Growing up in Martial Law Negros"

Jon Ray Fernandez, 2016 

(Photo by Jay Fermin FMG)

I grew up in a mixed political household (also a mixed religious one) My maternal grandmother  and my mother were  staunch supporters of the Partido Nacionalista because her sister Ma. Lourdes was the nacionalista mayor of Valladolid in Negros. My maternal grandfather was a Quirino (cousin of President Quirino) from Ilocos which makes it self explanatory why he was rock solid Marcos.  My maternal grandmother and mother were closely linked to RSB-Roberto 'BOBBY" Salvador Benedicto and his wife Julie both powerful Marcos cronies, Bobby or RSB as he was popularly known, was the comptroller of the Negros Sugar Industry and Traders Royal Bank- both were not only my moms god parents (and my own) but were my grandmothers constant travelling companions all through out the 1960’s and 70’s.

On the other side of my family-my fathers family were all partido liberal and deeply anti-Marcos.  I think you can safely assume that politics and religion divided our family.  I came into political consciousness in the very turbulent years of the 80’s, though I was politically immature, my brother and I were deeply interested in politics.  But we were influenced by my grandmother-who blamed the communist insurgency on the leftist and student protesters, which was a giant headache for the sugar planters on Negros. She felt they were out to destroy the feudal system which made sugar planters rich beyond the dreams of millions of Filipinos. It was safe to assume she failed to connect that the reason why her farm hands went to the mountains to join the NPA in the first place was because of deep corruption and the eventual collapse of the sugar industry brought about by her friends-the Benedictos and their big boss in Malacanang –President Ferdinand Marcos.

I do not think UP politicized me ( my Lola and Mom were not very happy), even before entering the state university I was already politically opinionated.  But after reading many books and seeing and hearing for myself the many screaming matches in my own house about the Marcoses and the Aquinos. I decided to find my own truth.

I see a new generation of young  Filipinos constantly praising the Marcos dictatorship and talk about the good old days during the 20 years of conjugal dictatorship- most of these young people were not yet born, but I was around and knew what was going on. 

( Philippine Airforce UH-1H flying North over Negros Occidental. Photo by Jay Fermin FMG )

Let me talk about my experience from a Bacolodnon or Negros point of view. During the sugar boom of the 1940s, 50s and 60s the sugar industry made all the Negros planters rich beyond the dreams of avarice.  These were the boom years because the USA bought their sugar from the Philippines, and Cuba the other sugar producing island was out of the picture, America imposed trade sanctions on the newly communist Cuba. So sugar only came from the Philippines and other small  sugar producing islands like Puerto Rico,  but still not even close to what the Philippines was sending to the USA. So we had a monopoly. 

Negros was called the richest island in Asia!

Back then if you were a Negros planter, your life was good,  beyond good it was great. All the planters were super rich, these were the boom years- I remember my grand parents and relatives buying houses in the newly developed Makati business district- Forbes park, Bel Air, Urdaneta and Magallanes village- and all out kapit bahays  in these gated villages were all Negrense.  They even had apartments in New York and San Francisco (we had a house in Chicago).  I knew of planter families in Bacolod who had small airplanes and helicopters.   All the the other planter families in our gated Village in Bacolod (Sta. Clara) went to Europe every year in huge tour groups-the Sarosas, Maranons, Lacsons, Jalandonis, Cuencas and so many other Bacolod families.  My grandmother used to say they she went around the world 12 times with my mom, staying for months in the best hotels.  You have to remember this was in the 1950s and 60s when there was no such thing as piso fares or budget airlines.  Back then traveling via PAN AM or TWA was a white gloved affair.  It was reserved for the rich.  The Negros planters were thus called “HACIENDEROS”  

Then Ferdinand and Imelda entered the palace in 1965- he was young and dynamic, she was beautiful and gracious.  Filipinos thought it was the dawn of a new era, Marcos and Imelda were like the JFK and Jackie Kennedy of Asia.  The first 5 years of their reign were uneventful.   

Then around 1970 things started to change in Hacienda Sugarlandia Negros: the economy was failing, and we had a law and order problem in Negros even at the height of Martial Law,  the NPA started to grow in number, from a small force of 2 thousand they grew to around 30 thousand,  the people working in the farms started leaving their jobs and joining the NPA in the mountains,-  the decades long feudal system which had made all the planter families super rich began to crumble.  My Moms ninong and Marcos best friend Roberto Salvador Benedicto was siphoning billions of pesos from the Negros sugar industry to Imelda’s private shopping sprees. The Benedictos were sooooo rich they had a private Lear Jet ( not the Cessna two engine) in their own small airport terminal ( the old cebu pacific terminal in the old airport was their own private airport)  I remember my grandmother used to travel with them, the airport had a red carpet from airport terminal to the airplane stairs  . This I remember because I was on that plane several times.

