Marcos heir goes Game of Thrones
Manila welcomes Aussie aid
MANILA, Sept 9, (AFP): “Winter has not come” for disgraced Philippine dictator his eldest daughter defiantly declared, referencing the hit television show Game of Thrones as she defended her father’s legacy.
Marcos fled into exile in the US after a popular revolt that ended his 20-year rule marked by allegations of massive corruption and rampant human rights violations.
But his eldest daughter Imee Marcos, launching a lecture series on her late father’s legacy on Friday, recalled his words as the former first family landed in Hawaii aboard US military aircraft in Feb 1986.
“When we were all in tears and everyone said, ‘The end is nigh, it is finished, we are dead and doomed’, he said ‘No, children. To my family and everyone, history is not done with me yet’.”
Imee Marcos, who is governor of the family’s northern domain of Ilocos Norte, laced her speech with references to the Game of Thrones saga, which tells the bloodsoaked story of noble families vying for the Iron Throne.
“Indeed, if the North remembers, winter has not come yet for the legacy of FM,” she said, using her father’s initials and apparently comparing her family to the northern House Stark, whose upright and honourable head Eddard Stark was executed by the vicious young King Joffrey.
Marcos however was accused of embezzling billions of dollars from state coffers, with anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in 2004 naming him the second most corrupt leader of all time, behind Indonesian dictator Suharto. Stunning political comeback The dictator also oversaw widespread human rights abuses to maintain his control of the country and enable his plundering, with thousands of people killed and tortured, previous Philippine governments said.
However, no member of the Marcos clan has ever gone to prison.
His heirs made a stunning political comeback only a few years after the former president’s death in Honolulu in 1989.
Marcos
Lost
His son and namesake, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, only narrowly lost the vice-presidential election last year, while his widow Imelda Marcos sits in the House of Representatives.
President Rodrigo Duterte, a family friend, says Marcos was the country’s best-ever president, and stunned the nation last Nov by allowing Marcos’ remains to be buried at the national “Heroes’ Cemetery” despite a widespread outcry.
The Marcos rehabilitation continued when on Thursday Duterte declared the late dictator’s centennial anniversary on Sept 11 a public holiday in Ilocos Norte.
Duterte has also said he was considering a Marcos family proposal to hand over some of its wealth to the government, later suggesting that they may ask for immunity from prosecution in return.
In her speech, Imee Marcos said many Filipinos were “puzzled, bereft and lost by the animosity, the diatribe, the invective and the abuse that we hear” about her father.
Video footage of the speech was uploaded to Facebook for the week-long Marcos centennial events, which continue Monday with a private mass to be attended by family members and friends at the Marcos tomb in Manila.
Aussie aid vs pro-IS militants:
The Philippines has welcomed Australia’s offer to deploy troops to train Filipino soldiers, the defence ministers of the two allies said Friday, as Islamic extremists continue to terrorise parts of the country.
The announcement came as the Philippine military called Friday for more funds to root out pro-Islamic State group militants, more than three months into a deadly offensive devastating the southern city of Marawi.
Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and his Australian counterpart Marise Payne said Manila agreed to an offer from Canberra, made in August, for Australian troops to train local soldiers inside yet-to-be-named Filipino bases.
“We have increased our engagement, a surge if you like, in the context of the current events,” Payne said at a joint news conference with Lorenzana.
She said many areas of the Asia-Pacific were threatened by the return of “foreign fighters” who had gone to engage in combat in the Middle East.
“They (foreign fighters) are battle-hardened. They are well trained, they are very determined,” she warned, adding that she had also discussed the threat with Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop revealed last week that she recently spoke to President Rodrigo Duterte and offered training aid to the Philippines similar to that provided to Iraq.
Lorenzana stressed that the Philippines did not need foreign troops for actual combat but said Australians could train local soldiers in informationgathering and analysis.
“It will not look good if we would need (foreign) troops to fight the war here,” he said.
Australia has a defence cooperation programme with the Philippines and is its second closest defence ally behind the United States.
It deployed two high-tech AP-3C Orion spy planes in June after hundreds of armed extremists, flying the black flag of the Islamic State movement in the Middle East, occupied Marawi on May 23, triggering fierce fighting that is still raging.
More than 800 extremists, government troops and civilians have been killed in the conflict, the military said.
Duterte has deployed thousands of troops and imposed martial law across the southern third of the country to deal with the crisis.
The military revealed Friday it has asked Congress for a supplementary billion pesos ($19.6 million) to fund the Marawi campaign, which has cost three billion pesos so far.