13 Intriguing Facts You Might Not Know About Ferdinand Marcos

<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ferdinand Marcos was one heck of a controversial president. He’s extremely polarizing, and only few in the history of presidency could match him in that aspect.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But here’s a disclaimer: I’m neither a pro- or anti-Marcos. The goal is to provide unbiased information as opposed to exaggerated claims that have led some clueless Filipinos–especially the young ones–to make hasty conclusions.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Some say he’s the best president the country ever had, while others believe otherwise. But how well do we really know the Philippines’ strongman? Is he really the evil dictator that the media claim he was?</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Here are 13 facts about former President Ferdinand Marcos that young Filipinos ought to know:</div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 1. He was baptized into the Aglipayan Church.</h3> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_4284" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; color: #666666; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 510px;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/young-ferdinand-marcos-with-family.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="young ferdinand marcos with family" class="size-full wp-image-4284" height="616" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/young-ferdinand-marcos-with-family.jpg" style="border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="500" /></a><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-size: 11px; height: auto; line-height: 17px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Happy family: From left to right are Pacifico E. Marcos, Josefa Gustilio Edralin Marcos (matriarch), Elizabeth Marcos, Mariano Marcos y Rubio (patriarch), and Ferdinand E. Marcos. The youngest child, Fortuna, was not yet born when this photo was taken. Source: Old Manila Facebook Page</div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Born on September 11, 1917 in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, Ferdinand Marcos was baptized into the <a href="http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Modules/Modules/PhilippineReligions/article_aglipayanism_.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Aglipayan</a> or Philippine Independent Church.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The church was founded in 1902 by Isabelo de los Reyes and a Roman Catholic priest named Gregorio Aglipay who also became its first Supreme Bishop.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Members of this church reject the spiritual authority of the Pope as well as the doctrine of the Trinity. They also denied the existence of angels, devils, miracles, and other supernatural manifestations.</div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 2. He changed religion in order to marry Imelda in a Catholic church.</h3> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_4285" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; color: #666666; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 510px;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-wedding.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ferdinand marcos wedding" class="size-full wp-image-4285" height="785" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-wedding.jpg" style="border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="500" /></a><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-size: 11px; height: auto; line-height: 17px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Source: Rulemakers, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism</div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> When Marcos first met Imelda Romualdez in 1954, it was love at first sight. So after only two weeks of courtship, the couple tied the knot first in a civil ceremony in Baguio City followed by a church wedding at the<br /> Pro Cathedral of San Miguel in Manila.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> To make this possible, Imelda had to convince Ferdinand to convert from his native<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1986-02-15/news/mn-8149_1_election-fraud" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Aglipayan religion to Roman Catholicism</a>. She succeeded in persuading the latter, and the church wedding was held afterwards with President Ramon Magsaysay as the principal sponsor.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 3. He was a memory whiz.</h3> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-tops-the-1939-bar-examinations.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ferdinand marcos tops the 1939 bar examinations" class="size-full wp-image-4289 aligncenter" height="684" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-tops-the-1939-bar-examinations.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="500" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Marcos was so smart he single-handedly topped the 1939 Bar Examinations (with near-perfect score) despite being in jail for 27 days!</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Perhaps we can blame it on his photographic memory which allegedly gave him the ability to memorize complicated texts such as the the 1935 Philippine Constitution and recite them forward and backward.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Several people can attest to Marcos’ incredible memory, and they include <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/interesting-facts-about-miriam-defensor-santiago/" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago</a> who once served as the late president’s speech writer.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“One time, the Secretary of Justice forgot to tell me that the President had requested him to draft a speech….”</em> said Miriam during an interview with the <a href="http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/790289/miriam-santiago-love-loss-and-her-home" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Philippine Star</a>.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“And then, on the day the President was to deliver the speech, he suddenly remembered because Malacañang was asking for the speech, so he said, ‘This is an emergency. You just have to produce something.’</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">…He (Marcos) liked long speeches. I think that was 20 or 25 pages. And then, in the evening, I was there, of course. President Marcos recited the speech from memory.”</em></div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 4. His achievements as a president can fill a book, and so are his crimes.</h3> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-achievements-as-a-president.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ferdinand marcos achievements as a president" class="size-full wp-image-4290 aligncenter" height="663" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-achievements-as-a-president.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="400" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> President Ferdinand Marcos’ dream of building a new society had brought forth several projects that have benefited us in the long run.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> During his <a href="http://www.gov.ph/1968/01/22/ferdinand-e-marcos-third-state-of-the-nation-address-january-22-1968/" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">third SONA</a> in 1968, Marcos claimed that the country became self-sufficient in rice and corn, therefore solving the chronic food shortage.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Fast forward to 1980 and the Marcos administration reached yet another milestone: The country’s<a href="http://www.gov.ph/1980/07/28/ferdinand-e-marcos-fifteenth-state-of-the-nation-address-july-28-1980/" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"> gross national product (GNP)</a> dramatically climbed from 39.5 billion pesos in 1965 to an outstanding 86.7 billion pesos in 1979, which translates to 6.6% growth rate a year.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> And this was only the tip of the iceberg.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> From Sept. 21, 1972 up to Feb. 26, 1986, Marcos was able to craft and formulate a total of 7,883 presidential decrees and other 5 legal issuances. All of the country’s specialty hospitals were also built during his term and these include the Kidney Center, Philippine Children Center, Philippine Heart Center, and the Lung Center of the Philippines.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Marcos’ accomplishments are too many to mention, and have since become the benchmark by which the performances of his successors are based upon.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But we also have to deal with the other side of the coin. As much as we want to admire Marcos, there are just facts that prove he’s as imperfect as those who came before and after him.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> According to the Akbayan party-list group, the Marcos administration was responsible for 35,000 torture cases, 70,000 incarcerations, and 3,257 murders. He was also blamed for the arrest of more than 50,000 people  including the <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“desaparecidos”</em> or those who were victims of enforced disappearances.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> It should also be noted that the value of the peso also dropped from P1 = US$ 1 to P25  = US$ 1 during Marcos’ term. And from just $360 million in 1962,<a href="http://books.google.com.ph/books?id=aHz7yiUMnm8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=James+K.+Boyce%27s+%22The+Political+Economy+of+Growth+and+Impoverishment+in+the+Marcos+Era.%22&hl=fil&sa=X&ei=QvnIU5nVEou58gWM4YCoAg&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=James%20K.%20Boyce's%20%22The%20Political%20Economy%20of%20Growth%20and%20Impoverishment%20in%20the%20Marcos%20Era.%22&f=false" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"> our country’s debt reached a staggering P28.3 billion</a> by the time Marcos left his office in 1986.</div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 5. He wanted Ninoy to be his successor.</h3> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-wanted-ninoy-aquino-to-be-his-successor.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ferdinand marcos wanted ninoy aquino to be his successor" class="size-full wp-image-4293 aligncenter" height="294" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-wanted-ninoy-aquino-to-be-his-successor.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="500" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> No thanks to the media, the general consensus now is that President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the assassination of  <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/ninoy-aquino-undelivered-historical-speech/" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. </a></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But that claim is truly unfounded, and people should believe Marcos is innocent until a strong evidence prove otherwise.