CHAPTER 17 WHITHER MARCOS?

MARCOS IMPLEMENTING MARTIAL LAW

Martial law has not solved the problem of law and order. Although the crime
rate improved markedly at the start of martial law, it is now back to near pre-
martial law levels. Crimes against property have increased and will continue to
increase as the economic situation worsens. Violence against persons by civilians,
is less; but its decline had been made up for by abuses committed by the military,
through unreasonable searches and seizures; indiscriminate arrests, indefinite
detentions, and frequent torture of political prisoners; repression of some
minorities like the Kalingas and Bontocs; and reprisals against unarmed Muslims.

Martial law has not eliminated corruption in government. In fact, it has not
even meaningfully reduced it. Abuses of power and privilege by old politicos are
gone; but their place has been taken over by new mandarins who, unlike the
former, are not accountable to the people. The gap between poor and rich has
widened because, as the paper on the economy shows, martial law has not solved
the problem of unemployment.

MIJARES’ My Final Point of Order (SUMMARY)

An inquiry would show that American investors in the Philippines are

among the most disappointed lot. The old corruption which they dreaded
so much under the pre-martial law government is back. Every now and
then their executives are called to the Music Room and slapped with
assessments for contribution to this or that Miss Universe Pageant
project of the First Lady. For, while the regime had so solemnly
proclaimed the reformation of society, it now has had to contend with
realities, particularly in the Philippines, of an endemic tradition of
corruption of public officials. The U.S. press has so courageously traced
the ugly footprints of corruption right up to the office of the President of
the Philippines!

South Vietnam and Cambodia are the most recent examples of corrupt
authoritarian regimes which, having failed to satisfy the needs of the
populace, fell to the Communist onslaught. A South Korean opposition
lawmaker was quoted by the news agencies recently as having stated
that the fall of South Vietnam to the Communists was due to the
corruption of one man, Nguyen van Thieu, and that the same thing
could happen to Park Chung Hee’s South Korea. I might add that the
same misfortune could befall the Philippines.

How should the United States deal with the problem posed by the
Dictatorship of Marcos to America’s Asian defense network? Mr.
Marcos should be told in no uncertain terms that the United States
will not support his repressive regime and he should, therefore,
restore democratic rule in the country, relinquish his dictatorial
powers, and stop immediately the internment of political prisoners.
One thing I would like to remind the committee of is this: Mr. Marcos is
a Very shrewd man. He believes that his newly established alliance with
Mao Tse Tung elevates him to a position of strength in bargaining for
better terms on the Philippines-United States defense arrangements. Mr.
Marcos realizes that the U.S. government, whether it likes it or not, is in
no position to “de-stabilize” his martial regime, at least not until after the
American presidential elections of 1976.

The people of the Philippines did not, never did, “draft” Marcos for the
presidency for life. His was only to serve four years as was the
tradition in the country; but he cheated his way into a second term and
concocted all those excuses to impose martial law on the eve of the end
of the illegally won second term as President.

Most of the time his public pronouncements are laced with evidence
of unresolved issues in his own thinking. He would ask for
cooperation, and yet, in another forum, he would launch unto an
unbridled imputation of blame for the ills of the Old Society to the old
Congress or the “backsliders.” Blame everything or everybody, but his
own doing or himself.

MARCOS AND THE GENERAL OFFICERS

The strongest pillar of the martial regime in the Philippines is the

loyalty of the present general officers of the armed forces to Marcos.
Take them all out today and tomorrow Marcos will find himself inside (a
stockade) looking out, at best. That is, if the junior officers do not decide
to execute him.
But the same pillar of strength on which Marcos relies so much
could also be the source of his own weakness. For, how long can he
keep the generals in the service, while non-Ilocano officers grumble over
their long over-due promotions? Most of the generals are overstaying;
they should have been retired a long time ago.

Some of the “overstayers” are General Romeo Espino, AFP chief of

staff; Major General Jose Rancudo, air force chief; Major General
Zagala, army chief; and Brig. Gen. Guillermo Pecache, home
defense force chief.

