The justices decided in session to initiate a fact-finding investigation on the four judges and treat the announcement of the President as a complaint against them, SC spokesman Theodore Te said in a press conference. File photo
SC starts probe of judges in Rody drug listMANILA, Philippines – They need not surrender without a warrant for their arrest, but four active judges linked by President Duterte to the illegal drug trade now face investigation by the Supreme Court (SC).
The SC acted on Duterte’s public naming of the judges, which Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno said was “premature” and would have “unwarranted effect” on their safety and duties in the judiciary.
The justices decided in session to initiate a fact-finding investigation on the four judges and treat the announcement of the President as a complaint against them, SC spokesman Theodore Te said in a press conference.
To formalize the probe, the high tribunal directed the Palace through Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to submit formal complaint-affidavits against the four judges within seven days.
The four judges – Exequil Dagala of the Dapa-Socorro, Surigao municipal trial court; Adriano Savillo, Iloilo City Regional Trial Court; Domingo Casiple of Kalibo, Aklan RTC; and Antonio Reyes of Baguio City, Benguet RTC – will then be required to submit their answers within seven days from receipt of notice.
Te also revealed the designation of retired SC Associate Justice Roberto Abad as investigator who would conduct the probe in 30 days from submission of the answers from the four judges.
He further stressed the proceedings in the SC would be administrative in nature – not criminal.
“If there is a basis for criminal action, a separate tribunal will handle that,” Te pointed out. Criminal charges could be filed against erring judges before the prosecutor’s office.
The SC initiated the probe even after Chief Justice Sereno advised the four judges not to surrender to police without existing warrant of arrest against them.
An insider bared it was Sereno who had strongly pushed for an investigation into the judges’ alleged drug links during the SC regular session.
“The Chief Justice really wanted an investigation, consistent with her stance that the Court must deal with offenders in the judiciary firmly but fairly,” the member of the Court revealed to The STAR.
The President named last Sunday seven judges allegedly involved in narcotics trade, but three of them are no longer with the judiciary.
Judge Roberto Navidad of the Calbayog City, Samar RTC was killed on Jan. 14, 2008 at age 69, while Judge Lorenda Mupas of Dasmariñas, Cavite MTC was dismissed in 2007 for gross ignorance of the law.
On the other hand, Judge Rene Gonzales of Iloilo City municipal trial court retired last June and did not handle drug cases.
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro-Tempore Franklin Drilon is urging the Duterte administration to come up with long-term solutions to solve criminality and bring back the people’s trust in the justice system.
“The challenge to all of us is to come up with complete and significant reforms in our justice system, so that the government does not have to resort to a ‘shame campaign’ strategy in an effort to solve criminality,” Drilon said. He stressed a “shame campaign” would not put criminals behind bars.
Drilon earlier defended one of his allies, Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog, who was among those named by Duterte as protectors of drug syndicates. He also decried Duterte’s labeling Iloilo as the most “shabulized” province in the country. Iloilo is Drilon’s home province.
“The effective deterrent against the commission of crimes is the certainty of punishment and expeditiousness of the proceedings,” he said.
Drilon also said he was appalled by the lack of public indignation over the spate of killings of alleged drug suspects.
But he said he could understand that such was “a manifestation of public’s frustration brought about by inefficiency in the country’s justice system.”
“There is a failure of the justice system. Our people are upset because of the inability of our justice system to address criminality and punish the criminals with dispatch,” Drilon maintained. - With Paolo Romero
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SC starts probe of judges in Rody drug list
MARCOS MYTHS OF WORLD WAR 2
 creditstory and image screenshot :www.alwayswearingblack.comHOW A TRAITOR BECAME A DICTATOR – THE MARCOS MYTHS OF WORLD WAR 2
During his candidacy for President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos’ campaign focuses on his anti-Japanese guerrilla stories during World War II. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why he stands out compared to his political opponents. Many of Marcos’ rivals collaborated with the Japanese. After all, who would not want a hero in the President’s seat? On December 30, 1965, Ferdinand Marcos took office as the 10th President of Republic of the Philippines. However, this is one of the many Marcos myths that have been talked about by his blinded supporters and worshipers up to this very day.
THE “MAHARLIKA” : MARCOS’ FANTASY UNIT
Marcos built his career by projecting himself as a World War II hero. He claims to be an anti-Japanese guerrilla commander who formed the “Maharlika” unit, consisting of about 9,200-strong band men that staged daring raids and sabotage Japanese operations in northern Luzon. The young Ferdinand was supposedly such a daredevil operator that he got 32 medals for his valiant efforts during the war. In 1947, as a supposed war hero, he was appointed to the Philippine Veterans Commission to lobby in the U.S. for better benefits for war veterans. In 1949, he ran for Congress in Ilocos Sur, again projecting his wartime heroism to heighten his electoral appeal.
