Family feud and the disingenuous Bongbong Marcos

Bongbong Marcos wants peace between his family and the Aquinos, saying that story is getting old.

He’s right. It is getting old.

But the son of the late dictator clearly doesn’t understand an important point: the anger of many Filipinos toward the Marcoses, and the courageous struggle they waged to get rid of him was not about the Aquinos.

It wasn’t about Ninoy or Cory or Noynoy, and certainly not about Kris.

The Marcoses and the Aquinos may hate each other today, but that has nothing to do with why many of us feel it’s important to remember the lessons of dictatorship and why that has nothing to do with one or two families.

That’s not how Bongbong sees it.

“We all know that this feud continues up to now. This prevents us from uniting the country. We have to get past it…put it behind us. There are so many things we need to do,” he told DWIZ as reported in INQUIRER.net.

It’s a disingenuous, cynical pronouncement from someone who does not, or refuses, to understand the way Marcos destroyed Philippine society.

“I mean siguro sa pamilya Marcos, wala na ‘yung political fight na yan,’” Bongbong also said. “Hindi naman ito personal. ‘Yung talagang naglalaban was my father and Ninoy Aquino, ‘60s, ‘70s pa ‘yun so dapat lampasan na natin ‘yun at hindi na ‘yan ang issue ngayon. Wala tayong makukuha sa tuluy-tuloy na pagsusumbatan na Aquino-Marcos for no good reason. We’ll get nothing out of that.”

I mean siguro Bongbong thinks that if he keeps repeating this fantasy, this lie, most Filipinos will believe it.

It’s like his other twisted claim about the Marcos dictatorship — that if his dad had not been overthrown, the Philippines could have turned into another Singapore. That is, the Philippines could have become like a country known to be among the least corrupt in the world had Filipinos not kicked out a president now remembered to be among the most corrupt in world history.

The reason for Bongbong’s peace offensive based on a family feud fantasy is clear. It’s an opportune time to recast the Marcos legacy of greed and brutality into nothing more than a tale of two bickering families.

An Aquino is in power, and his administration is under fire. PNoy’s vaunted crusade to rid government of corruption has been derailed by allegations that his own allies betrayed the public trust.

That has given the Marcos forces an opening, and Bongbong is taking advantage of it.

The focus of his campaign is the Aquino family, but the Marcos forces have also been aiming higher, painting the late tyrant as a wise, benevolent ruler. They launched the wacky Twitter campaign calling the dictator the “best president” the country has ever had.

Fortunately, others are pushing back. The Never Again group on Facebook has been one of the most effective. You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/neveragaintomarcos/

Young Filipinos interested in a deeper look at what happened to us when Marcos was in power can find a wealth of information in the Never Again page — from the money the Marcoses stole, to the torture and abuse, to the brazen lies about his medals and war record, to the individuals and groups who fought back during those dark years.

You can start with this 1986 CBS report on the home movies Marcoses left behind after they fled during the People Power uprising.

Bongbong is even in it. He’s wearing a flashy red bow tie, happy, having fun, singing “We Are the World.”

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