Author: Ellen

How was Palace steel safe opened? Who took missing bags of cash Marcoses brought to Hawaii?

Published by Ellen on July 14, 2022

In my column last Monday on the last 24 hours of the Marcoses in Malacañang on Feb. 25, 1986, I shared the narration of the late colonel Arturo C. Aruiza, aide-de-camp of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., in his book “From Malacañang to Makiki” about their problem when the heavily medicated chief executive could not remember the combination of the steel safe in his bedroom where important documents and valuables were stored. They had to leave the safe unopened.

Aruiza said despite Marcos’ seemingly disoriented state, he picked up a brown Samsonite attaché case, gave it to a valet and told him, under pain of his displeasure, not to open it or part with it.

What happened to the steel safe left in Malacañang?

A loyal aide-de-camp’s account of the Marcoses’ last hours in Malacañang

Published by Ellen on July 10, 2022

Journalist Philip Lustre Jr. has reposted his version of the last day of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr in Malacañang (Feb. 25, 1986), written two years ago, to counter the version of Sen. Imee Marcos that will be shown in the movie “Maid in Malacañang “ about the last three days of the Marcos family in the President’s official residence.

I’m re-reading the book “Ferdinand E. Marcos, Malacañang to Makiki” by Col. Arturo C. Aruiza, who served as aide-de-camp and confidant of the late president for 21 years until the latter’s death in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1989.

Described as the “Last Loyalist,” Aruiza passed away in 1998 in Las Vegas at age 56.

I’m sharing excerpts from Aruiza’s intimate, gripping account of the scene in Malacañang on the evening of Feb. 25, 1986 like boxes of money in Marcos bedroom and the gravely ill president not being able to remember the combination of the steel safe where important items were being kept.

The awesome thoroughness of Marcos brainwashing ops

Published by Ellen on June 24, 2022

Amidst the preparations for the June 30 inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr as the 17th president of the Philippines, I’m still dreadfully in awe of the thoroughness of the brainwashing operations that the Marcos family undertook to achieve their rehabilitation in less than four decades.

Historian and political analyst Manuel L. Quezon III shared in a talk with VERA Files how meticulous the rehabilitation process was. We all blame social media which the Marcoses have mastered but Quezon said their analog or non-digital work was as amazing.

“Yung favorite example ko yung mga ginawang writing exercise book na pinamimigay sa mga Grade 2 or Grade 3 ba yun so di ba kokopyahin mo yung sentence para matuto ka magsulat at ang mga example na kokopyahin ng mga bata ‘Ferdinand Marcos was the greatest president ever’ or ‘ no one loved the Philippines more than Ferdinand Marcos.’ Ganung klaseng brainwashing. Di ba analog yun libro.”

(My favorite example is the writing exercise they did for Grade 2 or Grade 3, where you copy a sentence for you to learn how to write and the examples that the children copies was “Ferdinand Marcos was the greatest president ever” or “No one loved the Philippines more than Ferdinand Marcos.” That’s the kind of brainwashing. Book are analog, aren’t they.)

Bongbong Marcos enters the world stage

Published by Ellen on June 12, 2022

Incoming President Ferdinand ” Bongbong” Marcos Jr. meets with UN Resident Coordinator to the Philippines Gustavo Gonzalez June 10, 2022.

The office of incoming President Ferdinand ” Bongbong” Marcos Jr. announced that he is thinking of attending the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York.

The announcement came after Marcos met with UN Resident Coordinator to the Philippines Gustavo Gonzalez, who said, “This UN General Assembly meeting will be the first time that the President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will be in front of an important number of heads of state, so this is a great and, I think, a historic opportunity for the president and for the Philippines to share the new vision, the new challenges but, at the same time, the new opportunities.”

This was a day after the meeting of Marcos with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy R. Sherman, who told reporters afterwards that Marcos will not face arrest when he goes on an official visit to the United States, in answer to the question on whether Marcos would be allowed to enter the U.S. despite the contempt order against his family due to their non-compliance with a court order to pay victims of the martial law imposed by his father.

Why we have to learn the art of listening and discerning

Published by Ellen on May 31, 2022

Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. being interviewed by Lizzie Lazo of Times Journal and Restry de Quiroz Jr. of DZRH. To Bongbong Marcos’ left is Cookie Micaller of Jiji Press.

In his insightful piece in Time Magazine on the election as president of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the son and namesake of the ousted dictator, scholar Jonathan Ong said: “To fight back, progressive leaders should advance their own counter-narrative and persuasive vision. But first, they must acknowledge their failure to listen.”