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> In the first place, both Marcos and Ninoy were loyal members of the <a href="http://opinion.inquirer.net/35144/marcos-didnt-order-ninoys-assassination" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Upsilon Sigma Phi fraternity</a>. Yes, Marcos hated Ninoy as his political nemesis but he also admired the latter for his undying principles.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Heck, Marcos even looked up to Ninoy as his potential successor.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> In a special report published in the <a href="http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20080822-156115/Marcos-My-best-successor-is-Ninoy" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Philippine Daily Inquirer</a>, it was revealed that Marcos considered Ninoy as the best prepared to be president among the politicians during that era. Some theorists also believe that  <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Marcos may have already considered Aquino as a potential successor even before he allowed the Tarlac politician to have an open heart surgery in the United States on May 8, 1980.”</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ex-Master Sgt. Pablo Martinez, one of those who were convicted of murder, confessed  that Ninoy was indeed chosen by Marcos to be his successor. The president’s decision reportedly irked some of his allies, and so plans to assassinate Ninoy were made afterwards.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The same report also discusses an alleged covenant between Marcos and Ninoy. A travel companion of Aquino in the U.S. said that the covenant included <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“the position of prime minister in the National Assembly, provided that Aquino won a seat in the 1984 elections.”</em></div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 6. Martial Law was communism’s biggest recruiter.</h3> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <center style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" replaced="true" s4235850470174831745="true" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/bDCHIIXEXes" style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="420"></iframe></center> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> For Marcos, the August 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing (which the regime blamed on the communists) was a clear sign of using democracy to destroy democracy itself. To eliminate communist threats, he suspended the privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus and later declared martial law.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ironically, the martial law eventually became<a href="http://opinion.inquirer.net/60771/marcos-was-the-worst" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"> communism’s biggest recruiter</a>. From the 1,028 armed regulars in 1972, members of the New People’s Army (NPA) had ballooned to 22,500 by 1986.</div> <div class="ezAdsense adsense adsense-midtext" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 12px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3970612694962190" data-ad-slot="1200010463" data-adsbygoogle-status="done" style="border: 0px; display: inline-block; height: 250px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 300px;"><br /></ins></div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 7. His war exploits are questionable.</h3> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_4297" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; color: #666666; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 510px;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-war-medals.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ferdinand marcos war medals" class="size-full wp-image-4297" height="747" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-war-medals.jpg" style="border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="500" /></a><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-size: 11px; height: auto; line-height: 17px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Major Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1946 wearing three medals awarded by the United States: The Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart. Source: Presidential Museum and Library’s Official Tumblr Page.</div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Marcos claimed he was the hero of the Battle of Bessang Pass during WWII, earning a total of 33 medals and awards throughout his career. However, his opponents believe otherwise.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://globalbalita.com/2011/04/28/marcos-medals-only-2-of-33-given-in-battle/" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Bonifacio Gillego</a>, a military officer who resisted martial law, exposed that 11 of the 33 medals were given 20 years after the war when Marcos was already a Senate President gearing up for a presidential campaign. Eight of these awards, on the other hand, were actually campaign ribbons given to all participants <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“in the defense of Bataan and in the resistance.” </em></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Regarding his war exploits, the <a href="http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1986-01-23/news/0190270164_1_marcos-army-records-philippines" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">U.S. army</a> found no official documents that could prove Marcos led <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Ang Maharlika”</em>, a guerilla force composed of 8,200 men. In the end, they declared Marcos’ claims to be <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">”fraudulent”</em> and <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">”absurd.”</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> So where the heck was Ferdinand Marcos during the Japanese occupation?</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> He said he was freed by the Japanese on August 4, 1942. But according to a Japanese document discovered by <a href="http://asianjournalusa.com/marcos-fake-medals-redux-part-iii-p10829-168.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">John Sharkey</a> of the Washington Post, prisoners released at that time were either too sick or <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“whose families have cooperated with the Japanese military authorities.”</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Marcos was not included in the list of ailing prisoners published by The Manila Tribune. We should also remember that his father, Mariano Marcos, was one of those who welcomed the Japanese with open arms and was later executed by anti-Japanese guerillas in 1945.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Marcos also claimed that he was hiding at the Philippine General Hospital from June to August, 1943. During the same period, President Laurel, leader of the Japanese puppet state, was also staying in the Japanese-controlled hospital. Go figure.</div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 8. The ‘Omega 12′ was behind Marcos’ Martial Law.</h3> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Omega-12-of-Martial-Law.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Omega 12 of Martial Law" class="size-full wp-image-4300 aligncenter" height="625" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Omega-12-of-Martial-Law.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="500" /></a></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The martial law was not a one-man endeavor. In fact, Marcos sought the help of his ’12 apostles’, later known as the “Rolex 12″ (named after the Rolex watches that Marcos gave to them as gifts).</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> But according to a 1974 confidential memo of then US Ambassador to Manila William Sullivan, Marcos gave the 12 military officers gold Omega watches, not Rolexes. Hence, the proper term would be “Omega 12.”</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Before declaring the martial law in 1972, Marcos consulted with the Omega 12, and their plans were contained in a confidential document called Oplan Sagittarius. Five members of the Omega 12, according to Tomas Diaz, even helped create the decrees of Proclamation 1081 before all 12 of them finalized Marcos’ plan.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The following are the <a href="https://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1974MANILA15083_b.html" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">official members</a> of the “Omega 12″:</div> <ul style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: outside; margin: 0px 0px 20px 30px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Philippine Constabulary chief Maj. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">National Intelligence Security Authority chief Maj. Gen. Fabian Ver,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lt. Col. Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Jr.</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Army chief Maj. Gen. Rafael Zagala,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Constabulary vice-chief Brig Gen. Tomas Diaz,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Espino,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Jose Rancudo,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Navy chief Rear Admiral Hilario Ruiz,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ISAFP chief Brig. Gen. Ignacio Paz,</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Metrocom chief Brig Gen. Alfredo Montoya, and</li> <li style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 12px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rizal province Constabulary head Col. Romeo Gatan.</li> </ul> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 9. Marcos and the <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/unsolved-mysteries-philippines-2/" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Yamashita treasure</a>.</h3> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <center style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" replaced="true" s4235850470174831745="true" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0Xpj0orZR0Y" style="border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="420"></iframe></center> <span style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">First off, </span><a href="http://globalbalita.com/2013/01/09/brouhaha-over-the-marcos-loot/" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #8a1212; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> really had nothing to do with the infamous treasure.</span><br /> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> It was Emperor Hirohito’s brother, Prince Chichibu, who led the “Golden Lily” campaign and plundered Asian territories. Chichibu’s cousin, Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda, was then assigned to hide the loot at hundreds of secret vaults within the Philippines. He also gave a copy of the maps to his Filipino servant for safekeeping.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Now let’s go back to President Marcos.