Part 2 – Marcos’ Medal of Valor ‘highly suspicious’, says Filipino war historian

Part 2 – Marcos’ Medal of Valor ‘highly suspicious’, says Filipino war historian May 22, 2011 32 Comments My Exclusive By Raïssa Robles Ferdinand Marcos’ so-called Medal of Valor – the Philippines’ highest war medal awarded to a soldier for bravery –  is “highly suspicious”,  military historian Dr. Ricardo Trota Jose said. “In the (original) citation, they can’t seem to get it straight because they keep saying Medal for Valor. I think the real official name is really Medal of Valor,” explained Jose, an internationally recognized expert on World War II in the Pacific and the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines. He is the former chair of the University of the Philippines Department of History. In addition, he said, Marcos was handed this “Medal for Valor” only in 1958  – or 16 years after  the particular act of bravery for which he was being cited took place. He explained that the Medal of Valor is awarded for a specific act of personal bravery above and beyond the call of duty. In this instance, it was for Marcos’ “extraordinary gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, against overwhelming enemy forces at the junction of Salian River and Abo-Abo River” from January 22 to 26, 1942. Dr. Jose read out to me the original citation which said that Marcos and his men held off 2,000 Japanese soldiers for five days. But then he stopped reading and noted that the citation also got the name of the Japanese commanding officer wrong:  “It (the citation) says Susumi Takeshi when it should be SusumuTakeshi,”  a colonel in the Imperial Japanese Army. For an exhaustive analysis of what’s wrong with Marcos’ claim of glory, Dr. Jose suggested I read The Marcos File by Charles McDougald who had done extensive research and concluded that Marcos’ historical claim was highly questionable in this case.  McDougald said Marcos could not have assembled 100 men from remnants of various battalions and regiments and held off a Japanese force of 2000 men for five days, which “delayed considerably the Fall of Bataan.” McDougald said this did not fit what actual field battle reports from both the Japanese and Filipino-American side later revealed. He wondered why Marcos’ extraordinary act of bravery, which Marcos claimed  had considerable impact on the battle outcome,  was not recorded in the U.S. Army official history of the Battle of Bataan;  nor by Carlos P. Romulo, a lieutenant colonel then who was appointed to the awards and decorations board by Lieutenant General  Jonathan Wainwright, the commander of the Allied Forces in the Philippines after General Douglas MacArthur left; nor by John Toland in his groundbreaking book The Rising Sun. McDougald also said he tried to verify the same by talking to Colonel John R. Vance, MacArthur’s finance officer who also served on the awards and decorations board. Because Marcos had also cited the same battle at the junction of Salian River and Abo-Abo River to request for himself a Medal of Honor from the United States. Vance told McDougald that only two or three men were ever recommended by the board for the US Medal of Honor and Marcos was not anyone of them. Vance also could not recall Marcos ever being recommended for any other award. It is interesting to note that McDougald himself referred to this particular Marcos medal as “the Medal for Valor”, basing the name on the original citation that accompanied the award. So did Marcos get a “Medal of Valor” or a totally different medal called “The Medal for Valor”?  Perhaps the Armed Forces of the Philippines can clarify this. Dr. Jose discusses Marcos’ 27 medals War historian Dr. Ricardo T. Jose Ferdinand Marcos claimed to have been awarded 27 war medals, mainly for what he did in 1942 and in 1945. Dr. Jose confirmed he once saw a display of these medals inside Malacañang Palace. But he noted that “quite a number” of them were campaign medals “given to all veterans of certain campaigns”, such as the World War II Medal, Philippine Defense Medal, American Defense Medal and Victory Medal. “All of those were given to all participants in that particular campaign and that’s included in the count” of Marcos’ 27 medals,” he said. Dr. Jose said,  in the course of 25 years he managed to interview “quite a lot of Bataan veterans.” He confirmed that various veterans he interviewed had mentioned spotting Marcos in Bataan in 1942 and later on in northern Philippines in 1945. I asked him, “What did they say about Marcos?” He replied: “Many said they saw him there. He was an intel officer. As an intel you go behind Japanese lines. You get the info where they are and you come back. You are not supposed to fight and kill. As an intel officer you don’t expose yourself to unnecessary risks because your primary duty is to get the information back.” However, Marcos’ biography written by Hartzell Spence painted a radically different picture of Marcos. Dr. Jose noted that according to Spence, Marcos “blew up some guns, attacked the Japanese single handedly, but Bataan veterans told me this could not have happened since it was not in his (Marcos’) person.” He also said that “when you look at medals, you look at those which were awarded for bravery.” And for him, that was where the problem with Marcos’ medals lay. Many of his Philippine medals for bravery were awarded to him long,long after the war and a few days of each other. Because of this, he said that “personally, I think there is some uncertainty about a number of them. So many were awarded in 1963, several on the same day – I think four. That’s why it’s really very suspicious. When you award a medal it should be as soon as possible. Why wait 15 years after the war?” “That’s why some of the Philippine medals are not exactly convincing because of the dates they were issued. These were so far way from the war. And some of the key officers (who could vouch for or discredit Marcos’ claim)  had passed away by then,” he said. The real hero of the Battle of Bessang Pass wasn’t Marcos Our copy of  "Marcos of the Philippines"  - http://raissarobles.com Marcos claimed in his biography that his “greatest” war exploit was the victorious Battle of Bessang Pass in 1945, which led to the surrender of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. “Sending his men back to alarm headquarters (about the surprise attack), Marcos stood alone between the attack force and its goal, a Thompson submachine gun under his arm. But now the element of surprise was with him. So confident were the enemy that their maneuver had succeeded, that they did not see Ferdinand at all. At a point-blank fifty yards, he began to shoot, killing the commanding officer with the first burst. Disorganized, the detachment regrouped and attacked, but Marcos repulsed it. For half an hour the skirmish continued, with grenades and automatic-rifle fire, but Marcos was well protected. The Japanese decided that the defense was too strong, and fell back. Still unsupported, Major Marcos counter-attacked. He had pursued the Japanese nearly two kilometers down the trail before reinforcements reached him.”This is how his official biographer Hartzell Spence portrayed how Marcos, all by his lonesome, repulsed 50 Japanese soldiers who had infiltrated the Filipino guerrillias’ defense line in Kiangan, Mountain Province at Bessang Pass: Wow! Two kilometers is quite far to walk with a Thompson submachinegun while ducking enemy fire. But Dr. Jose told me that based on his own research and interviews, he came to the conclusion that Marcos wasn’t the hero of Bessang Pass because he wasn’t there. I asked him to explain what he just said because I could not believe I heard it right. Dr. Jose explained that starting in the 1960s, Marcos’ publicity machine had started calling him “the Hero of Bessang Pass.” “But he was nowhere there. He could not have been there,” the historian said. “Bessang Pass is in Ilocos Sur. The battle was March 1945 to June 1945. His unit wasn’t there. He was claiming to be attached to another unit – it was the 14th Infantry – it wasn’t there.” “Where was it?” I asked. “It was somewhere else,” he said. “His particular unit – the 14th Infantry – was supposed to guard the flanks, not fight . The ones who were really in the thick of the fighting, I knew some of them and some of their children. They very vehemently said he (Marcos) was not there.” Dr. Jose called Marcos’ credit-grabbing “a kind of injustice to the soldiers who were there.” He explained:  “One of the commanding officers there was (Conrado) Rigor. I missed (interviewing) him but I met his son and daughter.” Rigor wrote The Road to Bessang Pass [Note: This book is only available at the University of the Philippines main libarary in Diliman Campus.] Dr. Jose concluded: “The Marcos side distorted things because the real hero of Bessang Pass was Rigor and others, not Marcos.” “That was a great injustice” which two other books written by war veterans Ernesto Rodriguez and Bonifacio Gillego also pointed out, ” he said. Dr. Jose explained that Rodriguez (who later wrote for Bulletin newspaper) was a guerrilla who operated in Northern Philippines and wrote a book entitled The Bad Guerrillas of Northern Luzon : a memoir of the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines. “He was quite critical of Marcos’ claims as a guerrilla. He portrayed the other side of the guerrillas in the north. Apparently, Marcos was enraged when the opposition tabloid We Forumserialized it, then published it as a book. Marcos shut down We Forum and had all copies of Rodriguez’ book seized. “Even I don’t have a real copy. Just a xerox copy. I think that was 1982,” he said. [NOTE – an E-book version of this book can be purchased online through this site.] Fort Santiago survivors were also angered by Marcos’ claims of being one of them A cell in Fort Santiago - PHOTO by Raissa Robles In the course of his extensive research on the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, Dr. Jose said that whenever he talked to survivors of Fort Santiago they would angrily denounce Marcos’ claims of having been jailed and tortured there. Hartzell Spence records in Marcos’ biography that the latter had an out of body experience that enabled him to bear his torture: “When he awoke, he was no longer in his body, but outside it somehow, looking down upon his own suffering, not feeling it, a spectator at his own misery.” This is the same tale his wife Imelda is fond of repeating. But Dr. Jose said he did not meet anyone who was able to confirm Marcos’ presence. “Some of the Filipinos who survived Fort Santiago vehemently deny that. They said he was never there and these were people who were there who formed an association of survivors of Fort Santiago.” He said that during Martial Law, a marker suddenly appeared in Fort Santiago listing the names of prominent people who were jailed there. “Marcos’ name was there. Someone I knew said they (the survivors) were very angry, so angry they wrote the Intramuros Administration to take it down just after Martial Law.” He doesn’t know if it’s still there today. I asked Dr. Jose to name some of the Fort Santiago survivors he had personally interviewed. Off the bat, he said he had talked to the late Edmundo Navarro, a Philippine Army officer in northern Luzon. “He (Navarro) said Marcos could not have been there. They knew more or less who was there.” “Another was Raul Manglapus,” who later became senator. Dr. Jose recalled that Manglapus had some sort of a scar near one eye – a memento of his torture days in Fort Santiago. Why Marcos is not a hero In summary, Marcos claimed he showed extraordinary bravery in at least three specific instances: The battle at the junction of Salian River and Abo-Abo River” from January 22 to 26, 1942; the Battle of Bessang Pass in April 1945; and his incarceration in Fort Santiago starting on the night of August 4, 1942. Marcos’ biography does not say when he was released.  All these instances have always been under a cloud and questioned by fellow veterans. In contrast, the brave acts of other World War II heroes like Sgt. Jose Calugas MacArthur pins Distinguished Service Cross on Jesus Villamor and pilot Jesus Villamor have never been questioned. Villamor personally received the Distinguished Service Cross from General Douglas MacArthur and has a photograph to show for it. I asked Dr. Jose whether based on the fact that he is a war veteran and based on these three acts of extraordinary bravery, Marcos is entitled to be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery).  He replied: “The problem is, alright , he was a soldier and a president. He had some moments of heroism. The problem is, this does not outweigh the impact that his Martial Law period did. You don’t gauge a hero simply because of what he did during the war. You have to look at the totality.” “You may be a World War II hero but if you squander your life afterward and you cause more ruin and harm afterward…” “You can be a hero one day and a coward another day and shot. That happened before. I think Napoleon shot one of his officers who was very brave one day. The next day he disobeyed one of the orders. There are cases like that. “ When I reminded him that Marcos loyalists always argue he’s a hero because he built numerous hospitals, buildings, roads and bridges, Dr. Jose replied: “Yes, but at what cost? What did we do to pay for that? How much are we still paying today? How much are we in debt? Was it worth crushing free speech and expression of opinion to achieve that? I knew people who were on the other side who didn’t survive. Some of them were my classmates in Philippine Science High.” “I’m really very surprised why this Marcos thing should come out at this time. There are a lot more important problems to solve.” But what about General Angelo Reyes who was recently buried a hero? Dr. Jose replied, “I’ve heard that comment. Some people are just too quick to bury people there without recognizing there are other implications.” Finally, I asked Dr. Jose who should decide who is a hero.  