IN what it described as a twin case of supreme ironies, the August Twenty One Movement (ATOM) lashed out at two recent events that, it claims, tended to heap “unwarranted and undeserved praise” on the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.
One of the events was the appreciation dinner given by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) for Imelda, an event declared as in recognition of her contribution as founder and first chairperson of the institution. The affair was held at the 50th anniversary of the CCP on Wednesday, January 15.
ATOM decried what it deemed an “elitist and fawning character of the event” which it believed the CCP tried to “clothe” with a public service angle, designating it at the same time as a fund-raising campaign for survivors of the Taal volcano eruption.
Atom President Nori Santos referred to the CCP’s move as “a case of supreme irony”. She said the CCP could have better served the Taal victims if it had instead asked Imelda to return the $200 million for which she was convicted by the Sandiganbayan for seven counts of graft in November 2018.
“The amount is but a tiny fraction of the $10 billion that the Marcoses are accused of having stolen. But at the current exchange rate, $200 million is equal to about P10.17 billion and could greatly alleviate the suffering of the thousands of people in Batangas and Cavite who were affected by Taal’s tantrum,” Santos pointed out.
The court sentenced Imelda to six years and one month, and up to 11 years in the maximum for each count of graft, or a maximum total of 77 years in prison. The sentence also carries a perpetual disqualification from holding public office. She appealed the decision to the Supreme Court and is currently out on bail.
Marcos, Ninoy, Rizal, Bonifacio
Meanwhile, ATOM also denounced the construction in August last year of a Marcos monument in the town plaza of Panique, Tarlac, the home province of Ninoy Aquino.
In what ATOM declares as another case of supreme irony, the Marcos statue stands just a few meters from that of Ninoy Aquino, whose assassination on August 21, 1983 was widely attributed to the Marcos camp. Ninoy’s killing led to the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986. Their statues flank the monuments of national heroes Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio.
“The construction of the dictator’s monument is a blatant attempt to glorify the Marcos image. Its installation in the same site as those of the Rizal and Bonifacio monuments is a perverse intention to put the dictator on the same level as those of the greatest heroes of our country,” ATOM said.
The group said this was an ill-conceived act that only serves to reawaken the pathos and bitterness that Filipinos went through during martial law which, it asserted, was unarguably one of the darkest periods in local history.