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> For some reason, he was able to get a copy of the treasure maps, and soon ordered his military officers to undertake a treasure hunt. And then came Rogelio Roxas, a Filipino treasure hunter who uncovered in a Baguio City tunnel thousands of gold bars and an 8-inch tall gold Buddha filled with real diamonds and precious stones.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> It didn’t take long before the news reached President Marcos. He immediately sent his men to confiscate the treasure and had Roxas arrested and tortured.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> When Cory Aquino became the president, she formed the now abolished Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to initiate the hunt for the missing Marcos Loot. As we all know, PCGG only recovered $5 billion (in the form of cash and other assets) out of the alleged $100 billion loot.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Imelda Marcos, on the other hand, claimed that her husband deposited a very large sum in a bank in Brussels, Belgium. This is because the amount of the fortune was so large <em style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1243&dat=19920203&id=-4RTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=j4YDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4788,3870409" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">“it would be embarrassing.”</a></em></div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 10. He bought the Kalayaan Island in Spratlys for 1 peso.</h3> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_4304" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; color: #666666; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 510px;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Kalayaan-Island-in-Spratlys.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="Kalayaan Island in Spratlys" class="size-full wp-image-4304" height="338" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Kalayaan-Island-in-Spratlys.jpg" style="border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="500" /></a><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-size: 11px; height: auto; line-height: 17px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> LtJG  Domingo Tucay reading proclamation at the Kalayaaan Islands in Spratlys. Source: bonginvirginia.blogspot.com</div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Philippines’ claim over the Spratlys started when <a href="http://www.colonia.asia/history%20-%20the%20history%20of%20the%20kingdom%20of%20colonia%20st%20john.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Tomas Cloma</a> landed at its biggest island in 1956. A seafaring adventurer and owner of a fishing business, Cloma made a <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Proclamation to the whole world”</em> that a new state called  “The Free Territory of Freedomland” was created. He asserted sovereignty over the area although no country formally recognized his claims.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Cloma, who was also the founder of the Philippine Maritime Institute, was later jailed during the martial law for the fraudulent use of the “admiral” title (his drinking buddies at the National Press Club called him “Admiral”).</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> He was released after he surrendered all his claims to the islands to Marcos for only one peso. Afterwards, Marcos officially transformed the biggest island (<a href="http://opinion.inquirer.net/6789/the-spratlys-marcos%E2%80%99-legacy-or-curse" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">“Pag-Asa Island”</a>) into a fortification, the first and probably the last time that our country was able to add a new territory.</div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 11. He launched the first Philippine-made rocket.</h3> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_4307" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; color: #666666; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 504px;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-santa-barabara-missile-project.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ferdinand marcos santa barabara missile project" class="size-full wp-image-4307" height="383" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-santa-barabara-missile-project.jpg" style="border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="494" /></a><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-size: 11px; height: auto; line-height: 17px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Source: The Philippine Navy Today</div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Yes, you heard that right: A rocket made in the Philippines.  Launched in Caballo Island (near Corregidor), the rocket was part of “Project Santa Barbara” which was participated by a group of scientists and the Philippine Navy.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Since December 1972, a series of 37 dynamic tests were conducted on the 180 MM rocket. The project, initiated by President Marcos, also involved testing of other weapons and armaments.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> On September 1975, <a href="http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bwU1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=Lk8KAAAAIBAJ&pg=3605,2256367&dq=philippines+missile+test+marcos&hl=en" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">four “bongbong” rockets</a> (named after Marcos’ son, obviously) were successfully launched. Asked about why the country was experimenting in making its own ballistic missiles, President Marcos explained:</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The defense of the Philippines cannot be left to alliance with other countries. We must assume that there will be contingencies where even the United States may not be ready to come to our assistance.”</em></div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 12. He knew that the U.S. secretly stored nuclear weapons in the country, but never told anyone.</h3> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_4309" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; color: #666666; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 510px;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-knew-about-the-nuclear-weapons-secretly-stored-in-the-Philippines-by-the-US.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ferdinand marcos knew about the nuclear weapons secretly stored in the Philippines by the US" class="size-full wp-image-4309" height="307" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-knew-about-the-nuclear-weapons-secretly-stored-in-the-Philippines-by-the-US.jpg" style="border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="500" /></a><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-size: 11px; height: auto; line-height: 17px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> File photos from Reuters (vehicle carrying missile) and AFP (Marcos).</div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> This is according to a <a href="http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB197/nd-17c.pdf" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">document</a> released by the National Security Archive based in George Washington University.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The said top-secret memo was from US career diplomat Robert McClintock. He informed then acting secretary of the US State Department that the storage of nuclear weapons <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“would be covered by executive privilege and not divulged to the Symington Subcommittee on overseas commitments.”</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The memo also suggests that the nuclear weapons have been stored in the country for many years <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“without prior consultation with the Philippine Government.”</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The document added: <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“The fact that President Marcos was secretly informed of the presence of these weapons in 1966 would not work to his advantage in the elections. The Philippine government and public are not aware of storage nor of President Marcos’ knowldege thereof.”</em></div> <h3 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 29.1200008392334px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 13. People worship him like a GOD.</h3> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_4311" style="-webkit-box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; background-color: #f6f6f6; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgb(221, 221, 221) 1px 1px 6px; color: #666666; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; height: auto; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 1px 1px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 410px;"> <a href="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-cult.jpg" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="ferdinand marcos cult" class="size-full wp-image-4311" height="480" src="http://www.filipiknow.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ferdinand-marcos-cult.jpg" style="border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="400" /></a><br /> <div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; font-size: 11px; height: auto; line-height: 17px; max-width: 97.5%; padding: 5px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> A cult in the Abra province gathers every month to worship Ferdinand Marcos. Source: BBC News.</div> </div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Unlike most Filipinos who vilify the late dictator, a group of peasants in Ilocos Norte and in the mountains of Abra province worship Ferdinand Marcos like a saint.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> In fact, they gather every month in their own chapel dressed in white flowing robes to worship the long-dead Marcos. Inside the chapel, they face an altar where the picture of the sacred heart of Jesus is displayed–with Jesus Christ’s face replaced by that of Marcos.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> For the cult members, Marcos didn’t steal but <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“simply</em> <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">kept the fortune they accused him of stealing.” </em>They also added that<em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> “time will come when all the money will be recovered and used for the development of our country.”</em></div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> According to cult leader <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19990928/aponline174905_000.htm" style="border: 0px; color: #8a1212; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Rodolfo Cabusao</a>, their group started as a member of the Rizalian Brotherhood which have long believed that Rizal was Christ’s reincarnation. They began worshipping Marcos when the strongman died in 1989, the same year when Cabusao claimed that Marcos appeared in his dream and proclaimed himself as God’s disciple.</div> <div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #191919; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Source: http://www.filipiknow.net/</div>