However, between 1945 and 1948 various U.S Army officers rejected Marcos’ two requests for official recognition of the unit, calling his claims distorted, exaggerated, fraudulent, contradictory and absurd. Army investigators finally concluded that Maharlika was a fictitious creation and that ”no such unit ever existed” as a guerrilla organization during the war.
Ray C. Hunt Jr., a former Army captain who directed guerrilla activities in Pangasinan Province north of Manila during the war and who now lives in Orlando, said: ”Marcos was never the leader of a large guerrilla organization, no way. Nothing like that could have happened without my knowledge.‘ Hunt was a staff sergeant in the United States Army Air Corps stationed in the Philippines at the beginning of World War II. After the surrender at Bataan, where he fought as an infantryman, he was forced to take the Bataan Death March with many other American and Filipinos. During the March, he escaped and fled into the hills. He eventually became a noted guerrilla leader on Luzon, where he served for three years behind Japanese lines. Hunt was promoted to captain by guerrilla leaders during that time. Just during the five days before the American landings on Luzon, the guerrilla battalion under Hunt’s command was credited with killing over 3,000 Japanese soldiers in numerous ambushes and raids. Hunt continued to serve with the regular U.S. Army after its return to the Philippines, assisting the U.S. Army in fighting the Japanese, while also coordinating guerrilla activities with the Army. General Douglas MacArthur personally awarded the U.S. Distinguished Service Cross. Hunt also received the Bronze Star for his actions during the war. The Army then confirmed his rank of captain, to date from 11 December 1943. Hunt left the Philippines in June 1945 to return to the United States. At that time he was only 25 years old.
A ZERO WHO CREDITS HIMSELF AS A HERO
U.S. government archives revealed that he actually played little or no part in anti-Japanese activities during 1942–45. In addition, the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA), helped by the Philippines army, found in 1950 that some people who had claimed membership in Marcos’ unit actually had been committing ”atrocities” against Filipino civilians rather than fighting the Japanese. They also had engaged in what the VA called ”nefarious activity,” including selling contraband to the enemy. The records include no direct evidence linking Marcos to those activities nevertheless.
The records were on file at the Army records center in St. Louis until they were donated to the National Archives in Washington in November 1984. Alfred William McCoy, a historian of Southeast Asia, discovered them while doing research for a book on World War II in the Philippines. He then stated without a doubt that Marcos’ fabled guerrilla unit the “Ang Mga Maharlika” never existed. Marcos’ guerrilla record was a fabrication.
STOLEN VALOUR – MARCOS’ FAKE WW2 MEDALS
The “List of Recipients of Awards and Decorations issued from December 7, 1941 through June 30, 1945” was compiled by the General Douglas MacArthur’s headquarters in Tokyo after the end of the war. Another list of some 120 Americans and Filipinos who were awarded during the Bataan campaign was transmitted to the War Department by General Jonathan Wainwright on April 12 shortly before his surrender. Ferdinand was NOT on any of the lists.
Colonel Manriquez and Adjutant Captain Rivera who commanded the 14th Infantry in Kiangan, Mt. Province during the war stated that Ferdinand was with them. However, both attested to fact that Marcos was a non-combatant and just a Civil Affairs officer. They knew of no award that Marcos could have received or had been entitled to.
For 40 years since the end of World War 2, the Philippine War records were not available to the public. It was only in the 1980s that many of the documents were eventually accessible to legitimate researchers and scholars. Led by Colonel Bonifacio “Boni” Gillego assisted by a team from the Movement for a Free Philippines, a study was made on “Marcos: FAKE HERO”. The study was written by Col. Gillego and was published by the Philippine News and the We Forum which Marcos shut down and its Editor and staff writers indicted for “sedition” punishable by death.
Boni is most remembered for his diligent and scholarly research on the fake World War II medals claimed by Ferdinand Marcos. His research included painstaking interviews of former war guerrillas and a review of Marcos’ records in US army archives.
After an exhaustive analysis of the medals which Marcos supposedly received, Gillego came up with the following conclusions:
THE TRAITOR WHO BECAME A DICTATOR
On March 8, 1945, during the closing days of the war, Mariano Marcos, Ferdinand’s father was arrested by American-ledGuerrillas. He was found to be a Japanese collaborator and died in La Union at the hands of Philippine guerrillas. His hands was tied to four carabaos (large water buffaloes) . The carabaos were then whipped to run in opposite directions which literally tore him limb from limb. The pieces were hung in a tree to rot.
