35 years) since Marcos was overthrown yet people still obsess over what if he never rose to power. It's a far cry from the Japanese and the Germans after World War II. Germany still continues to acknowledge that Adolf Hitler was a real monster. The Japanese still consider Imperial Japan to be a dark history of theirs. However, the Japanese and the Germans decided to focus on moving on -- something many Filipinos have a problem with. Germans decided to build their federal-parliamentary with free market economy instead of whine about what if Nazi Germany never took place. Take note also that Marcos' "parliament" was a mockery at best. Japanese decided to build Modern Japan instead of whining about the atomic bomb that hit Hiroshima to end World War 2. 

If Filipinos were more fixated with reversing the damages done by Marcos then the Philippines would've recovered. Instead, all the obsession of what if Marcos never rose held the Philippines backward. You could imagine that only if Filipinos decided to have EDSA and replace the 1973 fake parliamentary constitution for a REAL 1987 PARLIAMENTARY constitution. Cory herself could've served as the ceremonial Head of State while Fidel V. Ramos would serve as the Head of Government. Only if Garcia's "Filipino First Policy" were removed along with Marcos' protectionist policies then the Philippines could've soared much higher. Instead, it was maintaining protectionist policies brought by Garcia and Marcos that caused the Philippines not to recover from the damages done during the Marcos Years. Would have the Philippines opened up its economy then the Marcos Years damages would've been fixed by an influx of income from both local and foreign businesses. Instead, maintaining the status quo of protectionism during the Marcos Years worsened the problem. Worse, still waiting for the Marcos Wealth to be returned is a waste of time. For all we know, all that money stolen by the Marcoses is already consumed by their materialistic lifestyle. 

This is the real call for constitutional reform. It's not about bringing back the Marcos-style regime. Rather, it's all about shifting to a better form of governance. That's why Fidel V. Ramos wanted to change the defective 1987 Constitution during his time. However, fear-mongering caused the chance to make the Philippines an Asian Tiger. The same problem occurred AGAIN during the reign of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who also wanted to continue the same reform Ramos wanted. Now, it should be time for a new EDSA -- to overthrow the current defective system for a better one! Yes, Marcos is no hero then again neither are the framers of the defective 1987 Constitution.