The Marcoos Era during my Time by Melvyn Avancena

Posted on Friday, 18 November 2016

THE MARCOS ERA DURING MY TIME
By: Melvyn Avanceña Aradanas

ABS-CBN has once again showed its biases, with the reports of their field reporters highlighting the protests around the country against the burial of the late President Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani at noon today.

Zen Hernandez even went to the extent of interpreting the blowing of horns by drivers passing through EDSA as a sign of support to Anti-Marcos protesters causing congestion in EDSA.

The use of tags such as "dictator" by their reporters only amplified their biases.

Never did I hear them call former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as "corrupt" for their involvement in the highly questionable AMARI deal and Fertilizer scam, respectively.

I am no avid Marcos fan, but I never also hate him for whatever "wrong" he has done either. Firstly because I am not privy to the truthfulness of the accusations hurled against him and his family.

My knowledge of what he supposedly have done wrong is based only on statements and posts of anti-Marcos. The same with the possible reasons of the Aquinos' and Coquancos' hate of Marcos.

I've also read somewhere about the source of the Coquancos wealth, which if true, is the first recorded mother of all scam.

Come to think of it. If the story that the national government's money was turned over by a high ranking General (was it General Antonio Luna?) to his girlfriend, Ysidra?, who incidentally is an ancestor of the Cojuancos, during the last days of the Phil-American War. The money involved is so huge that may dwarf the PDAF and DAP scam of late.

I was born a year after Marcos assumed the Presidency the first time. And I must admit, that other than the occasional news of skirmishes in some areas near Tacurong City when we transferred there in 1975, I never felt any sort of fear nor any member of my family or friends during those times.

As I am in no position to accuse Marcos of "dictating" on me, I therefore, would rather relish on the happy memories of my youth during the time of Marcos.

The weekend stroll with my family along the breakwater and the picnics near the lion statue in Magsaysay Park was always looked forward to by us. The stroll has always been our favorite where our Lolo Theodulo and Lola Toribia, together with my siblings and cousins Honeylet, Christian, Bongbong and Joyjoy would be treated to a balloon and ice cream.

And before I get drowned by great memories of the Marcos era, I am relating the same to show to all those who joined the anti-Marcos that not everything about Marcos is deplorable as dictated by their organizers.

Marcos may have done wrong, and so is Cory, Fidel, Erap, Gloria and Noynoy.

If we don't know how to forgive, what then do we expect from the next generation?

Are we going to continue wasting our time whining?

If there's one thing Marcos "dictated" during my youth, it was to dictate the level of happiness of children like me.