The once thriving and unfair sugar industry began to disintegrate right before our eyes.   By the 1980’s things had gotten worst in Bacolod( I remember these dark years)   The gracious garden parties in Sta Clara were replaced by super high walls with electric barbed wire- even the richest hacienderos did not feel safe in their huge houses.  The law and order situation in Negros had gotten so bad, that if we drove to our farm, there was a possibility of being abducted by the NPA’s new armed group called "The Sparrow Unit".   I remember that we had to change our telephone number at least once a month because we would get death threats very often on the phone.   Then one day in the early 80’s- my dad disappeared and there were whispers that he was abducted by the Sparrow Unit. He re appeared after 2 days (I assume my grandmother had paid some sort of tribute fee to the NPA for his release)  Til the day my father died-he never mentioned this incident-maybe trauma (I don't know).  My best friends family  (another haciendero family) and their farm home was entered by the NPA, they were all tied up and made to kneel- thankfully, nothing bad happened to them.

Negros in the 1980's was a dark, dismal and in many ways lawless. We were so desperate for safety that all the rich planter families had private armies called CAFGU's- ex military men willing to be private security for Haciendero families.  It was a dark time.

But the worst was yet to happen, around 1982 a famine hit Negros.  There was no food left in the farms except for coconut and camote. We planters were as helpless as our farm hands- many Negrenses left their huge haciendas to go to the USA to work as nurses aides or clerks- it was that bad in Negros- ika nga tapos na ang happy days.   

Then Newsweek magazine used the picture of a starving Negros child for its cover-  the child was malnourished, bone thin, almost close to death, this child looked like a victim of the genocide or famine in  Africa,  but it was not Africa, it was in my province, we could not believe it-  Negros the island that once bred millionaires by the truck load had turned into an island of hunger, violence and death.   The once proud sugar industry had collapsed. Because RSB and Marcos had strangled it and stolen every peso they could get.  Imelda used the Bacolod money to purchase several buidings in New York, not units- BUT BUILDINGS on 5th ave considered the most expensive  block of real estate in the world.

I am not an Aquino fan. I don't like Noy Noy or Kris or any of Corys cronies who were also thieves,   but lets be real about the Marcoses.   I am not taking sides in this argument. I am only talking about my experiences as a child of Bacolod in the 1980’s.   

 Life was not good and if you dare debate me about it.  All I can say to you is  “Where you there?, kasi I was there.”

Text by Jon Ray Fernandez

Printed with permission 

Is it Grace or ABG?

February 19, 2016

 

PerryScope
By Perry Diaz 

By the looks of it, the May 9, 2016 presidential election could turn out to be a hellishly contentious battle royale.  With five major presidential candidates, the outcome of the elections is predictably unpredictable.  Indeed, recent presidential preference surveys showed see-sawing and criss-crossing ratings among four of the five major candidates, to wit: Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sen. Grace Poe, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, and former DILG Secretary Mar Roxas.  

 

Trailing far behind them is Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, whose anemic – if not pathetic – ratings, would, under normal circumstances, classify her as a “spoiler.” But the forthcoming presidential election would by no means be under normal circumstances.  There are just too many variables.  Some are known variables, some are unknown, and a few are unknown “unknown,” foremost of which is how the Supreme Court is going to treat Poe’s status as a “foundling” – that is, a person whose parents were unknown.   

 

Judicial voodooism

 

There is nothing wrong with being a foundling except when you want to be president of the Philippines.  However, a foundling under normal circumstances could do anything a natural-born Filipino could do.  But under the Philippine Constitution, a person who is not a natural-born Filipino citizen is not qualified to run for the office of president, vice president, senator or representative.   Is that discriminatory?  Some people – including a few Supreme Court (SC) justices – say it is so.  And that is why the high court is hearing oral arguments to no end, which makes one wonder: Why can’t these supposedly defenders of the Constitution interpret such simple provisions of the law.  Instead, some of them seem to be threading into the realm of “judicial voodooism.”  And after four oral arguments, their number has increased to five justices – known as the Sereno bloc, most of whom are appointees of President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III -- who are now reportedly inclined to cut Poe some slack on her status as a “foundling.” All they need now is to convince three more justices into agreeing to their “voodoo” interpretation of the Constitution.  

 

Carpio Doctrine

 

But several justices led by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio are of the opinion that because Poe is a foundling, she is not a natural-born Filipino citizen but may be considered naturalized Filipino citizen.  He said that the Constitution only allows natural-born Filipino citizens to run for president.   And this is the gist of Poe’s disqualification case.