He said: “It’s not something done through popularity. I think there should be key basics for one to be classified as a hero. When you talk about Rizal or Bonifacio, what do you use to measure them as heroes? The key basics are nationalism, selflessness, patriotism, courage, and really working for the Filipino people without any selfish motives. Being a real patriot. Placing country above self.” “Did Marcos not do that?” I asked. Dr. Jose replied with a question: “Did he do that during Martial Law? When he declared Martial Law, was that really for the country or for self-preservation? __________________________________________ Statement of Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte: On the Medal of Valor conferred on former President Ferdinand Marcos on October 1958 [Released on April 12, 2011] President Marcos’ citation for the Medal of Valor was issued October 16, 1958 (General Order No. 167) during the administration of President Carlos P. Garcia when Marcos was still a Representative of the 1st District of Ilocos Norte by order of the Secretary of National Defense, signed by Lt. Gen Alfonso Arellano, AFP Chief of Staff. The Medal of Valor is conferred by authority of the President of the Philippines. The Regulations concerning its conferment are Armed Forces of the Philippines Regulations G131-053 (See 1-6A, Section II, Chapter 1) issued 1 July 1986. On a historical note, the controversies concerning President Marcos’ awards as researched by historian Al McCoy and the late Bonifacio Gillego concern, in the main, his U.S. awards. Philippine awards remain post-war conferments during the time Marcos began his public life up to his being Senate President (in 1947 the Gold Cross medal when he was a technical assistant to President Roxas, in 1948 when he was conferred the Distinguished Conduct Star, The Philippine Legion of Honor by President Quirino in 1950, First Bronze Anahaw Leaf to the Distinguished Conduct Star, The Distinguished Service Star, First, Second, and Third Bronze Anahaw Leaves to the Gold Cross from October to December 1963 by President Macapagal; only the Second Bronze Anahaw Leaf to the Distinguished Conduct Star were awarded while Marcos was President, in 1983). These awards continue to be on the official roster of awards of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Until otherwise revoked, the awardees continue to receive appropriate recognition. It should be noted that the Armed Forces recognizes awardees for the specific deeds that put them on the roster. The AFP’s recognition does not and cannot include subsequent actions by the recipient. The rule of law and orderly regulation provides for the recognition given recipients of military awards. While there is public interest in the conferment of AFP awards, we should note these awards are generally viewed as nonpartisan and nonpolitical in the recognition open to all recipients given the Medal of Valor as established by law. Concerning the issue of proposals for former President Marcos to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the Vice-President has been tasked to study the issue and decide the matter. __________________________________________ Related story Part 1 – Eminent Filipino war historian slams Marcos burial as a “hero”

BABY ON A PLANE : WOMAN GIVES BIRTH ONBOARD CEBPAC FLIGHT

Suspicions resurface about Marcos heroism April 14, 2011 | Opinion GOTCHA  By Jarius Bondoc  The Philippine Star Hired guns again struck separate targets two government men and a lawyer in the past two weeks in Luzon. The modus operandi: “two helmeted men, riding tandem on a motorcycle,” drew close enough for a sure hit, then fled through city traffic. It’s been the pattern in assassinations in the past five years. But the National Police has not established a central file. Much more, a repository of evidence, like bullet slugs, or artist sketches and other items that can establish commonality. The excuse is that the National Police lacks funds and know-how. And yet it has Directorates for Intelligence and for Investigation and Detective