With malice toward none
LONG before the EDSA Revolution I was the Nacionalista Party President and later I was elected Secretary General of the United Nationalists Democratic Organization (UNIDO). I remember I resigned as party President and the one who followed me was Senator Mamintal Tamano. Thus when on February 3, 1989 Vice President Doy Laurel received an urgent call from Makiki, Hawaii from Mrs Imelda Marcos that President Ferdinand Marcos wanted to talk to his brod soonest. I remember that he asked me whether he should go to Hawaii to talk to Marcos. I supported his decision and I advised him to see PFM.
So as not to put any personal bias let me quote from the book written by VP Doy Laurel “Neither trumpets nor drums”. “On February 2nd at about 5pm I received a call from Mrs Imelda Romualdez Marcos who was in Honolulu. She was sobbing on the phone: “Doy pwede ka bang makapunta rito? Masama na ang tayo ni Ferdinand. Gusto ka niyang kausapin.” She pleaded. I was deeply touched I could not just say no.
“I will have to cancel my appointments. Maybe I can go in a few days? I asked. She interrupted me, baka hindi mo na siya abutin. Please come as soon as possible.” I thought about it. The cases filed against the Marcoses have been pending for three years yet nothing had happened. The nation remained fragmented. Perhaps, if I tried the Lincolnian approach- “With malice toward none, with charity for all-we might be able to settle the issues and unite the nation”.
Then I remembered Imelda’s plea: “Gusto kang kausapin”. Maybe there is a chance-maybe he is ready to settle? The next day I left for Honolulu. Imelda sent me a car to fetch me at the airport and bring me directly to the St. Francis Hospital where she was waiting. She first briefed me about President Marcos’ condition-that he was weak. The doctors who were attending to him told me that he had less than fifty percent chance of surviving. And he might not last two months.
Brod he (FM) whispered, (hardly audible) “I must tell you what really happened in the 1986 snap elections. The real winners in that election were Marcos and Laurel. I was way ahead of Cory Aquino by 350,000 votes when the computer operators walked out-and that was before the Ilocano votes were counted. In your case, you were way ahead of Tolentino. I am telling you this because you know very well that when the President goes, the Vice President succeeds. I am about to go.
Now, let’s go directly to the most important conversation between PFM and VP Doy Laurel: “Please tell Mrs Aquino to stop sending her relatives to me he continued. They are proposing so many things. I have already established a foundation and I am turning over ninety percent of all my worldly possessions to the Filipino people. Enrique Zobel has all the papers. He and the Papal Nuncio Msgr Torpigliani will sit in the Board to see to it that ninety percent of all that I have will be distributed to our people. That is better than what Mrs Aquino’s relatives have been proposing. I am leaving only ten percent to my family. Before leaving I (VP Doy Laurel) whispered Mr President I do not know if Mrs Aquino will even listen to me, but I will do my best.”
When VP Doy came back to deliver the message of President Marcos. Mrs Aquino refused to see her VP even for only three minutes because she was busy. But she allotted one hour to Tom Cruise the American movie actor.
I believe that at the point of death President Marcos had a complete change of heart and he wanted to make the Filipino people the heirs of ninety percent of his estate. Doy Laurel also informed me that the Philippine government was entitled to a representative to be appointed by Mrs Aquino to the three man Board of Directors that will administer the foundation ie Zobel for Marcos, Torpigliani for the Vatican and Cory’s appointee. What a missed opportunity which lost billions of dollars to our people- Was it all because of politics, hatred and false pride?
The other point I want to emphasize is that President R. Duterte was sincere to leave the question of the Marcos burial to the Supreme Court. Had the SC decided otherwise, his administration would have complied with the highest Courts decision. Since the SC decision is to allow the burial of FM in the LNMB, why don’t we all respect said decision. It would seem that the red and yellow armies believe in the utter nonsense that “heads they win and tails everyone loses except them!..”