Loyalist asks gov't to stop vilifying Marcos

MANILA, Philippines - Marcos loyalist Cherry Cobarrubias asked the Aquino government and his supporters to stop “vilifying the late former president Ferdinand Marcos.”

In a telephone interview with The STAR yesterday, Cobarrubias defended the declaration of Martial Law, saying it was necessary due to the “cold war between the US and Russia” and because the “communists were (already) getting strong leverage in the country.”

According to the former spokesperson of Imelda Marcos, Filipinos during the Marcos regime were treated with “dignity” in foreign countries because “Marcos was a statesman and a leader with dignity.”

“Marcos was very firm in implementing the law that is why there were no illegal drugs during his time because he had set an example with the execution of Chinese drug trafficker Lim Seng,” she explained.

Cabarrubias added Marcos is not a thief. “All the cases in New York were dismissed. They were reviving the cases using pieces of evidence that were already rejected by the US court. They (the government) must be Christian enough to accept that Marcos did not fire a single shot during the EDSA I (revolution),” Cobarrubias said.

He stressed that if the Aquino administration is serious with its “Daang Matuwid (straight path)” campaign, they should “stop insulting Marcos because the people have already realized that he is not evil, the way they were projecting him to be.”

Meanwhile, militants yesterday joined the nation in observing the 26th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution, which toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

“We pay tribute to the Filipino people who rose against the US-Marcos dictatorship. EDSA was the culmination of a long movement against the US-backed Marcos dictatorship. Let us also remember the many youth and students who went underground and offered their lives while fighting the dictatorship,” Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said.

He added, “We commemorate Edsa I not because it represents a heroism that is singularly ascribed to one person or political color. We commemorate Edsa I because it represents the Filipino people’s dreams and aspirations that have yet to be fulfilled. And these will not likely be fulfilled even under the second Aquino regime. We definitely have no illusions in that regard.”

“Twenty-six years after EDSA, there is still continuing hunger, poverty, rising unemployment, increasing US intervention and persistent human rights violations. Even the human rights victims under the Marcos dictatorship and the Arroyo regime have yet to receive true and complete justice under the so-called ‘Daang Matuwid’,” Reyes noted.

“The biggest lesson of EDSA is that if we want real change, we have to rely on the people’s collective and determined struggle for national independence and genuine democracy,” he added. – With Rhodina Villanueva