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13 Intriguing Facts You Might Not Know About Ferdinand Marcos

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Ferdinand Marcos was one heck of a controversial president. He’s extremely polarizing, and only few in the history of presidency could match him in that aspect. But here’s a disclaimer: I’m neither a...

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<br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsUNMhI0dJfNQuYuMH7zNcL5h2LBmRXexhNgK_Z6n84NEb8A2R8tzk27cu5vkrU6RL_18EeG_15JylGXgUESamoEQ3i06m0hIzVP_R5rAcCPNqjOQ1_UJQh0YZCRzcuoIA-7dxBqLjhGb/s1600/Q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsUNMhI0dJfNQuYuMH7zNcL5h2LBmRXexhNgK_Z6n84NEb8A2R8tzk27cu5vkrU6RL_18EeG_15JylGXgUESamoEQ3i06m0hIzVP_R5rAcCPNqjOQ1_UJQh0YZCRzcuoIA-7dxBqLjhGb/s640/Q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" width="598" /></a></div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The U.S.-orchestrated coup which overthrew the government of Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was a classic case study of what John Perkins describes in his recent book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, as the post-World War II preferred method of imposing colonial control under another name. In the Philippines case, George Shultz performed the roles of both the economic hit man, destroying and taking full control of the Philippine economy, and the coup-master, deposing the Philippine President in favor of an IMF puppet—while calling the operation "people power."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Throughout this process, from the late 1970s through the February 1986 coup, and beyond, Lyndon LaRouche and his collaborators were fully engaged in the fight to expose and reverse this subversion and destruction of one of America's most important allies, by the supranational financial institutions which Shultz and his ilk represent. By mobilizing support from patriots of both the United States and the Philippines, the LaRouche effort put a spotlight on the crimes of the Shultz cabal, as will be shown below. Although the effort failed to stop the process at that time, the crimes thus exposed in the Philippines can and must serve today as a nemesis to Shultz and his neo-conservative operatives, who are in an endgame in their effort to impose a new fascist order over the planet.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">In a Nov. 16 interview on radio station DZAR in Manila, LaRouche described his own view of the special mission of the Philippines nation: "The Philippines has a very important pivotal role, some people would say geopolitically, in the entire region, of trying to bring together on a global scale for the first time, a world system, which is capable of accommodating both the European cultural heritage and Asian cultures. This is the great barrier, the great frontier, of a hopeful future for this planet: to bring together the cultures of Asia—which are different than those of Western Europe generally—with European culture, to get a global culture based on a system of sovereign nation-states, which understands that this unresolved cultural question has to be addressed, with a long-term view, of several generations, of creating an integrated set of sovereign nation-states as the system of the planet. So the Philippines is a very special country, with a unique importance for the people of Asia, in particular, in playing a key role in bringing about this kind of general integration of Asian and European civilizations."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The lesson of the subversion of the Philippines in the 1980s for today is clear. Shultz is the eminence gris behind the neo-conservatives running the Bush Administration, which has brought the world to the current disastrous circumstance. It is also the case that the Philippines, although currently lacking any national leadership comparable to that of Marcos, is nonetheless facing a new coup threat, orchestrated by the same neo-conservative circles in Washington who were responsible for the 1986 coup.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The popular memory of Ferdinand Marcos today, in the U.S. and in the Philippines, is largely shaped by the massive disinformation campaign created in the early 1980s by the circles around then-Secretary of State Shultz, and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz. Marcos was accused of corruption, human rights violations, plunder, and even the murder of a political opponent, Benigno Aquino—and this caricature is repeated ad nauseam still today. While Marcos was not without faults, he was by far the last Filipino head of state to have understood the challenge of true leadership in a world slipping towards chaos. His overthrow by the Shultz cabal had nothing to do with the charges issued publicly, but were intended to stop his national development policies, and his international collaboration with LaRouche and others in countering the genocidal policies of the IMF, and bringing into being a new world economic system based on development and justice.</span><br /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"></span></b><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><br style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /></span></b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"></span> <br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <b style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJ0bi6eSyaBcSSEdUkd9ApA4lmL-wgSBh8CFtT6_U3tXUiDLEkm_4kiuKw0LVTzImPPPJwM1RG7MxI82cDb4q1jYyP6rzBNdHkIaTK7kUqbSQe1mGSW4ApL3OhxT5NvHSQcf7E8R9NNHu/s1600/Q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" height="457" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJ0bi6eSyaBcSSEdUkd9ApA4lmL-wgSBh8CFtT6_U3tXUiDLEkm_4kiuKw0LVTzImPPPJwM1RG7MxI82cDb4q1jYyP6rzBNdHkIaTK7kUqbSQe1mGSW4ApL3OhxT5NvHSQcf7E8R9NNHu/s1600/Q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" width="587" /></a></span></b></div> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> </div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">Marcos's True Legacy</span></b><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Marcos was elected President in 1965, just as the United States launched the disastrous and futile war in Indochina. The fact that the United States used its bases in the Philippines, Subic Bay and Clark Airfield in Luzon, as launching pads for the Indochina War, fed a domestic insurgency by the Maoist New People's Army (NPA). Marcos was then treated as a close friend and ally of the United States. Even when he declared martial law in 1972, with the Indochina War still raging, the Administration of President Richard Nixon raised no objections.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">But Marcos was not only concerned about "counterinsurgency" in declaring martial law. When he was elected President in 1965, the Philippines was still essentially a colonial economy, although the United States had granted full independence on July 4, 1946, as had been promised by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1934. Productivity was low in both agriculture and industry: agriculture lagged as the Philippines relied on special access to U.S. food exports, and industry was confined to process industries, rather than the development of basic industries.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Marcos set out immediately to establish Philippine food self-sufficiency in rice and corn. This also required breaking the control of the landed aristocracy left over from the Spanish imperial era. Marcos was the first President of the Philippines who did not rise from this elite class, but was a "commoner" trained as a lawyer.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As President, he focussed on basic agricultural infrastructure, especially irrigation, in the major food-producing regions of Luzon and Mindanao. Credit facilities, mechanization, and the introduction of high-yield rice varieties, which needed irrigation, resulted in the elimination of rice imports by 1968.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Land reform, primarily a political problem, remained illusive. However, when Marcos imposed martial law in 1972, among his first acts was a proclamation that the entire nation was to be considered a "land reform area," and a declaration that all tenants working land devoted primarily to rice and corn were to be the owners of that land, up to a specified limit. Despite the enraged opposition of the oligarchy, the program proved to be extraordinarily successful. Coupled with the infrastructure and mechanization improvements, a quarter of a million peasants became land owners, and grain productivity increased by half.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Another major step after the declaration of martial law was to contract with Westinghouse for the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant—which was to be the first (and would still be the only) commercial nuclear power plant in Southeast Asia. While nuclear power is clearly the only sane solution to the energy requirements across the region, the sad saga of the Bataan Nuclear Plant symbolizes the pure evil of the policies enforced by the "economic hit men." As originally contracted, the plant should have cost about $1 billion, and produced 1,200 MW of electricity by 1984. However, after the hysteria generated by the anti-nuclear "Nuclear Club of Wall Street" (see EIR, Dec. 3, 2004) following the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania, the Carter Admistration imposed retroactive safety regulations which contributed to more than doubling the cost of construction. Then, after the overthrow of Marcos in 1986, one of the first acts of the new Presidency of Corazon Aquino was to mothball the fully completed, but never used, Bataan Nuclear Plant. The Philippines has been forced to pay countless billions in debt service, and pays still today over $155,000 per day, for this nuclear facility, without having drawn one watt of electricity from the state-of-the-art facility. Two further nuclear power facilities which were planned to provide 1,880 MW of electricity by 1991, were also scrapped.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Nuclear energy was not the only innovation of the Marcos regime. In 1979 Marcos announced a plan for 11 major industrial projects, with the intention of shifting the focus of the nation's industrial economy from consumer goods to basic heavy industry. Included in the plan were steel, petro-chemical, pulp and paper, a copper smelter, aluminum, phosphate fertilizer, diesel engines, gas and oil, a coconut industry, and the nuclear power program.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The Marcos Administration, during the 1972-81 martial law period, tripled the country's road network, doubled the electrification of the country's homes, increased irrigated cropland eight-fold, and achieved rice and corn self-sufficiency.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Minimum daily wage rates tripled, although inflation, driven by international oil price hikes and exploding U.S. interest rates, more than wiped out these wage increases.