Thirty Years Later . . . Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes. Myles Garcia

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СКАЧАТЬ Kalaws. A family flying under the radar but very well connected (in-laws to the Benitez, Cuenca, Estrada, Ilusorio and Katigbak families, among others); also have/had large land holdings in suburban Manila; and a few illustrious lady-legislators among their ranks.

      7.the Aguinaldos (owned major department store in Manila, both pre-and post-war and before Heacock’s, Rustan’s, ShoeMart. Had logging interests and other businesses, e.g., the black pearl farm in Davao later sold to Antonio Floirendo.

      8.the Laurels (like the Elizaldes—five sons of Jose P. Laurel, president of the 2^nd Philippine Republic [the last one under Japanese supervision], thus a political family with a Batangas base; owned Lyceum University and the Philippine Banking Corp.)

      9.the Padillas, a large clan whose most prominent member in the 1960s was Senator Ambrosio Padilla, whose wife, the glamorous Lily de las Alas, was compared as a rival to Imelda Marcos among the senatorial wives, but who held seniority over the Marcoses in the Senate pecking order. The Padillas had large logging concerns and owned Feati University and NAMEI. Ambrosio and Lily’s daughter, Josie, a celebrated Manila debutante, married a Rufino.

      10.the Jose B. Fernandezes, a shipping family; the Maritima Steam-ship company; then Far East Bank.

      It should also be noted at this point that, even though the Philippines has a population of over 100 million today, Manila is in the ten million-plus range and that the Philippine ruling elite is pretty much schooled in the western mold for over 130 years. The top two dozen clans are also pretty much interbred, and from that Manila had its own “400.” Even during the final years of Marcos rule, when the old, aristocratic families had to show their true colors and take a stand on either side of the divide (either with the established ranks or with Marcos and Imelda’s new cadre of millionaires and industrialists), there were still backdoor, interconnecting lines between the various, rival clans and families.

      When I entered high school at the Ateneo de Manila, many of my classmates were from the wealthier, more established families and pretenders. I remember one classmate, the son of a Court of Appeals judge, who once said, “Oh, all those (leading) families survived by hedging their political bets—splitting and having some members align with one party, and others align with the other.” I, coming from a smaller, not well-connected family, took this seemingly very astute observation to heart.

      C.Self-made Tsinoys (early families of Chinese origins but who learned the ways of the ruling Spanish aristocracy)—in no particular order:

      1.Don Carlos Palanca (La Tondeña Distilleries)

      2.Don Alfonso Yuchengco (the insurance king of the Philippines)

      3.the Osmeñas (from Cebu; married de la Rama of shipping wealth. In 1961, socialite Minnie Osmeña was wed in an $8,500 Christian Dior wedding gown flown in from Paris, to Joselito Jacinto of the steel family, thereby superseding Irene Marcos-Araneta wearing a Euro designer, Roberto Balestra, wedding gown by some 22 years.)

      4.the Ongsiakos – textiles and married well

      5.the Ongpins – real estate, banking, high finance, mining

      6.the Montinolas (Amon Trading and Far Eastern University)

      Nearly all of the old-time families mentioned above belonged to Manila’s “400” which flourished before World War II and into the first Marcos regime. Nearly all of the above could afford to send their sons and daughters to boarding schools in England, to the Ivy League universities in the US, and to finishing schools in Switzerland for the girls. This was the set to which Imelda and Ferdinand did not quite belong, and to which the couple, especially Imelda, aspired—or even hoped to supersede. Not that they were mean to her, but it must also have been young Imelda’s insecurities, coming from the poorer branch of the Romualdez family, that made her feel unwelcome into that elite. Back to the list.

      7.the Sycips / Yutivo / Yu Khe Thai (GM-Philippines franchise)

      8.Don Jose Yulo - (another large, land-owning family – Canlubang Dairy Farms; and one of Imelda’s most faithful Blue Ladies was Cecile Araneta Yulo Locsin)

      9.Cu-unjeing (construction)

      10.Lichauco – big land-owning family

      11.Leopoldo Syquia (successful businessman)

      12.the Tambuntings – pioneer pawnshop-owning family (before the Lhuilliers and the Ablazas)

      And there was the subgroup of the taipans (Chinese-born businessmen who made good in the Philippines); most were sent or arrived in the Philippines after World War II when mainland China was all but certain to fall to Mao Zedong’s communist troops and did not want to try their fortune in the Nationalist stronghold of Taiwan. Most of the taipans came into their own, or vaulted up the “Richest” list after martial law was declared and foreign currency transactions were greatly overseen, controlled, and limited. Of course, a number of them (like Lucio Tan and Jose Yao-Campos) played ball with Marcos, having been his clients in Marcos’ early law career.

      13.Henry Sy – founder of the ShoeMart empire; only the richest man in the Philippines today, per the 2015 Forbes List

      14.Lucio Tan – touted as the current 2^nd richest man in the Philippines

      15.Andrew Tan – self-made billionaire, #3 on the list. Owner of real estate developer MegaWorld; owns the McDonald’s franchise in the Philippines and Emperador Rum Distillery

      16.John Gokongwei – Universal-Robina; Robinson’s Malls; telecom

      17.Tony Tan Caktiong – Jollibee Corporation

      18.Mariano Que (founder of Mercury Drug).

      D.the Intelligentsia and Professionals

      And then there were the independent thinkers, opinion-shaping families who were not overwhelmingly wealthy but influential enough, especially amongst Manila’s intelligentsia, that their opinions mattered. To this category belonged independent senators like Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tañada, Jose P. Diokno, Soc Rodrigo, and Raul Manglapus, who more often than not would put Marcos in his place – thus Marcos also had special places reserved for them when martial law was to be declared.

      There were also the Roceses (The Manila Times, Daily Mirror and Taliba, DZMT, Channel 5); the Guerreros, the Teddy Locsins (Philippine Free Press), the Legardas, the Mapuas, and the Marquezes/Benitezes (Philippine Women’s University and the small St. John’s Academy in San Juan) –often gadflies in the nape of the Marcoses. The number two periodical in the country, The Manila Chronicle, was already owned by the Lopezes, while the third newspaper at the time, The Manila Bulletin, was owned by Marcos groupie, Hans Menzi.

      So it was in the above socioeconomic setting that Ferdinand and Imelda stepped in as new rulers in 1965-66, and then created their own bloc of industrialists and multimillionaires through whom they hoped to fully control the economy, making them de facto unchallenged dictators for life.

      His and Hers

      Of course, each one had his/her set of favored families. Collectively, the most damage inflicted and the biggest spoils acquired went to Imelda’s relations—her various Romualdez brothers and sisters, and one cousin’s husband, Herminio Disini, who reputedly got one of the largest kickbacks in history with a “commission” ranging from $17 million - $30 million from the awarding of the Bataan СКАЧАТЬ