A number of displaced political leaders preach and hope with public

piety Pray that Marcos would succeed in his task of reforming the
country into a new society. However, privately they irreverently seek his
failure or even early demise so they can take over once more.

One politician in the Philippines who still dares dream of recapturing old
glory is Speaker Comelio T. Villareal who has always played the docile
man to Marcos. He has repeatedly told the Dictator, “I am your man.”

Villareal’s game is for Marcos to convene the interim National Assembly

and have himself elected Speaker of the Assembly and Marcos as the
interim Prime Minister. As ISpeaker, he had repeatedly assured the
President, he should be able to “handle” (with adequate funds, of course)
the assemblymen and make them do what Marcos wanted to run the
government but what is not being articulated by Villareal is that, with his
cunning and capacity to manipulate public funds, he would hope to be
able to stir enough upheavals in the assembly to topple Marcos as Prime
Minister and have himself elected as the new leader of the country in no
time at all.

Marcos’ plan is to wait until such time when potential rivals for the
position of Prime Minister, like Speaker Vilareal, Senator President
Gil J. Puyat, Senators Jovito Salonga, Jose W. Diokno, or even
imprisoned Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. shall have definitely cancelled
themselves out of contention from the premier’s post.

Marcos has no illusions about what might happen to him should there be
a counter-revolution. He knows he would probably lose his head or face
the firing squad.

NOTABLE PEOPLE AND THEIR ANTI-MARTIAL LAW

CAMPAIGNS

In a campaign to bring the truth about the Philippines to public attention,

a non-Filipino and his Filipino wife might as well be credited with a lot
of guts and savvy for the yeoman effort. He is Steve Psinakis and his
wife is Presentacion Lopez Psinakis, the only daughter of the late Don
Eugcnio Lopez, Sr. It is said that, ironically, Presentacion, the only
daughter out of five children, is also the only Lopez child who inherited
the strong will of her father and the determination to fight for her beliefs
against all odds and at any cost.

Steve Psinakis is an ordinary engineer and business executive who, after

living ten years in the Philippines (1959-1969), moved to his native
country in Athens, Greece with his wife and children early in 1969. The
Psinakises lived in Athens until late 1974 but, between 1972 and 1974.
They used to visit periodically the sailing Lopez Sr. residing in San
Francisco.

It was during one of these visits to San Francisco In Novermber 1974

when on November 10. Steve received an urgent call from Geny’s eldest
son. Gabby, asking Steve to fly to Manila immediately on “a matter of
life and death”. Upon his arrival in Manila on November 12, Chita
Lopez, the wife of Geny, told Steve about Geny’s decision to go on a
hunger strike beginning November 18. Psikanis quickly grasped the
import of Geny’s planned hunger strike.

Steve’s first question was whether the hunger was intended to get Geny’s
release or whether he wanted to risk his life for the benefit of all political
prisoners who, like himself, were unjustly imprisoned by Marcos
without charges and without trial. Geny’s reply, through Chita, was the
latter. Geny had precisely asked for Steve, a close friend long before the
marriage to his sister, because he wanted Steve to carry on the fight
abroad for the benefit of all political prisoners and not for his personal
benefit.

So, on November 14, Steve and Chita and Gabby visited Geny at Fort
Bonifacio. Geny reassured Steve that he was going on a hunger strike on
November 18, to secure the release of all political prisoners and
reiterated his request that Steve assist Chita in calling a press conference
on November 18 to announce his hunger strike, Geny then signed a
statement announcing his” hunger strike – for release on November 18.
However, on the way out from Fort Bonifacio, the Lopez hunger strike
statement was discovered by an alert guard inside the purse of Chita
Lopez; the guard then had the statement xeroxed before giving it back to
Chita. Right after being cleared out of the Fort Bonifacio gates, about
11:30 a.m., Psinakis quickly decided that Chita should announce that
very day the contemplated hunger strike of Geny on November 18, lest
Marcos succeed in preempting Geny on the impact of his hunger strike
by a series of possible moves he could take, like announcing that Geny
has been charged in court of this or that crime. Psinakis himself felt that
his presence in Manila had become untenable.