On the other hand, Marcos emerged from World War II with a reputation as the greatest Filipino resistance leader of the war and the most decorated soldier in the U.S. armed forces. However, he have spent the war on both sides, lending support to both the Japanese and the United States. In early 1943 in Manila (the capital of the Philippines), Marcos created a “secret” resistance organization called Ang Mga Maharlika that he claimed consisted of agents working against the Japanese. In fact, the group consisted of many criminals—forgers, pickpockets, gunmen, and gangsters—hoping to make money in the wartime climate.
Colonel Bonifacio “Boni” Gillego who led a study was made on “Marcos: FAKE HERO” found no records in the War Archives that would support the awards supposedly received by Marcos. On the contrary, fraudulent and false claims as well as anti-guerilla propaganda files involving his father and his group were uncovered.
Boni’s article that was being prepared for publication in The Washington Post in time for the Marcos US state visit in 1982 when Marcos got wind of it and threatened to sue. The Post decided to withhold publication.
Manila publisher Jose Burgos Jr. however decided to publish the article in the We Forum. Marcos was so incensed he had the We Forum editor and staff arrested and the newspaper shut down. The publication of the story pushed the foreign press to dig further.
Marcos’ US war files were later released from the US army archives into the US National Archives, where another independent researcher, Alfred McCoy, found them. McCoy then published his findings in The New York Times.
Boni was also instrumental in getting the portrait of Marcos removed from an exhibit of the awardees of the US Medal of Honor in New York. Boni had challenged the officer-in-charge to show proof of the validity of the inclusion of Marcos’ portrait.
 REFERENCES:
A Historian Rewrites History by Stripping Bare the War Record of Philippine President Marcos
People.com http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20092920,00.html
Alfred W. McCoy
J.R.W. Smail Professor of History Department of History – University of Winsconsin-Madison http://history.wisc.edu/people/faculty/mccoy.htm
Behind Japanese Lines: An American Guerrilla in the Philippines
Hunt, Ray C., and Norling, Bernard. 1988. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-64960-4
Dubious and fake like Marcos’ war medals
Philippine Daily Inquirer11:29 pm | Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook http://opinion.inquirer.net/26471/dubious-and-fake-like-marcos%E2%80%99-war-medals
Ferdinand E. Marcos
Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica.com http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/364302/Ferdinand-E-Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos Biography
Encyclopedia of World Biography http://www.notablebiographies.com/Lo-Ma/Marcos-Ferdinand.html
Filipinos Still Wary When It Comes to Marcos
By SETH MYDANS, Special to the New York Times Published: December 11, 1988 http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/11/world/filipinos-still-wary-when-it-comes-to-marcos.html
Marcos Blasts U.S. Reports He Was a Phony War Hero : American Records Fail to Back Him
January 23, 1986|From Times Wire Services http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-23/news/mn-28079_1_war-record
Marcos’ Fake Medals
Asian Journals http://asianjournalusa.com/marcos-fake-medals-redux-part-i-p10722-168.htm
Marcos Was More Than Just Another Deposed Dictator
Chicago Tribune September 29, 1989|By Joseph A. Reaves. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-09-29/news/8901180123_1_mr-marcos-ferdinand-edralin-marcos-martial-law/2
U.S. Army Years Ago Labeled Marcos’ WW2 Tales As Lies
Orlando Sentinel http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1986-01-23/news/0190270164_1_marcos-army-records-philippines |
MARCOS'S WARTIME ROLE DISCREDITED IN U.S. FILES
 MARCOS'S WARTIME ROLE DISCREDITED IN U.S. FILESBy The following article is based on reporting by Jeff Gerth and Joel Brinkley and was written by Mr. Gerth.Special to the New York TimesPublished: January 23, 1986WASHINGTON, Jan. 22— The Army concluded after World War II that claims by Ferdinand E. Marcos that he had led a guerrilla resistance unit during the Japanese occupation of his country were ''fraudulent'' and ''absurd.''
Throughout his political career, Mr. Marcos, now President of the Philippines, has portrayed himself as a heroic guerrilla leader, and the image has been central to his political appeal.
In almost every speech throughout his current re-election campaign, including at least one this week, Mr. Marcos has referred to his war record and guerrilla experiences in part to show that he is better able than his opponent, Corazon C. Aquino, to handle the present Communist insurgency. Questions Go Unanswered
But documents that had rested out of public view in United States Government archives for 35 years show that repeated Army investigations found no foundation for Mr. Marcos's claims that he led a guerrilla force called Ang Mga Maharlika in military operations against Japanese forces from 1942 to 1944.
Mr. Marcos declined today to respond to six written questions about the United States Government records, which came to light only recently. The questions were submitted to Mr. Marcos's office this morning in Manila.