Management that supposedly specialize in crime prevention and solution. Their operating arms, the Intelligence Group and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, have not instructed the various field stations and precincts on dealing with potential assassins. Proof perhaps was the recent arrest of six armed men in a car in Metro Manila. On suspicion of being robbers, the police booked them for illegal possession of firearms, for which the latter posted bail. There was no check if they were murderers-for-hire. * * * Was Ferdinand Marcos truly a war hero? Or did he just concoct his battle exploits and medals for political capital? The questions first emerged 25 years ago, when the reigning strongman faced off with a challenger-widow for the Presidency. As in all his election runs, Marcos in 1986 had claimed war gallantry to look abler than housewife Cory Aquino. But the concomitant exposure of his 27 war medals as fake dented his image and contributed to his loss in the balloting. Weeks later while refusing to turn over power, a civilian uprising toppled him from a 14-year military rule. So, was Marcos a World War II hero? Or was he a heel linked to sellers of contraband to the enemy, but who depicted himself as valiant for personal and political gain? The doubts resurface today, when most Filipino youths and probably elders too couldn’t care less about the long-dead Marcos. But then, 204 congressmen are egging Malacañang to re-inter Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Resting Place of Heroes). And the Armed Forces has just inaugurated a Hall of Heroes featuring 39 Medalists of Valor, including Marcos. Marcos’s daring war adventures first saw print in a 1948 magazine series. The young lawyer supposedly had formed a 9,200-strong guerrilla group called Mga Maharlika (The Nobles) in North Luzon. Unmindful of danger, he led more than 300 skirmishes with the mighty Japanese Imperial Army, for which he was decorated 27 times. Thus did Marcos earn in 1947 a post in the Philippine commission that lobbied with the US for veterans’ benefits. Riding on the daredevil acclaim, he handily won in 1949 a congressional seat. If there were doubts then about Marcos’s claims, nobody said so aloud. Only in 1982 did war vets begin to murmur, when Marcos, ten years into his military rule, alleged himself to be the real hero of the Battle of Bessang Pass. Overrunning the gorge was vital to the US Army’s pursuit of General Yamashita in the Cordillera Range. Marcos mentioned General Volkmann as confiding that Yamashita almost surrendered to the Maharlika guerrillas. War historians grumbled, for nowhere was Marcos near the battleground. Marcos’s war hero image collapsed when The New York Times ran an exclusive on January 23, 1986. He was then wrapping up the election campaign against Cory, widow of Ninoy Aquino. As usual he regaled the crowds with accounts of his hot exploits. The Times doused cold water on his stories, quoting the US Army description of them as mostly “absurd” and “fraudulent”. Main source was Alfred W. McCoy, a history professor who was researching records just turned over to the National Archives in Washington. McCoy unearthed two requests by Marcos in 1945 and 1948 for official recognition of Mga Maharlika. Both were rejected as Army investigators found the claims to be exaggerated. Ray Hunt Jr., an ex-Army captain who directed guerrilla activities in 1942-44 in Pangasinan, North Luzon, was quoted in the Times article as saying the Maharlika was fictitious. He said if any unit had operated near his base then, he would have known about it. The investigators said Marcos even associated with men engaged in “nefarious activity,” like supplying contraband to the Japanese. The opposition press picked up the Times story. It confirmed what retired Philippine Army Col. Bonifacio Gillego had stated only months before in The Fake Medals of Marcos. The underground book branded the 27 decorations as outright phonies or awarded through bogus accounts. Also exposed then was Marcos’s rejected application for war reparation of $595,000. Supposedly it was for the US Army’s commandeering of 2,000 heads of cattle from his (inexistent) family ranch in Mindanao. Marcos ordered political lieutenants to refute the reports. They came up with a more incredible claim that the medals were for acts in 1941 and 1945, at war’s beginning and end. This only lent more credence to Gillego’s statement that, for Marcos to have fought the 27 battles, he would have been at different places at the same time.