</span><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <b style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii5mylAU8x14NqGRFMub3lu62PUmN-J3w-6MoMmThY8_AfRMpcrabYD4tfTByDDzh8rvtHmD5qqMgKY3pb2SlkfBM4Swhm6qp34Ah0k-G5Zh0uou8VrEQwa9MUKXquLkUM8CTRTtAhbsI/s1600/q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii5mylAU8x14NqGRFMub3lu62PUmN-J3w-6MoMmThY8_AfRMpcrabYD4tfTByDDzh8rvtHmD5qqMgKY3pb2SlkfBM4Swhm6qp34Ah0k-G5Zh0uou8VrEQwa9MUKXquLkUM8CTRTtAhbsI/s1600/q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /></a></span></b></div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">Enter the Economic Hit Men</span></b><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">This level of development—especially the capacity to free the nation from dependence on the international oil and raw materials cartels—was not to be tolerated by the international financial institutions. The contrived oil shortages of the 1970s left the Philippines, like all non-oil-producing nations, with huge debts. This was followed by the 20%-plus interest rates imposed by U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker in 1979, which doubled and tripled the debts of most Third World nations within a few years.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">In 1981, Marcos lifted martial law. Also in that year, he attended the North-South Summit in Cancun, Mexico, organized by Mexican President José López Portillo (see accompanying article) where he spoke out for a "new world economic order," and denounced the destructive "conditionalities" imposed by the IMF in exchange for financial assistance in a crisis. Then, in September 1981, Marcos pushed through the Philippine Congress nearly $4 billion worth of priority infrastructure projects, including irrigation, drainage and flood control programs, highways, telecommunications, and airports.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">This was answered in 1982 (the year George Shultz became Secretary of State) by an IMF report which attacked Marcos's projects, demanding debt payment instead: "In the Philippines situation, restraint on public investment could be an effective instrument for securing an improvement in the current account deficit." IMF Director Jacques Delarosière lectured that the country had set "unrealistic growth targets," while the World Bank denounced the Marcos government for supporting national industries.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">These "softening up" raids were not adequate to control the Marcos government. Shultz visited Manila in the Summer of 1983, overseeing another 20% devaluation of the Philippine peso, thus further increasing the costs of financing the already-illegitimate foreign debt.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The full-scale assault began in the Fall of 1983, with the murder of Benigno Aquino. Aquino, an opposition leader whom Marcos had allowed to leave prison in order to get medical treatment in the United States (despite facing a death sentence for murder and subversion), chose to return to the Philippines in August 1983 after three years in the United States. He was gunned down as he emerged from his plane in Manila.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Although the actual conspirators were never officially discovered, the assassination was immediately blamed on Marcos, and the economic hit men called in the "jackals" (as Perkins called those whose job was to depose or even kill world leaders who resisted the demands of the economic hit men like himself). In the Philippines, Shultz and Wolfowitz doubled as economic hit men and jackals.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As to Aquino's view of the pending threat to his life, he had been asked by the U.S. magazine Mother Jones in January 1983, while contemplating his return to the Philippines: "What do you think Marcos will do?" Aquino replied: "He will keep me alive, because he knows the moment I die, I am a martyr, like Martin Luther King, and he wouldn't want that. Another possibility, he lets me out, and the communists knock me off. They blame Marcos. They have a martyr and they have eliminated a stumbling block." Aquino also understood the actual cause of the economic disaster striking the Philippines: "If you made me President of the Philippines today, my friend, in six months I would be smelling like horseshit. Because there is nothing I can do. I cannot provide employment. I cannot bring prices down."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Within two months of the assassination, the remaining credit lines to the Philippines were drastically cut, and another 21% devaluation was imposed. The nation was bankrupt. Finally, on Oct. 15, 1983, Marcos was allowed to declare a moratorium on the unpayable debt, but only on condition that the big projects he had backed to modernize the nation be scrapped, while many of the industries supported by the state were turned over to domestic and international vultures (this was done under the guise of accusing the owners of these industries of being corrupt "cronies" of Marcos).</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The LaRouche movement, meanwhile, was sponsoring conferences in Bangkok, Thailand, one in October 1983, and another in October 1984, on the subject of the proposal authored by Lyndon LaRouche for "Development of the Pacific and Indian Ocean Basins." Philippines Deputy Foreign Minister Pacifico Castro attended the 1984 Conference, speaking on "Regional Economic Cooperation and Security," joined by government and business leaders from across the region. The conferences proposed such "Great Projects" as the Kra Canal in Thailand, and the physical transformation of Asia, as the driving force behind a new world economic order.</span><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <b style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiG6rsxhuGCQOyqO4hnD4Ig1lVe832sPq4j64vt5X_6tANy8WSES_bmS4ZidpyJQmghIJbdq-HUxpCD913RwcUrCWbMxYNS0zwsjs16OMLtrEyZhZOEaBA0UrmsDI0m_q8CYfS3rOCjLE/s1600/q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiG6rsxhuGCQOyqO4hnD4Ig1lVe832sPq4j64vt5X_6tANy8WSES_bmS4ZidpyJQmghIJbdq-HUxpCD913RwcUrCWbMxYNS0zwsjs16OMLtrEyZhZOEaBA0UrmsDI0m_q8CYfS3rOCjLE/s1600/q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" width="590" /></a></span></b></div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">Jackals</span></b><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The opponents of Marcos were soon being wined and dined in Washington, by both the right wing (Shultz and Wolfowitz) and the left wing (Rep. Stephen Solarz, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Princeton's Richard Falk) of the "Project Democracy" apparatus, which performed the subversive tasks assigned by the synarchist banking institutions. Salvador Laurel, the son of the quisling President of the Philippines under the Japanese occupation, headed the opposition after Aquino's assassination, and in February 1984, visited Washington, where he was greeted by Vice President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State Shultz. Representative Solarz introduced legislation into the Congress to abdicate the treaty regulating the U.S. bases in the Philippines, cutting the agreed aid to the Philippines by two-thirds. At the same time, a nest of anti-nuclear and anti-development NGOs in the United States took up the cause of overthrowing the "Marcos dictatorship," including a gathering of anti-nuclear forces in Manila, including Richard Falk and representatives of the West German Green Party. Stephen Bosworth, a close collaborator of Henry Kissinger, was appointed Ambassador to the Philippines, and from that position he would subsequently orchestrate the coup against Marcos.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">By October 1984, the Philippines was forced to submit to an IMF refinancing package that included an end to price controls on rice and other staples, a float of the peso, unrestricted foreign exchange speculation, import reductions, domestic austerity, and yet another devaluation—making a total of a 63.3% devaluation in one year, nearly doubling the cost of financing the foreign debt. Ironically, the opposition, fully supported and sponsored by the IMF-related institutions, rallied support among the population by denouncing Marcos for "acceding to the oppressive conditions of the IMF."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Throughout 1985, President Ronald Reagan defended the American relationship with the Philippines and with President Marcos, despite the fact that Secretary of State Shultz and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz openly disagreed with that assessment, instead demanding Marcos's head. The crisis came to a head in July 1984, when the U.S. Congress adopted the Solarz proposal to rip up the Bases Agreement, not only slashing the financial commitments, but insisting that the remaining aid be distributed not by the Philippine government, but by the Church, which, under Cardinal Jaime Sin, had openly called for insurrection against the government.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">By November, the plans for insurrection were unveiled publicly, as the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the home of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brezezinski, carried out a "war game" against the Philippines, based on a scenario in which President Marcos is assassinated, Soviet "spetsnaz" commandos join the New People's Army in taking over the Philippines, and the U.S. military goes into action to "save" the country.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The CSIS's work in Asia was largely financed at that time by the C.V. Starr insurance empire, run by Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Greenberg and C.V. Starr owned most of the insurance industry in the Philippines, and a number of Philippine politicians as well, and served as the crucial "on the ground" economic hit man in the Marcos coup.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Marcos continued fighting for the principle of a new world economic order. In November 1985, EIR and the Schiller Institute, the international association directed by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, invited Gen. Edgardo Mercado Jarrin (ret.), the head of Peru's Institute of Geostrategic and Political Studies, to tour Asia, promoting the partial moratorium on foreign debt then being implemented by the Peruvian government. In addition to conferences in Thailand and India, General Mercado Jarrin and the EIR/Schiller Institute delegation met with President Marcos in Manila. Marcos told the delegation: "Third World Asian and South American countries should get together and push through the condonation of part of their loans. How can Third World countries pay their loans, amounting to $900 billion?" Marcos estimated that the paying capacity could not exceed $300 billion.