After repeated telephone calls to the Presidential Palace this afternoon, an aide explained that Mr. Marcos was busy with meetings and a campaign appearance and ''didn't have the opportunity to look into the question.'' The aide said the President might have a response later.
In the Army records, Mr. Marcos wrote that he strongly protested the Army's findings, adding that ''a grave injustice has been committed against many officers and men'' of the unit.
Since Mr. Marcos became President in 1965, the Government-owned broadcasting network, the main north-south highway on the island of Luzon and a hall in the Presidential Palace all have been named Maharlika - the name means Noble Men - in honor of the unit. In 1978, the Philippine National Assembly considered renaming the nation Maharlika. Recognition Is Denied
Between 1945 and 1948 various Army officers rejected Mr. Marcos's two requests for official recognition of the unit, calling his claims distorted, exaggerated, fraudulent, contradictory and absurd. Army investigators finally concluded that Maharlika was a fictitious creation and that ''no such unit ever existed'' as a guerrilla organization during the war.
In addition, the United States Veterans' Administration, helped by the Philippine Army, found in 1950 that some people who had claimed membership in Maharlika - pronounced mah-HAHR-lick-kuh - had actually been committing ''atrocities'' against Filipino civilians rather than fighting the Japanese and had engaged in what the V.A. called ''nefarious activity,'' including selling contraband to the enemy. The records include no direct evidence linking Mr. Marcos to those activities.
The records, many of which were classified secret until 1958, were on file at the Army records center in St. Louis until they were donated to the National Archives in Washington in November 1984. In 1983, a Filipino opposition figure asked for access to them a few weeks after the assassination in Manila that August of the opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., but the Army refused to let him see them.
Alfred W. McCoy, a historian, discovered the documents among hundreds of thousands of others several months ago while at the National Archives researching a book on World War II in the Philippines. Dr. McCoy was granted the access normally accorded to scholars, and when he came upon the the Maharlika files he was allowed to review and copy them along with others. Archives officials did not learn what the documents contained until after they were copied Richard J. Kessler, a scholar on the Philippines at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, said, ''Marcos's military record was one of the central factors in his developing a political power base.'' A War Hero at Home
In the Philippines, the 68-year-old Mr. Marcos is widely described as the nation's most decorated war hero. The Philippine Government says he won 32 medals for heroism during World War II, including two from the United States Army. Two of the medals were for his activities as a guerrilla leader, but the rest were for exploits before the United States surrender in 1942 or after the return of United States forces to Luzon, the main Philippine island, in 1945.
The validity of those medals has been challenged by Philippine and American journalists as well as others. In response, the Philippine Government has vigorously contended that they were properly earned and said the records validating them were destroyed in a fire. When the Philippine newspaper We Forum published an article in 1982 questioning Mr. Marcos's war record, Government authorities shut the paper down.
The issue of Mr. Marcos's medals is not addressed in the Army records.
Like thousands of other Filipinos, immediately after the war Mr. Marcos asked the Army to recognize his unit so that he and others could receive back pay and benefits. In his petitions, Mr. Marcos certified that his unit had engaged in numerous armed clashes with the Japanese, sabotage and intelligence gathering throughout a vast region of Luzon and had been the pre-eminent guerrilla force on the island.
In his submissions, he offered widely varying accounts of Maharlika's membership, from 300 men at one point to 8,300 at another. In the years since, Mr. Marcos has said Maharlika was a force of 8,200 men. Some Claims Recognized
Shortly after the war, the Army did recognize the claims of 111 men who were listed on the Maharlika roster submitted by Mr. Marcos, but their recognition was only for their services with American forces after the invasion of Luzon in January 1945. One document says the service that Mr. Marcos and 23 other men listed as Maharlika members gave to the First Cavalry Division in the spring of 1945 was ''of limited military value.''
The Army records include conflicting statements on whether the United States intended to recognize the 111 men as individuals or as a Maharlika unit attached to American forces after the invasion. It is clear throughout the records that at no time did the Army recognize that any unit designating itself as Maharlika ever existed as a guerrilla force in the years of the Japanese occupation, 1942 to 1945.
The records are a small part of a voluminous file containing more than one million documents on military activities in the Philippines during and after World War II. Approximately 400 pages deal with matters relating to the Government's investigations of Mr. Marcos and his claims.
Dr. McCoy, an American professor of history at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, said he was ''stunned'' when he found the records last summer. He said he worked with the records by himself until this month. He brought them to the attention of The New York Times last week.
The records were reviewed at the Archives, where officials confirmed their authenticity. In addition, several former American military officers who played important roles in the events described in the records were interviewed.
