Bongbong is Noynoy 2.0
PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. and the late President Aquino 3rd are the only sons of two arch enemies who have shaped much of our post-war history.
The actions of these two — President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his arch enemy Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. — did so much damage to our economy and institutions, which explains much of why we have lagged behind in the world.
Ninoy
Without Ninoy’s political and material support — and I am sure of this as I was already a ranking Communist Party member by 1972 — there would not have been such a powerful, ruthless insurgency that, even in its death throes now still manages to kill our soldiers. The Hacienda Luisita that Ninoy managed was the New People’s Army equivalent of Mao Zedong’s Yanan, from which the People’s Liberation Army would strengthen itself to conquer the country.
Marcos justified the imposition of his dictatorship starting in 1972 on the grounds that the Republic was under existential threat by the oligarchic Right politically led by Ninoy and the Communist Party, which Chinese leader Mao Zedong fully supported with funds and arms.
Without the existence of the Communist Party and its ruthless Machiavellian plot of bombing the Liberal Party’s last pre-election assembly in Plaza Miranda, Marcos would not have been able to impose dictatorship in the Philippine body politic that had been brainwashed that the people ruled the country through the ballot box.
Ninoy’s alleged role in the Plaza Miranda bombing — which happened an hour before he arrived at the venue where he was its political rock star — though has never been proven, Aquino’s biggest sin against the country was his decision to return to the Philippines in 1981 convinced that Marcos was dying of degenerative liver failure, which affected his legendary political genius.
Ople
The New York Times in the early 1980s quoted his labor secretary Blas Ople as saying that Marcos was ”in control but cannot take major initiatives at this time.” Aquino, in a taped interview with the Lopez’s clan muscle Steve Psinakis, said, which I very slightly rephrase: “Marcos realizes now he is mortal, and I think he will be willing to negotiate with me to be his successor, who will take care of him and his family.”
That didn’t happen, and Ninoy was killed just as he was being escorted out of the plane that had landed at the Manila International Airport — by a single Magnum.357 bullet that tore through the base of his skull.
That led to widespread anger against Marcos, and together with the global debt crisis that started in 1982, resulted in the cessation of all foreign exchange inflows into the country, creating the perfect storm that plunged us into the most serious economic recession in the modern era. The economy contracted by 7 percent in 1984 and 1985, which meant we lost at least five years of growth.
Our history, especially our economic situation now, would have been so different if Marcos had undertaken an orderly transition (with the Batasan-elected prime minister Cesar Virata as his successor, in one scenario) when his health became really bad. Or if Ninoy did not return to grab power in 1981.
In short, Ninoy and the strongman’s actions conspired to lead to the perfect political and economic storm of 1984 and 1985, which dug us so deep into poverty that we still have to crawl out of that hole.
Economies
Because of those two years of economic recession in 1984 and 1985, we needed to post continuous GDP growth rates of at least 7 percent annually for several years to be at par with our neighboring countries’ economies. We’ve had only two years when we had at least a 7 percent growth rate: in 2016 and 2022, the latter a rebound phenomenon after the 2020 9.5 percent contraction that was the result of the lockdowns needed to control the pandemic.
Bongbong hasn’t done anything that would convince anybody that GDP growth rates in the next four years would exceed 7 percent. (See table)
Instead, we’ve had meager growth rates of 3 percent to 5 percent, in contrast to Vietnam and Thailand, which had remarkable 7 percent GDP growth rates in certain years, enabling even the war-ravaged Vietnam to overtake us in terms of GDP. Those who claim that Bongbong’s performance is “satisfactory” don’t know the extent of our economic quagmire. Even our tepid so-so GDP growth in the past two years is due to OFW remittances and to BPO outsourcing, which could trickle to a halt very easily.
It is eerie, or even creepy, that even if Ninoy and the dictator Marcos were most responsible for the country’s blight, we have elected their sons to become our presidents. GDP growth rate averaged 6 percent from 2010 to 2015, or during much of President Noynoy Aquino’s rule, far from the 7 to 9 percent needed to boost our economic growth above the population growth rate, as Vietnam and Thailand have done. Noynoy just didn’t undertake major economic reforms that we could reasonably expect to lay the groundwork for high growth rates.