UP CLOSE TO NATURE

FULL VIDEO REPLAY OF THE HISTORIC SUPRISE RAID IN CEBU CITY JAIL "OPLAN GALUGAD OF DUTERTE ADMIN"

Plunder to be glorified with Marcos at Libingan

Plunder to be glorified with Marcos at Libingan GOTCHA By Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star) | Updated August 15, 2016 - 12:00am Marcos’ plundering will not be buried with him at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. It would be worse than that. Plunder will cease to be a crime in the minds of Filipinos. It will become a virtue, to be glorified and emulated. To eternalize one’s deeds is, after all, the purpose of entombment at the sacred Memorial of Heroes. So study well Charlie Avila’s “Marcos: Chronology of Plunder.” Culled from case files, testimonies, Marcos diaries, and old newspapers, it recounts how Marcos amassed unexplained, clearly ill-gotten wealth. These are only exceprts (full version:http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/secretgoldtreaty/chron_a...): 1949-1950 It can be said that Marcos came from a poor family and that he made his first million as a first-term congressman selling import licenses. He bought a Cadillac to celebrate his new status. Before then there was no outward indication of any wealth. July 07, 1967 Papers found in Malacañang showed Marcos opened his first bank account abroad on this day when he deposited $215,000 in Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. Not yet accustomed to hiding money, he used his own name. The following year, 1968, he opened his first Swiss account. March 1968 Walter Fessler, an official of Credit Suisse Bank in Zurich, came to Manila. He was brought to Malacañang. Forms were filled out and signatures appended. On his signature verification form, Marcos wrote out “William Saunders (pseudonym),” an alias he had used in his WWII days, and underneath that name he wrote “Ferdinand Marcos (real name).” Imelda did the same, choosing Jane Ryan as her pseudonym. Four bank accounts were opened, with four checks totaling $950,000. January 1, 1970 Today Marcos announced to the nation that he was giving up all his worldly wealth. He now admitted he was rich. This was amazing. He never admitted anything. But then came the blockbuster: “You know how I made my pile? I discovered Yamashita’s treasure.” The shabby excuse was universally judged exasperatingly unoriginal. But there it was. He said he was rich because of Yamashita’s treasure and he was giving all that up for the Filipino nation in gratitude for their electing him to a second term – the only president ever to be reelected, he proclaimed. Opinion ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1 February 13, 1970 Manila did not believe the Marcos Foundation announcement. The demonstrations got worse. Protests turned violent. While the battles raged, Marcos and Imelda issued handwritten instructions to Markus Geel on this day to establish another foundation – to be kept secret from the Filipino people – the Xandy Foundation in Vaduz, capital city of Liechtenstein. This tiny state between Austria and Switzerland was famous for offering a unique form of corporate structure – the anstalt – a single-shareholder company protected by the world’s tightest corporate secrecy laws. The CIA and KGB hid their covert funds there. Even Swiss bankers who sometimes had the need to hide money used the anstalten. The Saunders and Ryan accounts were closed and the money transferred to the Xandy Foundation account at Credit Suisse. This would be the first of many foundations set up in this manner, with Swiss bankers and lawyers as directors to hide the identities of Marcos and Imelda. August 26, 1970 The Trinidad Foundation was set up in Vaduz. June 21, 1971 The Azio Foundation was set up in Vaduz. September 24, 1971 The Rosalys Foundation was set up in Vaduz. December 27, 1971 The Charis Foundation was set up in Vaduz. June 22, 1973 Rayby Foundation was established in Vaduz. September 1976 This month the Marcoses bought their first property in the US – a condo in the exclusive Olympic Towers on Fifth Avenue in New York. Five months later they would also buy the three adjoining apartments, paying a total of $4,000,000 for the four. October 13, 1977 Today after addressing the UN General Assembly, Imelda celebrated by going shopping and spending $384,000, including $50,000 for a platinum bracelet with rubies, $50,000 for a diamond bracelet, and $58,000 for a pin set with diamonds. The day before Vilma Bautista, one of her secretaries, paid $18,500 for a gold pendant