These officers served in the Philippines during the war, supervising Filipino guerrillas in the areas where Mr. Marcos said his unit had operated. Even though most of them say they are strong supporters of Mr. Marcos today - one, Robert B. Lapham of Sun City, Ariz., said he spent 90 minutes with Mr. Marcos while in Manila last week -the officers also confirmed the basic findings in the records and said they had not been aware of Maharlika's activities during the war. They also said they had not known of Mr. Marcos as a guerrilla leader until they read his claims later. 'This Is Not True'
Ray C. Hunt Jr., a 66-year-old former Army captain who directed guerrilla activites in Pangasinan Province north of Manila during the war, said: ''Marcos was never the leader of a large guerrilla organization, no way. Nothing like that could have happened without my knowledge.''
Mr. Hunt, interviewed at his home in Orlando, Fla., said he took no position in the current Phillipine election campaign, although he believed Mr. Marcos ''may be the lesser of two evils.''
Still, as he read through the records for the first time, including Mr. Marcos's own description of Maharlika's wartime activities, he said: ''This is not true, no. Holy cow. All of this is a complete fabrication. It's a cock-and-bull story.''
The documents, the latest of which are dated in the early 1950's, include no indication that Mr. Marcos appealed the Army's final ruling against him in 1948. The last entry in the Maharlika file was an affirmation of the rejection.
Today Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard L. Armitage, the senior Pentagon official in charge of military relations with the Philippines, said his aides had been unable to find any record that the original Army decision denying benefits to Maharlika had been challenged or investigated after the 1948 ruling. ''Subsequent to '48 I am unaware of any further appeals,'' he said.
Donna St. John, a spokesman for the Veterans' Administration, said, ''We're not paying any benefits to Ferdinand Marcos.''
As commanding officer of the unit, Mr. Marcos applied for United States Government recognition of his guerrilla force in the summer of 1945. To support the application, he included a 29-page typed document entitled ''Ang Mga Maharlika - Its History in Brief.''
It says that the unit was ''spawned from the dragging pain and ignominy'' of the Bataan death march and that its members ''grew such a hatred of the enemy as could be quenched with his blood alone.'' Exploits Are Described
Most of the document is written in the third person and describes a variety of exploits by Maharlika and Mr. Marcos, who was in his twenties at the time. ''It seemed as if the Japanese were after him alone and not after anyone else,'' it says at one point, referring to Mr. Marcos. The author is never identified, but in two places he lapses into the first person in discussing Mr. Marcos's exploits, indicating the writer was Mr. Marcos.
The history and other submissions from Mr. Marcos say Maharlika was officially organized in December 1942 but had been operating for several months before that. It carried out guerrilla operations throughout Luzon and even published an underground guerrilla newspaper three times a day, Mr. Marcos wrote.
Membership rosters submitted with the filings listed the names of more than 300 Maharlika members. But Mr. Marcos included no documents or copies of the Maharlika newspaper to support the claim because, he wrote, all documentary evidence was ''lost due to continuous searches by the Japanese.'' Elsewhere, Mr. Marcos wrote that some of the unit's records were burned and others were buried.
The official records indicate that the Army grew suspicious of Mr. Marcos's claims right away. Mr. Marcos contended that he had been in a northern province ''in the first days of December 1944 on an intelligence mission'' and was not able to get back to Maharlika headquarters at that time because the American invasion force on Luzon cut him off from Manila.
But in the first recorded response to Mr. Marcos's recognition request, in September 1945, Maj. Harry McKenzie of the Army noted that the American invasion of Luzon had not actually begun until a month later and ''could not have influenced his abandoning his outfit.''
As a result, Major McKenzie suggested an ''inquiry into the veracity'' of Mr. Marcos's claims. And almost two years later, the Army wrote Mr. Marcos to notify him of the official finding that his application for recognition ''is not favorably considered.'' Why the U.S. Said No
The official notice cited these reasons, among others:
* Maharlika had not actually been in the field fighting the Japanese and had not ''contributed materially to the eventual defeat of the enemy.''
* Maharlika had no ''definite organization'' and ''adequate records were not maintained.''
* Maharlika was not controlled adequately ''because of the desertion of its commanding officer,'' Mr. Marcos, who eventually joined an American military unit while in northern Luzon at the time of the American invasion.
* Maharlika could not possibly have operated over the wide area it claimed because of problems of terrain, communications and Japanese ''antiresistance activities.''
* ''Many members apparently lived at home, supporting their families by means of farming or other civilian pursuits and assisted the guerrilla unit on a part-time basis only.''