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The Aug. 16 EIR published a story entitled "Plotting the Fall of an American Ally," which reported that U.S. Ambassador Bosworth was plotting a military coup against the Marcos government. The article reported: "Bosworth now meets up to two hours every day with Acting Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Fidel Ramos, a West Point graduate whom the United States is attempting to groomn as a leader of a new civilian-military junta, despite his loyalty to President Marcos." The story was based on information from reliable sources both in the Philippines and in Washington, where certain patriotic layers within the government, intelligence, and the military did not accept America's transformation into an imperial power serving the synarchist financial interests.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The EIR exposée forced a public denial by General Ramos and by Ambassador Bosworth. As events proved, the warning was deadly accurate.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Marcos was finally coerced by Washington into calling new elections for February 1986, even though the Constitution mandated elections only in 1987. The opposition, in constant coordination with U.S. Ambassador Bosworth and the Shultz State Department, chose to run Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, as the Presidential candidate, with Laurel for Vice President.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As still seen today in such neo-con-controlled "people's power revolutions," such as in Georgia and Ukraine, U.S. intelligence agencies financed and controlled the "citizen" electoral monitor organization, the National Movement for a Free Election (Namfrel), and prepared to declare "vote fraud" if the election did not go the way intended. Paul Wolfowitz in November 1985 told the U.S. Congress that there would be a "complete collapse of political confidence" if the elections were not perceived as "fair"—i.e., if Marcos were not defeated.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Indeed, on election day, the opposition was ahead in the early returns from Manila—which was expected—and Aquino was instructed to declare herself the winner. However, when the rural votes came in, where Marcos was still loved for the development he had brought to the nation, Marcos overtook Aquino and won the election.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">In an astonishing public admission, former U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines William Sullivan (who had also been Ambassador to Iran when the Shah was overthrown by similar means in 1979), told CBS News on Feb. 9, two days after the Philippines election: "The facts as they emerge are becoming increasingly irrelevant, because it's the perception that prevails both in the Philippines and, I think, internationally, that Mrs. Aquino won the election as far as the polling places were concerned, but the government, in the tabulation, changed the vote counts."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As EIR had warned, General Ramos then led a military revolt against President Marcos, calling for crowds to surround the military base in the center of Manila, to create an image of "people's power," while the masses of the population were disenfranchised by the overthrow of their elected President. By the end of February, President Reagan had been convinced by Shultz to give up his defense of President Marcos, and endorse the military coup; Marcos and his family were sent to Hawaii.</span><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUlWIjmgpUAN83AtxUR6VX6xLSvzbaza-ijE7Y-98L4obXcOuPoUD7VBDUeVjBcMjG0OqZuFOrgRMdnG40ZifpZVU8DCHox3d1FNIbf8iGist2Avhype0aX83p151BpSq7AwE9ZEJGvA/s1600/q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUlWIjmgpUAN83AtxUR6VX6xLSvzbaza-ijE7Y-98L4obXcOuPoUD7VBDUeVjBcMjG0OqZuFOrgRMdnG40ZifpZVU8DCHox3d1FNIbf8iGist2Avhype0aX83p151BpSq7AwE9ZEJGvA/s1600/q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /></a></div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><b style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">IMF Carnage</b></span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The results of this subversion are still evident today in the decay of the economic and social fabric of the Philippines. Corazon Aquino fulfilled every IMF request, from the closure of the completed nuclear power facility to the deregulation and privatization of much of the economy. It was a surprise to some of Aquino's supporters, but not to LaRouche, when the pro-IMF members of the Marcos Cabinet were retained in the new government. General Ramos took over directly in the next Presidential election in 1992, selling the nation to the Enrons of the West through corrupt, unequal contract agreements, especially in the energy sector, which left the country in absolute bankruptcy after the speculative assault on the Asian economies in 1997-98. Joseph Estrada, another "commoner," was elected President in 1998, but was allowed only two years in office before another "economic hit man"-orchestrated-coup (again with General Ramos doing the bidding for his foreign controllers) brought him down in January 2001.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The former President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has generally done what was demanded of her by the neo-conservatives in power in Washington. However, when she pulled the token Philippine military force out of Iraq, and then upgraded the country's relations with China, she won the ire of her patrons, and is now facing the threat of yet another coup—with General Ramos again the neo-cons' man on the scene.</span>

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The U.S.-orchestrated coup which overthrew the government of Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was a classic case study of what John Perkins describes in his recent book, Confessions of...

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<br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsUNMhI0dJfNQuYuMH7zNcL5h2LBmRXexhNgK_Z6n84NEb8A2R8tzk27cu5vkrU6RL_18EeG_15JylGXgUESamoEQ3i06m0hIzVP_R5rAcCPNqjOQ1_UJQh0YZCRzcuoIA-7dxBqLjhGb/s1600/Q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" height="431" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHsUNMhI0dJfNQuYuMH7zNcL5h2LBmRXexhNgK_Z6n84NEb8A2R8tzk27cu5vkrU6RL_18EeG_15JylGXgUESamoEQ3i06m0hIzVP_R5rAcCPNqjOQ1_UJQh0YZCRzcuoIA-7dxBqLjhGb/s640/Q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" width="598" /></a></div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The U.S.-orchestrated coup which overthrew the government of Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was a classic case study of what John Perkins describes in his recent book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, as the post-World War II preferred method of imposing colonial control under another name. In the Philippines case, George Shultz performed the roles of both the economic hit man, destroying and taking full control of the Philippine economy, and the coup-master, deposing the Philippine President in favor of an IMF puppet—while calling the operation "people power."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Throughout this process, from the late 1970s through the February 1986 coup, and beyond, Lyndon LaRouche and his collaborators were fully engaged in the fight to expose and reverse this subversion and destruction of one of America's most important allies, by the supranational financial institutions which Shultz and his ilk represent. By mobilizing support from patriots of both the United States and the Philippines, the LaRouche effort put a spotlight on the crimes of the Shultz cabal, as will be shown below. Although the effort failed to stop the process at that time, the crimes thus exposed in the Philippines can and must serve today as a nemesis to Shultz and his neo-conservative operatives, who are in an endgame in their effort to impose a new fascist order over the planet.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">In a Nov. 16 interview on radio station DZAR in Manila, LaRouche described his own view of the special mission of the Philippines nation: "The Philippines has a very important pivotal role, some people would say geopolitically, in the entire region, of trying to bring together on a global scale for the first time, a world system, which is capable of accommodating both the European cultural heritage and Asian cultures. This is the great barrier, the great frontier, of a hopeful future for this planet: to bring together the cultures of Asia—which are different than those of Western Europe generally—with European culture, to get a global culture based on a system of sovereign nation-states, which understands that this unresolved cultural question has to be addressed, with a long-term view, of several generations, of creating an integrated set of sovereign nation-states as the system of the planet. So the Philippines is a very special country, with a unique importance for the people of Asia, in particular, in playing a key role in bringing about this kind of general integration of Asian and European civilizations."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The lesson of the subversion of the Philippines in the 1980s for today is clear. Shultz is the eminence gris behind the neo-conservatives running the Bush Administration, which has brought the world to the current disastrous circumstance. It is also the case that the Philippines, although currently lacking any national leadership comparable to that of Marcos, is nonetheless facing a new coup threat, orchestrated by the same neo-conservative circles in Washington who were responsible for the 1986 coup.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The popular memory of Ferdinand Marcos today, in the U.S. and in the Philippines, is largely shaped by the massive disinformation campaign created in the early 1980s by the circles around then-Secretary of State Shultz, and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz. Marcos was accused of corruption, human rights violations, plunder, and even the murder of a political opponent, Benigno Aquino—and this caricature is repeated ad nauseam still today. While Marcos was not without faults, he was by far the last Filipino head of state to have understood the challenge of true leadership in a world slipping towards chaos. His overthrow by the Shultz cabal had nothing to do with the charges issued publicly, but were intended to stop his national development policies, and his international collaboration with LaRouche and others in countering the genocidal policies of the IMF, and bringing into being a new world economic system based on development and justice.</span><br /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"></span></b><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><br style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /></span></b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"></span> <br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <b style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJ0bi6eSyaBcSSEdUkd9ApA4lmL-wgSBh8CFtT6_U3tXUiDLEkm_4kiuKw0LVTzImPPPJwM1RG7MxI82cDb4q1jYyP6rzBNdHkIaTK7kUqbSQe1mGSW4ApL3OhxT5NvHSQcf7E8R9NNHu/s1600/Q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" height="457" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQJ0bi6eSyaBcSSEdUkd9ApA4lmL-wgSBh8CFtT6_U3tXUiDLEkm_4kiuKw0LVTzImPPPJwM1RG7MxI82cDb4q1jYyP6rzBNdHkIaTK7kUqbSQe1mGSW4ApL3OhxT5NvHSQcf7E8R9NNHu/s1600/Q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" width="587" /></a></span></b></div> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> </div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">Marcos's True Legacy</span></b><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Marcos was elected President in 1965, just as the United States launched the disastrous and futile war in Indochina. The fact that the United States used its bases in the Philippines, Subic Bay and Clark Airfield in Luzon, as launching pads for the Indochina War, fed a domestic insurgency by the Maoist New People's Army (NPA). Marcos was then treated as a close friend and ally of the United States. Even when he declared martial law in 1972, with the Indochina War still raging, the Administration of President Richard Nixon raised no objections.