FERDINAND MARCOS (Ika-13 na Bahagi)

LABIS na nakakapagtaka ang pagsasalita ni BBM sa harap ng telebisyon at social media noong kasagsagan ng bagyo noon Sabado ng gabi. Wala kaming nakitang sagisag ng Pangulo. Ang nakita namin sa gawing kaliwa ay lababo gayong hindi dishwasher si BBM. Halatang hindi sa Malacanang kundi sa ibang lugar na hindi sinabi kung saan.

Hindi siya nagbigay ng anumang tagubilin sa iba’t-ibang sangay ng gobyerno na may atas na humarap sa kalamidad. Walang order kahit ano pa man. Bagkus, mukhang nayayamot si BBM dahil sa dami ng mga nangamatay sa landslide sa Maguindanao. Hindi siya kinakitaan ng sigla at sigasig upang harapin ang kalamidad na dulot ng bagyong “Paeng.”

Sa isang pahayag, sinabi ni Sara Duterte na nasa “isipan at dalangin” (thoughts and prayers) ang sambayanang Filipino dahil sa bagyo. Hindi makakain ang thoughts and prayers ni Sara, ito ang mariin na tugon ng maraming netizen sa nakakasukang reaksyon ng pambansang liderato sa kalamidad dala ni Paeng. Kailangan ng tulong ng mga nasalanta ng bagyo, partikular ang mga komunidad na lampas bahay ang baha at mga apektado ng pagguho ng lupa (landslide).

Habang isinusulat namin ang kolum na ito, hindi pa lumitaw si BBM at kumalat ang balita na wala sa Filipinas si BBM at pamilya. Nagbakasyon sa ibang bansa si BBM at pamilya dahil sa mahabang weekend. Hindi kumpirmado ang haka-haka na nasa Japan si BBM at pamilya upang kumain ng ramen at sushi.

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Halaw ang mga sumusunod sa isang aklat na aking tinatapos tungkol sa diktadura ni Marcos.

MORE VIOLENCE

Many events happened to justify the 1972 declaration of martial law. From March 15 to Sept. 11, 1972, 20 “terrorist bombings” occurred in the cities and towns that later comprised Metro Manila. Military authorities attributed these bombings to the CPP-NPA urban guerrillas, although it was not a far-fetched idea that certain military elements were behind them to create the favorable situation for martial law declaration.

The bombings occurred in places like Palace Theater on Ronquillo St., in Quiapo the shoe store Joe’s at Carriedo St, also in Quiapo, and the buildings of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, entrance of the Board Room of the Filipinas Orient Airways, porch of the South Vietnamese embassy, Philippine Trust Company branch in Cubao, Phil-American Life Building, Senate Publication Division and the Philippine Sugar Institute in Quezon City, and at the SWA building in San Rafael. At least one died in the Carriedo bombing and more than 40 people were injured in the incidents.

In his memoirs, Juan Ponce Enrile, Marcos defense secretary and one of the chief architects of the 1972 declaration of martial law, said two events could have precipitated martial law: the July 1972 M/V Karagatan affairs, which pointed to a frustrated arms smuggling of firearms from China; and the purported meeting in early September, 1972 between Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and Jose Ma. Sison in Makati. These two developments had Marcos virtually pushed the panic button, prompting him to consult with his military advisers and eventually declared martial law, according to Enrile in his book. They meant two things: first, the CPP-NPA was receiving firearms from what could be considered a hostile country; and second, the political elite, as represented by the oppositionist Liberal Party, was about to enter into an alliance of sort with the left-wing rebels represented by the CPP-NPA. In Enrile’s view, they did not augur well for political stability.

The MV Karagatan brouhaha was a well-publicized episode that alarmed Marcos, according to news accounts those days. In his book, Enrile alleged a certain Antonio Gomez, a logger and aircraft pilot, saw in a routine flight a ship anchored not far away from the beach of the remote town of Palanan in Isabela province. “He noticed loading cargoes on small boats and piles of boxes on the beach,” Enrile said, prompting Gomez to report what he saw to Lt. Col. Benjamin Dizon, the PC Provincial Commander in Isabela. Dizon promptly dispatched an eight-man team led by Lt. Edgardo Aglipay and his assistant, Lt. Napoleon Castro. The following morning, A PC helicopter took Aglipay’s team to the airstrip in Palanan. From the airstrip, they went to the logging camp of a certain Valeriano Bueno, who lent them a boat to scour the area and find the reported ship. In late afternoon, they found the vessel in Digoyo Bay.

Enrile said Aglipay’s team found military hardware and ammunitions and 14 sacks of rice from the vessel. The team was marooned in the vessel after a typhoon hit the area for three days. After the storm, the military sent another team to the area to help Aglipay’s patrol. Firefights between the government troopers and the rebels ensued, according to Enrile. The rebels withdrew and M/V Karagatan, a converted Japanese vessel, was captured along with its cargoes of firearms and ammunitions. Marcos called key military leaders and advisers to a meeting, but not without concluding that the rebels had opened a supply line with external sources. Although China was not identified as the source of the firearms, it was clear according to Enrile that the Filipino rebels were getting aid from foreign sources.

His claim found corroboration from Ricardo Malay, one the Filipino journalists who defected to the CPP-NPA upon its creation in 1968. Malay claimed that a team of CPP cadres went to China in 1969 to ask for assistance from its ruling party, China Communist Party (CPC). The CPC, in a party-to-party relationship with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), agreed to send firearms and money to the CPP to strengthen “fraternal relations” between the two parties. But when the M/V Karagatan episode was reported in international media, China, through its CCP, stopped the assistance. The M/V Karagatan was just the first of the two attempts to smuggle firearms to the Philippines. The second was the case of Mv Andrea.

In what Enrile described a “prelude” to martial law, Enrile alleged in his book that Marcos surprised the nation when he alleged that Ninoy Aquino met secretly with Jose Ma Sison to form an alliance between the Liberal Party and the Communist Party of the Philippines. Enrile said Marcos based his allegation on what he had reported to him. On the evening of September 7, or two weeks before Marcos signed Presidential Proclamation 1081, Enrile said in his book that Aquino met him at the house of Ramon Siy Lay, a common friend, in the posh Urdaneta Village in Makati. It was Aquino who initiated their meeting as he called Siy Lay to call Enrile for a meeting. In that meeting, Aquino, for no apparent reason, told him that he met Sison and activist leader Julius Fortuna to discuss the possibility of “unified resistance” against Marcos.

On Sept. 13, or a week before Marcos signed the presidential proclamation declaring martial law, Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., delivered a privilege speech, exposing what was known as “Oplan Sagittarius.” Ninoy Aquino said he had received a top-secret military plan given by Marcos himself to place Metro Manila and outlying areas under the control of the paramilitary Philippine Constabulary as a prelude to martial law. (Itutuloy)

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MGA PILING SALITA: “We excruciatingly endured six years of Duterte’s useless reign, but we had to bear the reckless stupidity of trolls, the painful consequence of having had no Justice, no Decency in govt, and no Accountability from our leaders. With Jr now at the helm, our predicament is so far from over.” – Jed Q Cepe, netizen, social critic