I recall my interview with Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, who lost to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio in the vice-presidential contest in the recently concluded election, a few weeks before the 2019 midterm election.

I asked Pangilinan, who was then the campaign manager of the Liberal Party-led coalition, what lessons have they learned in the 2016 elections when their candidate, investment banker Mar Roxas, was resoundingly trounced by the foul-mouth Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte despite their being considered then as the incumbent administration’s ticket.

Pangilinan replied: “We didn’t listen to what the people wanted. We told them what we wanted to do for them. We didn’t ask what they wanted.”
He said that’s what they were doing in the 2019 campaign; they asked the people what they wanted. The interview took place about a month before Election Day.

Comelec quick response foils site-hacking report from becoming a problem

Published by Ellen on January 11, 2022

So many things were not quite right in the Manila Bulletin news report about the alleged hacking of the Commission on Election (Comelec) website. The quick response from Comelec Spokesperson James Jimenez foiled further spread of that suspicious report.

Jimenez took the bull by its horn, a valuable lesson not only in fighting disinformation but also in preventing something from becoming a problem, or a crisis.

The report came to our attention late afternoon of Monday, Jan. 10. It said “sensitive voter information may have been compromised after a group of hackers was allegedly able to breach the servers of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), downloading more than 60 gigabytes of data that could possibly affect the May 2022 elections.”

Is Bongbong Marcos peaking too early?

Published by Ellen on January 6, 2022

Latest election surveys showed that if elections were held today, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would be the 17th president of the Republic of the Philippines.

It’s a nightmare in the making for those who have experienced the horrors of martial law and those who know how democracy was distorted and crushed during the Marcos authoritarian regime. Will the 50th year of the declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, 2022 be declared a national holiday by the Philippine president by then, the son and namesake of the man who signed Proclamation 1081 two days prior to its announcement, asked JB Baylon, columnist of Malaya Business Insight and VERA Files.

Pulse Asia’s December 2021 nationwide survey showed Marcos Jr. was the choice of 53% of Filipinos if elections were held now. Other candidates trail behind, with Leni Robredo, the political opposition’s muse, as the choice of 20% of the respondents; Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, 8%; boxing legend and Sen. Manny Pacquiao, 8%; and, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, 6%.

Never has a candidate in the post-1986 people power revolution elections reached that high number consistently in pre-election surveys. Not even Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who was catapulted into the 2010 presidential race by the massive public sympathy over his mother’s death a few months earlier. He led in all the poll surveys at 40-plus percent, never reaching 50%.

The danger of eliminating anonymity in social media

Published by Ellen on December 19, 2021

A fake Facebook report quoting Sen. Francis Pangilinan fact-checked by VERA Filkes.

One of the attributes of Facebook (now called Meta) that attracted many to the platform, which is now the biggest in the universe (with 2.89 billion users), is anonymity.

One can be Maria even if she is Juana, or be a 35-year-old engineer from China even if he is a 25-year-old writer from the Philippines.

Officially, Facebook has a real-name policy, which requires users to “provide the name they use in real life.” In practice, however, those who are creative can go around that rule and hide their real identity.

Anonymity is not evil. It can be used for something good. However, as in all things in this world, malevolent minds are using it to do vicious acts while escaping accountability.

Bobby Romulo’s urgent appeal goes viral

Published by Ellen on July 11, 2021

Former foreign secretary Roberto R. Romulo is supposed to take things easy for health reasons. He has even suspended his columns in Philippine Star until November. But he just had to send out an urgent appeal to his fellow members of the business community. And he was surprised by the reactions.

The appeal has gone viral. Someone translated it to Tagalog and Cebuano.

As expected, it has elicited the ire of Duterte fanatics.

Read what Romulo has written:

Pacquiao is hindrance to Duterte’s staying in power beyond June 2022

Published by Ellen on July 4, 2021

President Duterte attended Sen.Manny Pacquiao’s 38th birthday celebration in General Santos on Dec. 17, 2018. Malacanang photo by Richard Madelo.

Boxing champ and Sen. Manny Pacquiao and President Rodrigo Duterte used to be allies.

Despite his being a born-again Christian, Pacquiao did not condemn the extra-judicial killings that became a daily occurrence as Duterte waged his war on drugs. He supported Duterte’s initiative to re-impose death penalty. He voted for the abhorrent anti-terror law.

He was silent when former senator Antonio Trillanes IV exposed Duterte’s bank deposits in hundreds of millions of pesos in 2016 which remain unexplained up to now.

Now, he talks about corruption in the Duterte government.