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| Former first lady Imelda Marcos in 1975 (photo from Cosmopolitan Magazine) and columnist Rigoberto Tiglao (photo from Facebook) |
Imelda Marcos is plain and simple a – Marcos, that is why critics need to see her in jail.
Imelda, a former Minister of Human Settlements, was convicted by the Sandiganbayan of seven counts of graft due to her “financial interests and participation in the management of private foundations in Switzerland” when she served as a Cabinet official during the presidency of her late husband- former President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
Imelda’s conviction
Mr. Rigoberto Tiglao, resident columnist of the Manila Times, also a former cabinet official during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave a different take on the whole conviction of Imelda Marcos vis-à-vis the eagerness of the yellow “dilawans” and the communists to see her suffer behind bars.
“THERE is something perverse, uncivilized and sadistic in the hysterical shrieks of the Yellows and the Reds demanding the immediate incarceration of an 89-year old grandmother, Imelda Marcos.” Tiglao started off
He said that those who want to put the 89-year old Imelda in jail might not have any idea of the mental and physical torture of incarceration.
“For Christ sakes, Imelda will be 90 by July next year, eight years more than the 72 years average life span of Filipino women. Has she committed a crime so horrible that she should be barred from spending her twilight years in peace?” Tiglao said
Yellow fiction
Tiglao reasons out that Imelda is already 89 years old, and he is not denying that she has faults but for all the good things- big tangible things Imelda has done for all Filipinos, can they not let her enjoy the twilight of her years outside the prison cell?*
“But the claim they plundered the nation’s coffers or committed horrific human rights violations on a mass scale has been a Yellow fiction. They did have major, incontrovertible contributions that advanced the welfare of Filipinos. As a nation, we need a balanced objective assessment of our past, or we will not learn from it.” he said
Tiglao also laments, that because of the constant barrage of the Communist Party, brain washing the country – that everything that is Marcos is bad and terrible has damaged as a nation, it has deprived the common Filipino to appreciate and be thankful for all the projects and policies that was implemented or created during the Marcos years that up until now, we are using and still benefiting from it.
Imelda’s legacy
“I am biased for Imelda for very personal reasons, although I have never met her in person. I became so only in 2004.” Said Tiglao
But I also indirectly owe my life to Imelda. The hospital where I had my surgery was the Philippine Heart Center. Tiglao added.
The Heart Center was built during the Marcos time, it was said to be Imelda’s pet project.
“It was Imelda’s prestige that got world-class heart specialists like Christiaan Barnard (who performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant), Denton Cooley (the first implantation of a total artificial heart), as well as cardiac surgery pioneers Donald Effler and Charles Bailey to be consultants at the center.” Tiglao also wrote*
“They passed on their skills and insight at the Heart Center to Filipino doctors who became the core of the country’s now world-class generation of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons. (Ninoy Aquino spurned the Filipino cardiologists at the Center, claiming they would kill him while he was under the knife under Marcos’ orders and demanded in 1980 that he have his heart surgery in a Texas hospital. It was Imelda who lobbied her husband that he be permitted to do so.)” he added
The columnist also pointed out that while the Heart Center save people’s lives, the Communist Party and NPA have kilIed “by one estimate over 100,000 soldiers, policemen and civilians in its 50 years trying to violently overthrow our democratic system.”
“If only for her role in establishing the Heart Center, Imelda should be left alone in peace, and dignity.” Tiglao added
Tiglao also wrote that former President Cory Aquino allegedly ordered to change the name of every hospital in the country that would remind people of the Marcoses.
“So, under her Memorandum Order No. 48 issued in 1986, the name “Bagong Lipunan Hospital” was changed to refer simply to its location in East Avenue. Mariano Marcos Medical Center was changed to Batac General Hospital; Marcos Maternity and Children’s Hospital to Northern Ilocos Norte District Hospital; and Doña Josefa E. Marcos General Hospital to Lasam District Hospital. The names of five other state-owned hospitals in the provinces with a “Marcos” or “Romualdez” in its name were similarly changed.” The columnist wrote
Source: Manila Times
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