If there is anything that encapsulates just about all of what the Opposition has to argue against the recently-announced candidacy of former President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., it is the headline given to this Rappler piece authored by Lian Buan: “Dictator’s son Bongbong Marcos to run for president in 2022”. Being an avowed “social news network” in the service of the Yellowtards (the Opposition bloc of partisans rabidly loyal to the Aquino-Cojuangco clan) it is only fitting that Rappler‘s girlette frame her “report” around the only argument in the Opposition brains trust’s intellectual arsenal against the most winnable of this election cycle’s presidential bets.
Buan’s writing is fully in-character…
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, will run for president in 2022 – in a move that aims to complete the family’s return to power 35 years after they were ousted by a civilian-backed military revolt and forced to flee the country.
Indeed, the whole of Yellowtardom owe their existence to this narrative of Filipinos having to be in a perpetual state of “vigilance” so as to ensure that the “horrors” of the “Marcos years” are to “never again” happen. Perhaps it is high time that these presumed “leaders” of the Opposition pause and reflect. If that whole premise remained as compelling as it once was 20 to 30 years ago, why do they now tremble at the prospect of “another Marcos” in Malacanang? Maybe it is possible that Filipinos have just had enough of all that shrill fear mongering.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
The Yellowtards, it seems, would like to keep Filipinos imprisoned by this engineered fear forever. They regard Filipinos as idiots who need to be “protected” from their own curiosity lest they wander too far away from the bahay kubo. This they do by filling their minds with dishonest tales of the terrible tikbalangs and kapres that lurk in the forest.
In light of Bongbong Marcos now being in the race for the presidency, the Opposition need to confront the important question: Does “another Marcos” in Malacanang necessarily presuppose a return to authoritarianism? Consider too Marcos’s qualifications using sheer experience alone as the key metric. Buan herself points out; “Marcos has been in government for 28 years, starting in 1980 when he became vice governor of Ilocos Norte at age 23 and his father was president under Martial Law. He won as governor and representative of Ilocos Norte before serving as senator for one term from 2010 to 2016.” How do Buan’s preferred presidential candidates measure up to that? Indeed, the next most popular candidate could not even complete one gig as Mayor of his home city before setting his eyes on the top job. What’s up with that, right?
And then there is that election — the one that Yellowtardom’s Joan of Arc, Leni Robredo, supposedly barely “won” against Marcos. If Robredo had really been as popular as Marcos was in 2016, why does she consistently trail just about every one of her rivals in just about every reliable poll over the last several years? This, even as the same sample sets show Marcos consistently sustaining his numbers throughout. It’s one of those things that make you go “hmmm…”. As in, hmmmm… who really won the vice presidency in 2016? The mystery persists, specially so that then Commision on Elections (COMELEC) chairman at the time, Andy Bautista, remains holed up with his relatives in the United States refusing to face the music.
Remove the whole “Marcos is evil” ululation from the Yellowtard rhetoric and what does that leave them in a face off with Marcos in a debate? Big fat ZERO. It raises yet another important question: Shouldn’t Filipino voters expect more of their Opposition than the tired old “Marcos is evil” strawman that they’ve been hiding behind all these years? Certainly it is high time that more forward-looking minds be applied to the political “debate” — a debate the Yellowtards would like to blanket with the emotional blackmail they had been perpetrating against the Filipino people for no less than three decades.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
That Buan sounds like Buang just omit that letter g. Joking aside, this is their same old crap for anyone who named Marcos are automatically “bad man”.
Following the premise of this article (that being a Marcos is the ‘only’ argument the opposition have against Bongbong) we can deduce that there is an effort to downgrade or weaken the issue of bearing a Marcos name at a political battle. Saying a Marcos name is the ‘only’ argument one can have against Bongbong is simply misleading. The name carries a lot of memories, good and bad and everything. For sure, the Marcos name can still muster enough votes to takeover an election, specially on local settings. At the same time, it can also be a handicap nationally as we are seeing now in Bongbong. So it is a big deal actually. So big a deal that a serious, deep and long overhauling of the national psyche is needed to remove the stigma on the Marcos brand.