Although the Army did recognize 111 people listed on Mr. Marcos's Maharlika roster for their service to American forces after January 1945, the nature of that service is not fully described. But one document, dated May 31, 1945, says 6 officers and 18 men led by Mr. Marcos and indentifying themselves as Maharlika had ''been employed by this unit,'' the Army's First Cavalry Division, ''guarding the regimental supply dump and performing warehousing details.'' Their work, the document added, was ''of limited military value.''
In his brief history, Mr. Marcos describes his service to the First Cavalry this way: Members of Maharlika ''furnished intelligence and were used for patrolling by this unit until the operations in Manila ended. They participated in the crossing of the Pasig River.''
Mr. Marcos was just one of thousands of Filipinos who asked the United States Army for recognition as a guerrilla. After the Japanese occupation of the Phillipines in 1942, the United States had promised that any Filipinos who continued fighting the Japanese would get back pay and benefits after the war as if they had been members of the American military. Served at Bataan
Japan mounted a surprise attack on the islands in December 1941 and quickly conquered them. It was not until 1944 and 1945, that United States and Filipino forces won them back. Not long afterward, on July 4, 1946, the islands gained their final independence from the United States as the Republic of the Philippines.
At the time of the Japanese invasion, Mr. Marcos was a lieutenant in the Philippine armed forces and part of the contingent driven back into the Bataan Peninsula. Mr. Marcos has said his fighting delayed the surrender at Bataan for several weeks.
After the American surrender, he was imprisoned by the Japanese, but escaped. For his efforts during the Bataan campaign of January 1942, Mr. Marcos was awarded numerous medals, apparently including two from the United States, but not until many years later.
It was after the Bataan campaign, Mr. Marcos wrote, that Maharlika was formed.
In 1982 and 1983 journalists in the Philippines and the United States, as well as Representative Lane Evans, Democrat of Illinois, tried to determine the validity of the American awards to Mr. Marcos, including the two Bataan-related medals. The Pentagon, in replying in 1984 to Mr. Evans, noted that no official ''citations for these awards'' could be found, but ''they were both attested to in affidavits by the Assistant Chief of Staff'' of the Philippine Army.
Whether or not the American medals are valid, they had nothing to do with Mr. Marcos's activities during the Japanese occupation.
After the war, roughly 500,000 Filipinos were recognized and paid as guerrilla fighters. But uncounted others were turned down.
Mr. Marcos's claim was investigated in the same manner as the others. Affidavits were taken from dozens of American and Filipino military officers, enlisted men and civilians. In addition, investigators studied documentary evidence, including wartime intelligence reports, looking for references to Maharlika's work.
After he was turned down, Mr. Marcos asked for reconsideration. An Army captain, Elbert R. Curtis, inquired further but concluded that ''the immensity'' of Mr. Marcos's claim that Maharlika served over the entire island of Luzon was ''absurd.''
After checking intelligence records, Captain Curtis wrote that there was no mention of Maharlika being a source of intelligence information. He wrote that the unit roster was a fabrication, that ''no such unit ever existed'' and that Mr. Marcos's claims about Maharlika were ''fraudulent,'' ''preposterous'' and ''a malicious criminal act.''
Another Army document said Maharlika ''possessed no arms prior to the arrival of the Americans'' despite Mr. Marcos' claim that the unit had 474 assorted weapons and 3,825 rounds of ammunition. The second investigation concluded that ''it is quite obvious that Marcos did not exercise any control over a guerrilla organization prior to liberation'' in January 1945.
Although there is no record that Mr. Marcos filed any further objections to those 1948 findings, another Filipino, Cipriano S. Allas, who was listed as a senior Maharlika officer, wrote the Army in 1947 asking for reconsideration of the unit. That request was denied, too.
Mr. Allas said he had commanded Maharlika's intelligence section. But numerous American officers and Filipinos who were interviewed by Army, Veterans' Administration and Philippine investigators said Mr. Allas and some of his men had in fact been selling commodities to the Japanese during the war.
In a 1947 Army document titled ''Report on Ang Mga Maharlika,'' Lieut. William D. MacMillan wrote that two American officers, including Mr. Lapham, and one Filipino officer had told investigators that ''they had heard'' Mr. Marcos's name ''in connection with the buy and sell activities of certain people,'' referring to the black-market sales to the Japanese, but that the three had added that they had no firm information about Mr. Marcos.
In a file titled ''Guerrilla Bandits and Black Marketeers,'' a Philippine Army document concluded that Mr. Allas and several other men listed on the Maharlika roster ''engaged themselves in the purchases and sale of steel cables,'' an important wartime commodity, to the Japanese. 'What a Farce!'
A United States Veterans' Administration investigation concluded that some men who claimed membership in Maharlika and another organization were ''hoodlums'' who had committed ''atrocities'' and were ''tied together only for nefarious reasons.''