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">But Marcos was not only concerned about "counterinsurgency" in declaring martial law. When he was elected President in 1965, the Philippines was still essentially a colonial economy, although the United States had granted full independence on July 4, 1946, as had been promised by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1934. Productivity was low in both agriculture and industry: agriculture lagged as the Philippines relied on special access to U.S. food exports, and industry was confined to process industries, rather than the development of basic industries.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Marcos set out immediately to establish Philippine food self-sufficiency in rice and corn. This also required breaking the control of the landed aristocracy left over from the Spanish imperial era. Marcos was the first President of the Philippines who did not rise from this elite class, but was a "commoner" trained as a lawyer.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As President, he focussed on basic agricultural infrastructure, especially irrigation, in the major food-producing regions of Luzon and Mindanao. Credit facilities, mechanization, and the introduction of high-yield rice varieties, which needed irrigation, resulted in the elimination of rice imports by 1968.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Land reform, primarily a political problem, remained illusive. However, when Marcos imposed martial law in 1972, among his first acts was a proclamation that the entire nation was to be considered a "land reform area," and a declaration that all tenants working land devoted primarily to rice and corn were to be the owners of that land, up to a specified limit. Despite the enraged opposition of the oligarchy, the program proved to be extraordinarily successful. Coupled with the infrastructure and mechanization improvements, a quarter of a million peasants became land owners, and grain productivity increased by half.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Another major step after the declaration of martial law was to contract with Westinghouse for the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant—which was to be the first (and would still be the only) commercial nuclear power plant in Southeast Asia. While nuclear power is clearly the only sane solution to the energy requirements across the region, the sad saga of the Bataan Nuclear Plant symbolizes the pure evil of the policies enforced by the "economic hit men." As originally contracted, the plant should have cost about $1 billion, and produced 1,200 MW of electricity by 1984. However, after the hysteria generated by the anti-nuclear "Nuclear Club of Wall Street" (see EIR, Dec. 3, 2004) following the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania, the Carter Admistration imposed retroactive safety regulations which contributed to more than doubling the cost of construction. Then, after the overthrow of Marcos in 1986, one of the first acts of the new Presidency of Corazon Aquino was to mothball the fully completed, but never used, Bataan Nuclear Plant. The Philippines has been forced to pay countless billions in debt service, and pays still today over $155,000 per day, for this nuclear facility, without having drawn one watt of electricity from the state-of-the-art facility. Two further nuclear power facilities which were planned to provide 1,880 MW of electricity by 1991, were also scrapped.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Nuclear energy was not the only innovation of the Marcos regime. In 1979 Marcos announced a plan for 11 major industrial projects, with the intention of shifting the focus of the nation's industrial economy from consumer goods to basic heavy industry. Included in the plan were steel, petro-chemical, pulp and paper, a copper smelter, aluminum, phosphate fertilizer, diesel engines, gas and oil, a coconut industry, and the nuclear power program.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The Marcos Administration, during the 1972-81 martial law period, tripled the country's road network, doubled the electrification of the country's homes, increased irrigated cropland eight-fold, and achieved rice and corn self-sufficiency.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Minimum daily wage rates tripled, although inflation, driven by international oil price hikes and exploding U.S. interest rates, more than wiped out these wage increases.</span><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <b style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii5mylAU8x14NqGRFMub3lu62PUmN-J3w-6MoMmThY8_AfRMpcrabYD4tfTByDDzh8rvtHmD5qqMgKY3pb2SlkfBM4Swhm6qp34Ah0k-G5Zh0uou8VrEQwa9MUKXquLkUM8CTRTtAhbsI/s1600/q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii5mylAU8x14NqGRFMub3lu62PUmN-J3w-6MoMmThY8_AfRMpcrabYD4tfTByDDzh8rvtHmD5qqMgKY3pb2SlkfBM4Swhm6qp34Ah0k-G5Zh0uou8VrEQwa9MUKXquLkUM8CTRTtAhbsI/s1600/q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /></a></span></b></div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">Enter the Economic Hit Men</span></b><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">This level of development—especially the capacity to free the nation from dependence on the international oil and raw materials cartels—was not to be tolerated by the international financial institutions. The contrived oil shortages of the 1970s left the Philippines, like all non-oil-producing nations, with huge debts. This was followed by the 20%-plus interest rates imposed by U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker in 1979, which doubled and tripled the debts of most Third World nations within a few years.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">In 1981, Marcos lifted martial law. Also in that year, he attended the North-South Summit in Cancun, Mexico, organized by Mexican President José López Portillo (see accompanying article) where he spoke out for a "new world economic order," and denounced the destructive "conditionalities" imposed by the IMF in exchange for financial assistance in a crisis. Then, in September 1981, Marcos pushed through the Philippine Congress nearly $4 billion worth of priority infrastructure projects, including irrigation, drainage and flood control programs, highways, telecommunications, and airports.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">This was answered in 1982 (the year George Shultz became Secretary of State) by an IMF report which attacked Marcos's projects, demanding debt payment instead: "In the Philippines situation, restraint on public investment could be an effective instrument for securing an improvement in the current account deficit." IMF Director Jacques Delarosière lectured that the country had set "unrealistic growth targets," while the World Bank denounced the Marcos government for supporting national industries.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">These "softening up" raids were not adequate to control the Marcos government. Shultz visited Manila in the Summer of 1983, overseeing another 20% devaluation of the Philippine peso, thus further increasing the costs of financing the already-illegitimate foreign debt.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The full-scale assault began in the Fall of 1983, with the murder of Benigno Aquino. Aquino, an opposition leader whom Marcos had allowed to leave prison in order to get medical treatment in the United States (despite facing a death sentence for murder and subversion), chose to return to the Philippines in August 1983 after three years in the United States. He was gunned down as he emerged from his plane in Manila.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Although the actual conspirators were never officially discovered, the assassination was immediately blamed on Marcos, and the economic hit men called in the "jackals" (as Perkins called those whose job was to depose or even kill world leaders who resisted the demands of the economic hit men like himself). In the Philippines, Shultz and Wolfowitz doubled as economic hit men and jackals.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As to Aquino's view of the pending threat to his life, he had been asked by the U.S. magazine Mother Jones in January 1983, while contemplating his return to the Philippines: "What do you think Marcos will do?" Aquino replied: "He will keep me alive, because he knows the moment I die, I am a martyr, like Martin Luther King, and he wouldn't want that. Another possibility, he lets me out, and the communists knock me off. They blame Marcos. They have a martyr and they have eliminated a stumbling block." Aquino also understood the actual cause of the economic disaster striking the Philippines: "If you made me President of the Philippines today, my friend, in six months I would be smelling like horseshit. Because there is nothing I can do. I cannot provide employment. I cannot bring prices down."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Within two months of the assassination, the remaining credit lines to the Philippines were drastically cut, and another 21% devaluation was imposed. The nation was bankrupt. Finally, on Oct. 15, 1983, Marcos was allowed to declare a moratorium on the unpayable debt, but only on condition that the big projects he had backed to modernize the nation be scrapped, while many of the industries supported by the state were turned over to domestic and international vultures (this was done under the guise of accusing the owners of these industries of being corrupt "cronies" of Marcos).</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The LaRouche movement, meanwhile, was sponsoring conferences in Bangkok, Thailand, one in October 1983, and another in October 1984, on the subject of the proposal authored by Lyndon LaRouche for "Development of the Pacific and Indian Ocean Basins." Philippines Deputy Foreign Minister Pacifico Castro attended the 1984 Conference, speaking on "Regional Economic Cooperation and Security," joined by government and business leaders from across the region. The conferences proposed such "Great Projects" as the Kra Canal in Thailand, and the physical transformation of Asia, as the driving force behind a new world economic order.