8 Marcos Apologists and What Makes Them Awesome

By Tim Henares

It’s one thing to be an apologist for the current president. He’s barely been in power for a year, he still has to clearly learn the ropes, and for all we know, he might still be open to learning a few new tricks to make his presidency the best one ever. We wouldn’t know. It hasn’t come to pass yet.

On the other hand, it’s a completely different animal to be an apologist for Ferdinand Marcos.

Nation, it’s pretty amazing to see that despite multiple convictions, multiple vetted pieces of evidence, countless victims, and countless more pressing issues (aside from drahgs), we still have to have an actual debate on the legacy of the Marcos regime in this country. It’s amazing, because the strongmen of most currently free nations don’t get this kind of loving tribute from their citizenry, yet here we are, giving him a hero’s burial in 2016.

This feat of (social) engineering could not have been possible without those who have decided that the Marcos era was the best era of this nation ever, even if the numbers clearly say otherwise. We have been inundated non-stop by people who believed that dissent is a capital crime, and those who were victimized by Martial Law all had it coming, or that command loyalty isn’t a thing, despite the fact that we have seen for so long that it is.

Today, we honor these people for the amazing examples of humanity that they are.

8. Cherry Cobarrubias

Claim To Fame: Former spokesperson for Imelda Marcos; leader of Marcos Loyalists for God; Believes Martial Law was “the best thing to ever happen to our country.”

Cherry Cobarrubias is as textbook as they come for Marcos loyalists, and that’s what makes her downright breathtaking. As she goes on and on about how Martial Law saved a country supposedly on the brink of communist takeover. This doesn’t sound particularly remarkable until you replace the words “Martial Law” with “The Drug War” and “communist takeover” with “becoming a narcostate,” which suddenly gives you this weird feeling of deja vu.

Piece De Resistance: The part where she happily proclaims no human rights violations happened during Martial Law, despite every record and living human rights victims clearly standing as proof to the contrary.

7. Duterte Youth

Claim To Fame: Ridiculous fashion sense; poor attendance; and a mistaken conflation that opposition to the Marcoses is opposition to the sitting president when multiple Duterte supporters have attended the anti-Marcos rallies.

The Duterte Youth Movement is just begging for you to Godwin the heck out of any given discussion involving them, because there is nothing about them that doesn’t look ominous. I mean, come on.

Look at these guys.

Piece De Resistance:  Just look at this glorious thing.

Oooohhh. Forceful.

6. Juan Ponce Enrile

Claim To Fame: Engineered Martial Law by staging an ambush on him; betraying the Marcoses when convenient; sucking up to them again when convenient; being immortal.

What else can we say about the former Senator that hasn’t already been said, really? JPE’s list of transgressions is a matter of public record, but mostly glossed over because he’s supposedly such a brilliant person, even at his advanced age, not to mention he and Fidel Ramos both helped bring about the downfall of the Marcos regime, so he sorta gets a pass from some of us. Despite all that, you know where his allegiances will always lie: to himself, more than anyone else.

Piece De Resistance: He backed the burial of Marcos at LNMB. Was anyone shocked? Enrile is most recently remembered for this, though…

Well played, Philstar. Well played.

5. Manuel “Lolong” Lazaro

Claim To Fame: Shares a name with the largest crocodile ever held in captivity; wrote the book of essays The Vintage of Values, which is a treatise for Marcos apologism; Government Counsel during the Marcos era with the rank of Presiding Justice in the CA, among other high-powered legal positions.

Here is a man who was completely insulated from every horrible thing that happened during the Marcos regime, who saw nothing but benefits, and took that to mean that all was good in the hood. For someone so brilliant, you would think that argument from analogy would not be his go-to play, but it apparently is.

Not taking any of that, son.

Piece De Resistance: The book. Yes. Vintage of Values. I guess this is the Marcos Loyalist’s attempt to respond to The Conjugal Dictatorship, huh? Thankfully, nobody’s kid had to be brutally murdered and the author forced to disappear forever just for Vintage of Values to see the light of day. Guess the Loyalists have it easy.

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