the great pretender
Fifty two years after the First Quarter Storm a dictator’s son sits in office as president of the Philippines. What caused this?
What can another Marcos offer the country? A male child of no particular achievement or promise other than that he is lone heir to the conjugal empire of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. What was all the suffering and sacrifice for?
A period of civil unrest blew up the first quarter of 1970 when student and street protests turned into armed violence between resisting civilians and government police and military.
“The cloud formation acts as a visual metaphor for the brewing ferment and buildup of dissent against the dictatorship. It is a visual homage to the impending Diliman Commune a year after the FQS, thus, the ‘gathering storm.’” Toym Imao
The people were finally rebelling to condemn abuses perpetuated by former president Ferdinand Marcos and his administration during their 25 year dictatorship.
For decades local and global audiences have been witness to countless audio-visual and hands-on recounting and recollection that led to Martial Law.
We truly believed it would end with the first People Power Revolution of February 1986 and the US aided escape of the Marcos family to Hawaii.
If wishes were fishes. . . .we would all be swimming in a pristine ocean of bliss.
Instead each succeeding government after Marcos failed to dig the nation out of its corruption and avarice long enough to effect any real change. Tainted by the Marcos legacy turned into the republic’s S.O.P.— we failed to notice our lost democracy.
Then came Rodrigo Duterte and his abominable administration. With his agenda of violence while beholden to the same Marcos clan. We were all damned once more while they prepared the ground for another comeback grab for power.
Can the Philippines survive yet another Marcos regime — however watered down and infantile a bad copy? We shall all see come July 1, 2022.
Originally published at https://wonderwanderwomen.blogspot.com.