with diamonds and emeralds, $9,450 for a gold ring with diamonds and emeralds, and $4,800 for a gold and diamond necklace. November 2, 1977 Still at her shopping spree, Imelda paid $450,000 for a gold necklace and bracelet with emeralds, rubies, and diamonds; $300,000 for a gold ring with emeralds and diamonds; and $300,000 for a gold pendant with diamonds, rubies, and 39 emeralds. July 1978 After a trip to Russia, Imelda arrived in New York and soon was shopping. She started with paying $193,320 for antiques, including $12,000 for a Ming Period side table, $24,000 for a pair of Georgian mahogany Gainsborough armchairs, $6,240 for a Sheraton double-sided writing desk, $11,600 for a George II wood side table with marble top – all in the name of the Philippine consulate to dodge New York sales tax. A week later she spent $2,181,000 in one day! This included $1,150,000 for a platinum and emerald bracelet with diamonds from Bulgari; $330,000 for a necklace with a ruby, diamonds, and emeralds; $300,000 for a ring with heart-shaped emeralds; $78,000 for 18-carat gold ear clips with diamonds; $300,000 for a pendant with canary diamonds, rubies and emeralds on a gold chain. November 23, 1978 A house was purchased at 4 Capshire Drive in Cherry Hill, New Jersey (near Philadelphia where Bongbong was taking courses at that time) for use by servants and security detachment. This year and next they purchased two properties – one at 3850 Princeton Pike, Princeton, a 13-acre estate for use by Imee as she attended Princeton. The other was a house at 19 Pendleton Drive in Cherry Hill for Bongbong. April 1979 In two days in New York this month, Imelda spent $280,000 for a necklace set with emeralds and diamonds, $18,500 for a yellow gold evening bag with one round cut diamond, $8,975.20 for 20-carat gold ear clips with twenty-four baguette diamonds, $8,438.10 for 18-carat gold ear clips with fifty-two tapered baguette diamonds, and $12,056.50 for 20-carat gold ear clips with diamonds. February 25, 1986 Marcos fled the Philippines leaving behind a foreign debt of $27 billion. “Cash advances” for the elections from the national treasury amounted to P3.12 billion ($150 million). The known losses he left at the Central Bank included $1.2 billion in missing reserves and $6 billion in the Special Accounts. Imelda charged off most of her spending sprees to the PNB, which creatively wrote off her debts as “unresponded transfers.” The known losses at the PNB amounted to P72.1 billion. At the DBP the losses left behind totaled P85 billion; at the Philguarantee it was P6.2 billion; and at the National Investment and Development Corporation, P2.8 billion. February 26, 1986 A few hours after the Marcos party landed in Honolulu, their luggage arrived – 300 crates on board a C-141 cargo jet. It took twenty-five Customs officers five hours to tag the bags and identify the contents. The process was videotaped because of all the money and jewelry found inside. There were 278 crates of jewelry and art estimated at $5 million. Twenty-two crates contained more than P27.7 million in newly minted currency, mostly hundred-peso denominations worth approximately $1,270,000. There were certificates of deposit from Philippine banks worth about $1 million. The Marcos party was allowed to keep only $300,000 in gold and $150,000 in bearer bonds brought in their personal luggage because they declared them and broke no US customs laws. There were 24 one-kilo gold bars fitted into a $17,000 hand-tooled Gucci briefcase with a solid gold buckle and a plaque on it that read, “To Ferdinand Marcos, from Imelda, on the Occasion of our 24th Wedding Anniversary.”

BUHAWI NANALASA SA MAYNILA

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ALDEN AND MAINE

SAVE BAUAN CENTRAL SCHOOL BY DEVELOPING A NEW MARKET SITE WITH PROPOSED GRAND TERMINAL

CREDIT IMAGE SCREENSHOT: WWW.MAPQUEST.COM CHOICES FOR THE SITE WHERE A NEW MARKET WITH GRAND TERMINAL COULD BE DEVELOPED NEAR THE JUNCTION OF THE MAIN ROADS GOING TO MABINI AND BALAYONG credit image screenshot: www.google.com NOTE THE LARGE VACANT TRACT OF LAND FOR DEVELOPMENT credit image screenshot:www.google.com SUGGESTED AREAS/LOCATIONS WHERE A NEW MARKET  WITH A  GRAND TERMINAL COULD BE DEVELOPED image screenshot :www.google.com MABINI /BALAYONG JUNCTION ROAD HELP SAVE BAUAN CENTRAL SCHOOL AND EXPAND BUSINESS AND COMMERCIAL ENDEAVORS  THROUGH DEVELOPMENT OF NEW MARKET PLACES OUTSIDE THE TOWN PROPER THEREBY DECONGESTING THE POBLACION AND PROMOTE  DEVELOPMENT OF LESS DEVELOPED OUTSKIRTS OF BAUAN.