Marcos’ heir makes stark reference to ‘Game of Thrones’

Manila: “Winter has not come” for disgraced Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, 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 United States after a popular revolt that ended his 20-year rule marked by allegations of massive corruption and 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 February 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, 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 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.

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.

President Rodrigo Duterte, a family friend, says Marcos was the country’s best-ever president, and stunned the nation last November by allowing Marcos’ remains to be buried at the national “Heroes’ Cemetery” despite a widespread outcry. — AFP