One man who said he was a member of Maharlika told investigators that the unit ''had committed themselves to trafficking in the sale of critical war materials to the brutal enemy,'' the report said, ''but only to provide means of watching that enemy.''
''What a farce!'' the V.A. investigator concluded.
None of the former officers interviewed this week said they remembered any involvement by Mr. Marcos in the black-market activities or abuses of civilians.
Mr. Hunt said he met Mr. Marcos only once during the war, sometime in 1944. A Filipino military officer ''brought him into my guerrilla headquarters,'' Mr. Hunt recalled. ''He was barefoot, unarmed. We talked for 15 or 20 minutes about this or that. He was never identified to me as a guerrilla, and we didn't talk about guerrilla activities.''
''I had no further contact with him,'' Mr. Hunt added, ''and I didn't hear anything more about him.''
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Tuesday, August 9, 2016
Jill Stein: The Two-Party System Is Broken
Published on May 23, 2016
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein says the two-party system is broken, and that we should vote our values, not our fears.
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Marcos unfit for hero's burial: historical body
 Marcos unfit for hero's burial: historical body
SHARED FROM:
InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA - Philippine activists and a historical body on Monday criticized President Rodrigo Duterte's plan to give late dictator Ferdinand Marcos a hero's burial, saying the ex-leader lied about his military record.
Duterte said Sunday he would fulfil his campaign promise to bury Marcos at the national "Heroes' Cemetery", a contentious issue because of widespread corruption and rights abuses under the late dictator. The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) released a study over the weekend questioning Duterte's stand that Marcos was qualified for a hero's burial because he was a soldier during World War II. "Marcos lied about receiving US medals... (his) military record is fraught with myths, factual inconsistencies," the agency said. "A doubtful record does not serve as sound, unassailable basis of historical recognition of any sort, let alone burial in a site intended, as its name suggests, for heroes." WE Forum raided after medals exposé
On December 7, 1982, Marcos' military raided the Quezon City offices and printing press of WE Forum,and arrested its publisher, several columnists and key publishing executives, after the the trailblazing "alternative press" newspaper published a series of investigative articles by Col. Bonifacio Gillego exposing the Marcos medals claim as being of doubtful basis.
Publisher Jose Burgos Jr. and his co-accused were released before Christmas owing to an international outcry, and among their defense counsel were some of the leading members of the human rights movement then: Joker Arroyo, Wigberto Tañada, Jejomar Binay, Martiniano Vivo and Rene A.V. Saguisag.
The cases against the journalists were dismissed in 1984 by the Supreme Court, which ruled the WE Forum raid and shutdown as illegal. Burgos would later be declared by the International Press Institute as one of the 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the 20th Century.
Marcos was toppled in a military-backed popular revolt in 1986 and died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. But his family has insisted on a hero's burial even though previous presidents refused this. In the meantime, they have kept his preserved body on display in their home town in the northern province of Ilocos Norte. Marcos was elected president in 1965 and declared martial law in 1972, allowing him to rule as a dictator while he, his family and allies enriched themselves through massive corruption as his troops suppressed dissent. 2nd most corrupt of all time Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International in 2004 named Marcos the second most corrupt leader of all time. Despite his proclaimed stance against corruption, Duterte has heaped praise on Marcos as the Philippines' "best president". He maintains close ties with the Marcos family, who supported his presidential campaign. Duterte boasts that his father served in the Marcos administration and that he voted for Marcos. Duterte's defence secretary ordered the military on Sunday to start preparing for the burial. But activists urged the president to reconsider. "We call on President Duterte not to give a platform for the Marcoses to whitewash the crimes they committed. This man does not deserve any form of honor," said Tinay Palabay, secretary general of rights group Karapatan. Former lawmaker Satur Ocampo, tortured and imprisoned during martial law, said a hero's burial for Marcos would not bring national closure as Duterte promised. "Disunity will continue ... Duterte should not aggravate the injustice done to martial law victims." Marcos' son and political heir, former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, thanked Duterte for granting the family's longstanding wish. "Our campaign has always been towards achieving unity to move the country forward. And it is this kind of pronouncement that we hope could end the decades of divisiveness," Marcos Jnr said on his Facebook page. |
LIBINGAN NG MGA TUNAY AT HUWAD NA BAYANI
 Almost 19,000 sign petition vs burying Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA - Close to 19,000 people have signed a petition to ask incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to not push through with his plan to have the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
The petition “No to Burying Marcos in Heroes’ Cemetery” was created by Dolly De Leon of Mandaluyong City last week on advocacy platform Change.org. Find it on this link: chn.ge/1RDP8io.
The petition stressed that burying the dictator who ruled for two decades, including nine years under martial law, was “an affront to the thousands of lives tortured and murdered during his reign.”