</span><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <b style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiG6rsxhuGCQOyqO4hnD4Ig1lVe832sPq4j64vt5X_6tANy8WSES_bmS4ZidpyJQmghIJbdq-HUxpCD913RwcUrCWbMxYNS0zwsjs16OMLtrEyZhZOEaBA0UrmsDI0m_q8CYfS3rOCjLE/s1600/q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiG6rsxhuGCQOyqO4hnD4Ig1lVe832sPq4j64vt5X_6tANy8WSES_bmS4ZidpyJQmghIJbdq-HUxpCD913RwcUrCWbMxYNS0zwsjs16OMLtrEyZhZOEaBA0UrmsDI0m_q8CYfS3rOCjLE/s1600/q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" width="590" /></a></span></b></div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <b style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-size: medium; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">Jackals</span></b><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The opponents of Marcos were soon being wined and dined in Washington, by both the right wing (Shultz and Wolfowitz) and the left wing (Rep. Stephen Solarz, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Princeton's Richard Falk) of the "Project Democracy" apparatus, which performed the subversive tasks assigned by the synarchist banking institutions. Salvador Laurel, the son of the quisling President of the Philippines under the Japanese occupation, headed the opposition after Aquino's assassination, and in February 1984, visited Washington, where he was greeted by Vice President George H.W. Bush and Secretary of State Shultz. Representative Solarz introduced legislation into the Congress to abdicate the treaty regulating the U.S. bases in the Philippines, cutting the agreed aid to the Philippines by two-thirds. At the same time, a nest of anti-nuclear and anti-development NGOs in the United States took up the cause of overthrowing the "Marcos dictatorship," including a gathering of anti-nuclear forces in Manila, including Richard Falk and representatives of the West German Green Party. Stephen Bosworth, a close collaborator of Henry Kissinger, was appointed Ambassador to the Philippines, and from that position he would subsequently orchestrate the coup against Marcos.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">By October 1984, the Philippines was forced to submit to an IMF refinancing package that included an end to price controls on rice and other staples, a float of the peso, unrestricted foreign exchange speculation, import reductions, domestic austerity, and yet another devaluation—making a total of a 63.3% devaluation in one year, nearly doubling the cost of financing the foreign debt. Ironically, the opposition, fully supported and sponsored by the IMF-related institutions, rallied support among the population by denouncing Marcos for "acceding to the oppressive conditions of the IMF."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Throughout 1985, President Ronald Reagan defended the American relationship with the Philippines and with President Marcos, despite the fact that Secretary of State Shultz and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz openly disagreed with that assessment, instead demanding Marcos's head. The crisis came to a head in July 1984, when the U.S. Congress adopted the Solarz proposal to rip up the Bases Agreement, not only slashing the financial commitments, but insisting that the remaining aid be distributed not by the Philippine government, but by the Church, which, under Cardinal Jaime Sin, had openly called for insurrection against the government.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">By November, the plans for insurrection were unveiled publicly, as the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the home of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brezezinski, carried out a "war game" against the Philippines, based on a scenario in which President Marcos is assassinated, Soviet "spetsnaz" commandos join the New People's Army in taking over the Philippines, and the U.S. military goes into action to "save" the country.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The CSIS's work in Asia was largely financed at that time by the C.V. Starr insurance empire, run by Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Greenberg and C.V. Starr owned most of the insurance industry in the Philippines, and a number of Philippine politicians as well, and served as the crucial "on the ground" economic hit man in the Marcos coup.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Marcos continued fighting for the principle of a new world economic order. In November 1985, EIR and the Schiller Institute, the international association directed by Lyndon and Helga LaRouche, invited Gen. Edgardo Mercado Jarrin (ret.), the head of Peru's Institute of Geostrategic and Political Studies, to tour Asia, promoting the partial moratorium on foreign debt then being implemented by the Peruvian government. In addition to conferences in Thailand and India, General Mercado Jarrin and the EIR/Schiller Institute delegation met with President Marcos in Manila. Marcos told the delegation: "Third World Asian and South American countries should get together and push through the condonation of part of their loans. How can Third World countries pay their loans, amounting to $900 billion?" Marcos estimated that the paying capacity could not exceed $300 billion.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The Aug. 16 EIR published a story entitled "Plotting the Fall of an American Ally," which reported that U.S. Ambassador Bosworth was plotting a military coup against the Marcos government. The article reported: "Bosworth now meets up to two hours every day with Acting Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Fidel Ramos, a West Point graduate whom the United States is attempting to groomn as a leader of a new civilian-military junta, despite his loyalty to President Marcos." The story was based on information from reliable sources both in the Philippines and in Washington, where certain patriotic layers within the government, intelligence, and the military did not accept America's transformation into an imperial power serving the synarchist financial interests.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The EIR exposée forced a public denial by General Ramos and by Ambassador Bosworth. As events proved, the warning was deadly accurate.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Marcos was finally coerced by Washington into calling new elections for February 1986, even though the Constitution mandated elections only in 1987. The opposition, in constant coordination with U.S. Ambassador Bosworth and the Shultz State Department, chose to run Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, as the Presidential candidate, with Laurel for Vice President.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As still seen today in such neo-con-controlled "people's power revolutions," such as in Georgia and Ukraine, U.S. intelligence agencies financed and controlled the "citizen" electoral monitor organization, the National Movement for a Free Election (Namfrel), and prepared to declare "vote fraud" if the election did not go the way intended. Paul Wolfowitz in November 1985 told the U.S. Congress that there would be a "complete collapse of political confidence" if the elections were not perceived as "fair"—i.e., if Marcos were not defeated.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Indeed, on election day, the opposition was ahead in the early returns from Manila—which was expected—and Aquino was instructed to declare herself the winner. However, when the rural votes came in, where Marcos was still loved for the development he had brought to the nation, Marcos overtook Aquino and won the election.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">In an astonishing public admission, former U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines William Sullivan (who had also been Ambassador to Iran when the Shah was overthrown by similar means in 1979), told CBS News on Feb. 9, two days after the Philippines election: "The facts as they emerge are becoming increasingly irrelevant, because it's the perception that prevails both in the Philippines and, I think, internationally, that Mrs. Aquino won the election as far as the polling places were concerned, but the government, in the tabulation, changed the vote counts."</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">As EIR had warned, General Ramos then led a military revolt against President Marcos, calling for crowds to surround the military base in the center of Manila, to create an image of "people's power," while the masses of the population were disenfranchised by the overthrow of their elected President. By the end of February, President Reagan had been convinced by Shultz to give up his defense of President Marcos, and endorse the military coup; Marcos and his family were sent to Hawaii.</span><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; text-align: center; word-wrap: break-word;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUlWIjmgpUAN83AtxUR6VX6xLSvzbaza-ijE7Y-98L4obXcOuPoUD7VBDUeVjBcMjG0OqZuFOrgRMdnG40ZifpZVU8DCHox3d1FNIbf8iGist2Avhype0aX83p151BpSq7AwE9ZEJGvA/s1600/q.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #d12f2f; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; position: relative; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGUlWIjmgpUAN83AtxUR6VX6xLSvzbaza-ijE7Y-98L4obXcOuPoUD7VBDUeVjBcMjG0OqZuFOrgRMdnG40ZifpZVU8DCHox3d1FNIbf8iGist2Avhype0aX83p151BpSq7AwE9ZEJGvA/s1600/q.jpg" style="border: none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /></a></div> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;"><b style="position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;">IMF Carnage</b></span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The results of this subversion are still evident today in the decay of the economic and social fabric of the Philippines. Corazon Aquino fulfilled every IMF request, from the closure of the completed nuclear power facility to the deregulation and privatization of much of the economy. It was a surprise to some of Aquino's supporters, but not to LaRouche, when the pro-IMF members of the Marcos Cabinet were retained in the new government. General Ramos took over directly in the next Presidential election in 1992, selling the nation to the Enrons of the West through corrupt, unequal contract agreements, especially in the energy sector, which left the country in absolute bankruptcy after the speculative assault on the Asian economies in 1997-98. Joseph Estrada, another "commoner," was elected President in 1998, but was allowed only two years in office before another "economic hit man"-orchestrated-coup (again with General Ramos doing the bidding for his foreign controllers) brought him down in January 2001.</span><br /> <br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; position: relative; word-wrap: break-word;" /> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">The former President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has generally done what was demanded of her by the neo-conservatives in power in Washington. However, when she pulled the token Philippine military force out of Iraq, and then upgraded the country's relations with China, she won the ire of her patrons, and is now facing the threat of yet another coup—with General Ramos again the neo-cons' man on the scene.</span>

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The U.S.-orchestrated coup which overthrew the government of Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was a classic case study of what John Perkins describes in his recent book, Confessions of...