Marcos certainly would go after him for coordinating with Geny on the
hunger strike statement. Immediately after leaving Fort Bonifacio, he
booked himself on a Philippine Air Lines flight out of Manila in the
same afternoon and in anticipation of a hasty arrest order, he checked in
at the PAL counter as earlv as 1 p.m. Psinakis also booked his son, Rogy,
on another flight out of Manila (a Pan American Airways flight) in order
that Marcos would not be able to arrest and hold their son also as a
hostage.

The exposes and information revealed by the Psinakises have been

truthful, accurate and usually well-documented. Both Steve and Presy,
particularly Presy, possess a great deal of “personal” information
about the Marcoses, and their frontclan. But they have never exposed
cheap gossip, or rumors or hearsay without substantial
documentation.

The Psinakises have repeatedly stated that their only weapon against
Marcos is TRUTH. Consequently: “If we deviate from the truth, we
would lose the only weapon against the Marcoses who have all the
power, resources and every other weapon at their disposal except the
power of TRUTH”.

Like Psinakis, there is another strong-willed man who has carried on an

unrelenting day and night campaign to expose the truth of the Marcos.
Dictatorship in the Philippines. The man, Alejandro A. Esclamado, has
not bothered to pay attention to the various forms of harassment that
Marcos and his minion have tried in order to silence him and kill his
newspaper, the Philippine News. Alex finds solace in the fact that his
name and that of his wife, Lourdes Mitra-Esclamado, are synonymous
to anti-dictatorship in the Philippines. Alex has a band of stout-hearted
Filipino journalists who have ignored risks to themselves in carrying on
the struggle to restore freedom in the Philippines. Among them are Nick
G. Benoza, Leandro Quintana and Virgilio Makalalad.

As stout-hearted as Alex’s band in San Francisco, and perhaps more

dedicated than any other anti-martial law element in the United States is
an old colleague from my Manila newspapering days, writer Hermie
Rotea, the family of Ninoy Aquino was to say “the only friend we have
left with us in America,” Rotea has wielded both pen and his tiny purse,
coordinating with Danny Lamila, a former technical assistant to Senator
Aquino, in calling the attention of America, from their Los Angeles
stations, on the dictatorship that has destroyed democracy in the
Philippines. Rotea and Colonel Manzano were among the first
persons to come out openly in America against martial law.

While firebrands like Rotea were fighting Marcos their way, the
Movement for a free Philippines was gaining members from a group that
now provides the MFP the kind of mature and wise leadership that
comes from age and experience. Joining the group of Colonel Manzano
and Quyano were Primo Mendoza and Judge Eliodoro Marasigan.
Marasigan was a classmate of Marcos in Law School. Mendoza is the
regional coordinator of the MFP in the American Midwest with
headquarters in Chicago. He was an ex-paratrooper commando with the
US Army who smuggled supplies to Philippine guerrillas in Mindanao in
World War II.
MARCOS AS A ‘ROLE MODEL’

Marcos has so Glamourized despotism and repression that nations

around the Philippines have seen fit to follow his example. Indira
Gandhi must have been so impressed with his success in placing the
Philippines under his heel that she is trying the same tactics on what
used to be the the world’s largest democracy.

South Korean Dictate/Park was probably emboldened the way Marcos

Has been getting away with banditry and murder that the world is now
witness To the worst and most callous wave of repression to hit South
Korea.

Under Marcos’ influence and inspiration, the strongmen ot East Asia,

particularly Singapore’s Lee and Indonesia’s Suharto, are organizing
themselves under Marcos’ leadership into some kind of a Dictators’ Club
that authoritarianism is becoming the world’s latest status symbol.

And that is the reason why MIJARES’ MY FINL POINT OF

ORDER serves as a warning to all the democratic nations.