It stressed that a hero was one who did not take away freedom; rather, he or she “campaigns for it and fights for its survival for the sake of others.”
“Laying (Marcos) to rest at the Heroes’ Cemetery is a disdainful act that will send a message to the future of our nation – our children – that the world we live in rewards forceful and violent hands,” the petition said.
It also outlined six reasons why Marcos should not be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
First, it cited Duterte as saying that the issue of Marcos’s burial had long been divisive. In fact, Duterte said in a recent interview, “I am sure that (the burial) would erase from amongst our people one hatred.”
The petition said that the reason for the division was not the burial, and that the latter would even “further sever the opportunity for unity, since this is an injustice to the victims of Martial Law and the families they left behind.”
According to the petition, 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed under Martial Law, which Marcos proclaimed in 1972.
The second reason, the petition said, was that the United States Army said that Marcos’s claims that he had led a guerrilla resistance unit during the Japanese occupation were “fraudulent” and “'absurd.”
The third reason, the petition said, that Marcos was not being heroic when he fabricated stories about his war accomplishment.
In addition, the petition said, Marcos’s “gross plunder and mass murder trumps his status as a soldier.”
“Serving one’s country in war does not warrant heroism if they place that same country in ruin. Foreign debt increased from $355 million in 1962 to $28.3 billion in 1986. The peso value to the dollar decreased from 3.90 in 1966 to 20.53 in 1986,” the petition explained.
The petition’s fifth reason for not wanting Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani was because not all soldiers were buried there.
“Burying him there will label him a hero whether he was a Philippine soldier or not,” the petition said.
Finally, the petition cited the cemetery’s regulations as saying, “Those who were dishonorably separated, reverted, or discharged from the service, and those who were convicted of an offense involving moral turpitude cannot be buried at the cemetery.”
“Marcos was ousted from power. On these grounds alone, he is not qualified. Ferdinand E. Marcos is not a hero. Only heroes are buried in the Heroes’ Cemetery as the name so literally states,” the petition said.
Duterte nevertheless maintained that he would not change his mind.
“Patay na ‘yung tao. Anong gusto ninyo? You want the cadaver to be burnt? Would that satisfy you?” he said in a press conference, addressing those opposed to his decision.
He earlier said that he was okay with any date for Marcos’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, including the latter’s birthday in September.
“I will allow the burial of President Marcos sa Libingan ng mga Bayani, not because he is a hero, kung ayaw nila ng iba na ‘yun, but because he was a Filipino soldier, period,” Duterte reasoned.
Duterte’s own mother, Soledad, had helped organize protest rallies for the pro-Aquino movement before the EDSA People Power Revolution in 1986.
Meanwhile, Senator Bongbong Marcos had thanked Duterte for his statement, saying on his Facebook page that his family always maintained that it was the former president’s right under the law to be buried there being a former soldier and president.
“Our campaign has always been toward achieving unity to move the country forward,” said the losing vice-presidential candidate. “And it is this kind of pronouncement that we hope could end the decades of divisiveness that have been imposed upon us by our leaders.”
For his part, Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo opposed the plan to bury former President Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani even though his clan had not returned the billions of money stolen from the government coffers during his regime.
The total amount of the ill-gotten wealth acquired by then President Marcos is reportedly between $5 and $10 billion.
The late Jovito Salonga, former chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), said in his book Presidential Plunder: The Quest for the Marcos Ill-Gotten Wealth, that as of January 14, 1987, “virtually all of the wealth claimed by Mrs. (Imelda) Marcos, allegedly amounting to around 500 billion pesos, had been sequestered during my one-year assignment, subject to final judicial determination of their ownership.”
(This P500 billion pesos is now equivalent to $10.8 billion, with the present dollar-peso exchange rate at $1 = P46.16 and P1 = $0.022. Meanwhile, the exchange rate in 1987 was $1 = P20.57, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas: bit.ly/1MC7Snb.)
Marcos herself admitted to their vast properties during martial rule. She told The Philippine Daily Inquirer in 1998, “We practically own everything in the Philippines—from electricity, telecommunications, airline, banking, beer and tobacco, newspaper publishing, television stations, shipping, oil and mining, hotels and beach resorts, down to coconut milling, small farms, real estate and insurance.”
In addition, she also revealed in an interview with the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse in 1998 that more money had yet to be discovered.
“There is more money that the government is not yet aware of, but for the time being, I can admit that there is only $800 million kept in various international banks,” she said.
“Papaano ma-u-unite na marami naman tutol dito? Mas lalong ma-di-divide ang country,” Pabillo said. “Palaging hindi nabibigyan ng katarungan ang mga biktima.”
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