 

Lots of questions, no answers

 

With the ballots – with Poe included as a presidential candidate – ready to be printed, what do you think would happen if the SC disqualified her after the ballots were already printed?  This would give the voters enough reasons to demand reprinting the ballot without her name on it.  But what if the Commission on Elections (Comelec) rejected their demands and proceeded with the election?  With Poe leading the pack with the highest approval rating, do you think the four other candidates would take it sitting down?  And what do you think would their supporters do?   Indeed, there are lots of questions but no answers, which makes one wonder: Is this the perfect recipe for another EDSA uprising?

 

It’s for this very reason that Chief Justice Sereno should – nay, must! – expedite the disqualification case against Poe.  Failure to do so would be tantamount to grave abuse of power.   And to think that she’ll be the country’s top magistrate until 2030 makes one wonder where is the country heading?  

 

Now, here is the stinger.  Ready?  Eleven of the Supreme Court justices will be retiring during the term of the next president, possible Poe.   That would give her or whoever is elected the power to appoint their replacements.   That would give the next president virtual control over the three branches of government.  But one can argue that regardless of who is elected president, he or she would appoint 11 Supreme Court justices.  And this is where character, integrity, honesty, and competence are what voters should be basing their choice for president on May 9.

 

Least evil

 

Given all the issues raised against the five major candidates, it is going to be hard deciding who among them is the best man – or woman – for the job?  But here is the problem with this question:  The candidates are hard to qualify as to who is the “best” because none of them had been a president before.   However, their character, integrity, honesty, and competence can be weighed by quantifying their “excess baggage.”  In other words, it is presumed that they all have excess baggage.  Is it then fair to presume that they are “evil” in varying degrees?  If so, then let me reframe my original question:  Who among the candidates is the least evil?  

 

So, who do you think is the least evil?  I’ll leave it to my readers to decide that.  But to highlight some of the excess baggage that the candidates carry, here are some for your discrimination:  Jejomar Binay is corrupt to the core (kurakot kuno). Grace Poe lacks the experience (and therefore “incompetent”), and she is not natural-born Filipino (kano kuno) and she lied about her citizenship and residency.  In regard to Duterte, the people are divided between those who call him a gangster and those who revere him as a gang-buster or “The Punisher,” and some liken him to the late disciplinarian Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore.  Roxas is honest but some people think he is incompetent (walang alam kuno) and some call him Mr. Palenke, a derogatory moniker.  And while Miriam Defensor Santiago is reputedly incorruptible, her detractors called her “Brenda” (“brain damage” kuno) when she ran for president in 1992.

 

So there you go.  You can now select who you believe is the “least evil” among the five candidates.  Do you prefer an allegedly corrupt politician to someone who allegedly lied about her citizenship and residency?  How about between an allegedly incompetent person and one who is allegedly mentally unstable?  And how about between an allegedly corrupt politician and an honest but allegedly incompetent politician?  And so on.  

 

Birds of a feather

 

Now if you take a look at a different perspective, the danger of electing the most evil of the candidates takes a quantum leap.  Take for instance if the one elected is corrupt to the core: Do you think that he or she would have the character to appoint honest and incorruptible jurists to the Supreme Court?  Could it be that the character of the president would somehow be reflected in the character of the person he or she appoints to the high court?  Does the mantra “Birds of a feather…” apply – perhaps subconsciously -- in the selection process?   Look at former prez Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is now detained pending plunder charges against her.  Her appointee as Ombudsman resigned to avoid impeachment.  Her appointee as Chief Justice was impeached and removed from office.  Her appointee as Secretary of National Defense and subsequently Secretary of Energy – a retired four-star general – committed suicide after being accused of corruption while he was the AFP of Staff.  

In regard to Arroyo’s 16 appointees during her two presidential terms, there were at one time 14 of them serving during Aquino’s early years in office, of which – not surprisingly -- about 10 of them voted as a bloc in ruling against most of Aquino’s executive orders.   

 

Suffice it to say, the next president will be in a position to exercise such immense power that would transform the Supreme Court into a body that would reflect the philosophy – and character – of the appointing president.  Given the chance of choosing among Binay, Poe, Duterte, Roxas, and Santiago, the Philippine electorate has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to chart the direction of the Supreme Court by electing the least evil of the presidential candidates.  

 

While some say that corruption is the number one issue against presidential candidates, it hasn’t really stopped a corrupt politician from getting elected.  Take for instance Binay who has several plunder charges filed against him.  Yet his approval ratings have remained high.   However, one can argue that they’re all corrupt!

 

In the case of Poe, she is accused of misrepresenting – some call it lying – her citizenship status and meeting the 10-year residency.   And that smacks right into the issue of character, which begs the question:  Does she deserve to be the leader of more than 100 million Filipino citizens when her own citizenship is mired in controversy?

 

At the end of the day, it comes down to the question:  Should the people vote for Grace or anybody but Grace (ABG)?

 

PerryDiaz@gmail.com