Maybe the history I’ve known was not precisely unbiased among the different faces of the Marcos regime, but I couldn’t still quite picture myself getting ever in their favor. We were made familiar of the human rights violations, mass slaughter and plundering cases during the Martial Law. Also, almost all, if not all, of the infrastructures established at the time were credited to the World Bank. The former dictator, his family, and his cronies even had a substantial amount from these projects. For getting hold of the legislature and judiciary businesses, the succeeding republics have wasted a big amount to pay for foreign debts. People not knowing about these could have been because Marcos also got hold of the media. This was the kind of politics the Philippines had experienced.
Through all the phases of his presidency, beside Ferdinand Marcos was his wife, the First Lady, Imelda Romualdez Marcos. An intelligent, responsible man marrying a beautiful singing lady appeared to have gotten the sympathy of many Filipinos. They were a perfect couple, some might say. True enough, Imelda has been his key to winning the elections. They campaigned together and Imelda has done things even beyond her role as the wife of the president.
Maybe it was her unfailing and almost unchanging readied answer to every Filipino’s doubt that made me hesitate to believe in her motives. Beauty was the absolute solution she would say for all of our national dilemmas. Just how does she expect beauty to solve problems when people are experiencing hunger, poverty? She would always say that beauty is the most important and should come first all the time. But has she thought of all those who can do nothing but to look up into her laced gown and feel the big difference between them?
She has lived an Imeldific life—extravagant, changing shoes everyday when there are kids who don’t even have a pair of slippers. Her obsession to beauty has paved the way to uncertainties of whether she managed to have a cultural center, a hospital built for the people’s sake or for her personal gratification. It was funny how self-conceited she was, giving away pictures of her faces to people. She may have thought too high of herself that she confidently speaks of how beautiful she was to have hundreds of suitors lining up.
Imelda has received diverse judgments from people, yet one thing I can conclude about her is her strength, her guts to withstand every turn they had to make as a family and she as a woman.
Monica P. Tiongco
2013 - 21566
No comments:
Post a Comment