Noynoy 2.0
In his first two years in power, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is proving to be Noynoy 2.0, that we cannot expect to have GDP growth rates of 7 percent or more for several years, that Thailand and Vietnam had to overtake us.
Indonesia in November 2020 enacted after a year of opposition and wrangling its groundbreaking “Omnibus Law.” It aims to attract investment, create new jobs and stimulate the economy by, among other things, simplifying the licensing process, harmonizing various laws and regulations, and making policy decisions faster for the central government to respond to global or other changes or challenges. The Omnibus Law has amended more than 75 current laws and will require the central government to issue more than 30 government regulations and other implementing regulations within months.
In short, Indonesia’s Omnibus Law was a blueprint for developing its economy in a major way. It even included, as one among the 30 laws it enacted, a law setting up Indonesia’s sovereign fund.
In contrast, Bongbong spent several months arguing with Congress, which he was supposed to control, to enact a bill creating the Philippines’ sovereign fund, the Maharlika Investment Fund — enacted by law a year ago today and given P200 billion in government money. The fund has attracted not a single dollar in foreign investment.
One reason for Noynoy and Bongbong’s similarity is probably the fact that, except for a decade when their families were exiled in the US, both lived mostly a life of privilege that they didn’t have to struggle at all in any field, with their reason for existence assured by their fathers’ fame. Even at home, the two, the only sons, were shielded by their sisters.
Medieval age
In a way, both are the remnants of the medieval-age notion by which the king’s son, especially the first-born son, is assumed to have the qualities of the father, even the Deity’s appointment of them as a people’s leaders. (This superstition, of course, is carried on even in our other political institutions: the Senate in the same term has two Estradas, two Villars and two Cayetanos. In the House, I suspect half are children of those who had ruled before.)
Raised as would-be princes of the realm, Noynoy had ruled and Bongbong has been ruling the country as virtual monarchs administering the nation rather than leading it.
Bongbong’s “leadership” — if you can call it that — has been mostly in appearing even in the most unimportant social functions, attending with his wife as if they were still teenagers, rock star concerts, and delivering Hallmark-card platitudes in his speeches.
Noynoy and Bongbong appear to have this monarchical notion that the world waited for them to be feted in their palaces and to impress so much that in each of their trips abroad, businessmen would pledge billions of dollars in investments.
This has not happened. Marcos’ trade and industry secretary two weeks ago said that $19 billion worth of investments pledged during the 24 foreign trips of President Marcos have already been actualized or have commenced implementation “as of June” this year.
Lie
That is a lie. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data show that actual direct investment inflows into the country (excluding reinvestment of earnings, which aren’t inflows) in the first 21 months of Marcos’ rule totaled only $3.3 billion, or a sixth of Pascual’s figure of $19 billion.
Noynoy and Bongbong’s biggest error as presidents has been their antagonistic stance toward China, the superpower in the region. We are the only country in the world — except for the US and its stable of puppets — in an open, hostile stance to China, risking what could be an irreversible Chinese economic embargo.
None of the nine other Asean members, including three that have disputes with China in the South China Sea, are supporting Marcos’ hostile stance toward China. That should be a no-brainer for Marcos to reconsider his policy. He hasn’t.
What is so condemnable about their foreign policy is that they have demonstrated no real understanding of our South China Sea dispute, swallowing hook, line and sinker the propaganda line of the US, which has been using us only as a pawn to demonize China to maintain its hegemony in the region.
Violated
Noynoy violated the spirit of the 1987 Constitution by allowing the return of US military bases, thinly disguised as “rotational” or non-permanent bases. Bongbong increased the number of such de facto American bases from the five given by Noynoy to nine, with four taunting China, as these are in northern Luzon, obviously intended for the US to defend Taiwan when the Chinese decide to forcibly take over their rogue province.
The sons of two figures responsible for our sorry state as a nation may even outdo their fathers: by involving us in the US-China rivalry, they have paved the way for our nuclear devastation.
Even if expressed somewhat like an unimportant afterthought, the 1987 Constitution did have a provision that stated, “The state shall … prohibit political dynasties.”
Bongbong is proving that that may be the most important provision in the Constitution.
Facebook: Rigoberto Tiglao
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Bongbong is Noynoy 2.0
Source: Breaking News PH
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