Hero. Patriot. Visionary. No matter how you adorn your flowery words about him, you can't change the fact that many Filipinos still dreaded his name. President Ferdinand Emmanurl Edralin Marcos, the tenth president of the Republic of the Philippines. We know him as a strong-hand, corrupt, and the despot who earned a very nasty reputation. But what if the man behind the title of dictator performed the alter side of his actions? Would the chain of events change the course of our history?
It was in his regime that the Philippines started to feel the pains of inflation and the continuous devaluation of peso, but in the same time met the country's economic growth. The Marcos regime's greatest legacy was his infrastructure projects such as roads and power plants. One of which was the controversial, Bataan Nuclear Power Plant that cost $2.3 billion and had not produced a single kilowatt in history.
To finance the economic growth, Marcos lent $27 billion through the help of U.S. Aid, but the sizable amount of this loan went down to his accounts and to his other trusted cronies. Imagine that amount of money lost to corruption at that times, it could be worth trillions by now if you are going to calculate it in the value of time. What if that money was not plundered? We could have already paid-off our foreign debt. Maybe with that money, we could have financed more structural projects or boosted up our agricultural sector. Surely, with that amount we could have balanced the economic status of our country for a very long time.
On September 21, 1972, Pres. Marcos declared proclamation 1081, also know as the Martial Law. People lived their life in fear then. With the army and the powerful Philippine Constabulary always on the watch, Filipinos were chained out from their freedom. And because of the proclamation, Pres. Marcos remained in power for years and ruled the country with an iron fist.
Activist groups demonstrated on the streets asking for liberty and the freedom to express each person's sentiments about the government. Many individuals sacrificed their lives in exchange of their undying support for freedom. But what if it were never proclaimed? What if Marcos did not stay in power for more than 20 years? It the situation back then was not really that worst or let's just say serious, he could have used that power to strenghten our country and not to abuse the effects of it.
The news from the United States spread like wildfire in the Philippines. That the man who fought the dictator, Sen. Ninoy Aquino has decided that he will return. Supporters cheered, family and friends willingly waited, then his plane arrive. As the plane landed, its main package never made it; Sen. Ninoy Aquino was shot dead at the back of his head. Anger escalated and uproar for justice spread; thus the spark of the glorious revolution began.
What if Ninoy was not assasinated? What if he won the presidential election? He could be the 11th president of the country, not the late Pres. Cory Aquino, or we would still be within the control of the Marcos regime up to this day.
Of all the things mentioned, what would the Philippines now be if all these things happened? I bet that there will be a huge change in the system. How about our economy, would we still be facing the same problems like hunger, poverty, power shortages, education, and foreign debts? I guess it would just to be for a show; maybe how to spend our multi-trillion dollar Swiss accounts could be one. And lastly, considering all of these thinga happened, would President Ferdinand Marcos still be the same dictator who ransacked and ruined the face of our country, or would he be the president who fulfilled our nation's long awaited dreams?