Having another Marcos in Malacanang does not necessarily signify a return of authoritarianism but for most people it surely does bring back memories of waste, corruption, cronyism, abuses and everything that spells bad for the country.
A Marcos label does not guarantee a win but it makes it hard to achieve it. The brand is too heavy to drag around. My guess is, Bongbong is not going to win on a one-on-one fight. In a 3 or 4 fight scenario he can squeak through especially if he has a popular partner. I’m sure that is the scenario the opposition is aware of.
Are you sure about that? Waste, corruption, cronyism, abuses and everything that spells bad for country still exists today. It attributed more to after 1986 than Marcos per se.
It’s just the media successfully covered it up, under the guise of ‘democracy’. Surely, this “appeal to the emotions” shit really does wonders.
You are right bad things still exists today. For example, as covered by media, the corruption level, waste and inefficiency on the current pandemic issues are really astounding. The killings and deaths, the breakdown in civility, the never ending promotion of cronyism in the bureaucracy while people wallows in poverty, among others, continue to remind us that the bad things that happened during Marcos’ watch could return back if we do not exercise vigilance in protecting our democracy and liberty that we once lost in the previous past.
Is it like as if those things only happened during Marcos’ watch and all of these are gone when he left.
That’s not how it works.
The killing and deaths still exist. There’s the Mendiola Massacre. And it was not under Marcos’ watch. It was in 1987.
Cronyism still persists. After 1986, it was replaced by another. The 1987 Constitution supports this type of cronyism. And it was not under Marcos’ watch.
And poverty still exists, but with CCT. The Yellows wanted the poor to become poorer in order to practice mendicancy. It’s a form of pauperism, so oligarchs will be institutionalized. And it didn’t happen under Marcos’ watch.
If you guys want to protect “democracy” and “liberty”, we should get rid of the stupid belief of “democracy and liberty means ‘I can do whatever I want'”. That’s why Pinoys ended up being irresponsible, undisciplined, self-entitled, disrespectful. So what’s the point of trying to defend our “democracy and liberty” if we ended up being STUPID?
That is exactly what happened after Marcos left. And you can’t argue with that. Your posts reeks of Yellowtardism.
Like I said, bad things still exists today.
To go back to the premise of the title that the Marcos name is the only argument against Bongbong. For me, it is an assumption making light that a Marcos name is actually just that a name. It’s harmless and there is nothing to it. That it connotes nothing in historical perspective; which of course we all know is not accurate.
I don’t know how I become yellow to you when all I’m doing is sharing my little insights on the issue at hand. If you are a Marcos loyalist good for you; you have your own view on the matter. I respect that. Only thing is, never label another person just because he/she doesn’t share the same political view with you. Instead, engage them, challenge them to expound on their perspectives so that we can all share and benefit in the experience.
I prefer you argue your point than make a derisive and aggressive comments that does not help the discussion.
Yellowtards has been dragging this country for so long with their level of thinking. If you’ll try to explain something to a literal retard who’s iq is that to a toddler’s thinking capacity, it sure is pointless. It’s just the same as explaining to a retard how 140 multiples by 4 is not 1600.
I am about to post another encyclopedic filler rant about how the Marcos name is loaded with selective “memories” of a certain elitist camp, but maybe I should first fix the 1Sambayan mess and my “vice president’s” embarrassing performance to make sure I get VOTES.
That, you should, and a whole lot more. You should set your sights beyond next year’s elections, because you will not win it. Consider next year as practice, as learning experience.
Aba nabuhay ang persona mong yan na Rus Guduman. ?
Benign0, at least you are a super duper pro-Marcos loyalist. Brining BBM back to Malacanang to return to authoritarianism, nationalism, conservatism and cronyism?
At least you were the supporter of the former president Trump.
As if cronyism ceased to exist after Marcos left.
Oh well, what do I expect from Yellow trolls like yourself?
Yellow trolls? More like communist terrorists, Jules Nope. You are free to tag as as terrorists. NTC-ELCAC would find us!
Trying to detach the significant socio-historical aspect from the elective process is what’s stupid.