WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.680 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are wrestling 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:07.400 with a figure who is, well, massive is probably 00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:09.480 the only word that really fits. Massive in influence, 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:12.539 massive in ambition, and massive in the sheer 00:00:12.539 --> 00:00:15.240 scale of the controversy he left behind. We're 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:17.440 talking, of course, about Ferdinand Marcos. The 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:19.859 man who ruled the Philippines for two decades. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:22.679 And looking at the stack of sources we have in 00:00:22.679 --> 00:00:24.600 front of us today, I mean, we've got biographical 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:27.500 records, World Bank economic data, Amnesty International 00:00:27.500 --> 00:00:30.379 reports, legal documents on ill -gotten wealth. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:32.859 It feels like we're looking at two completely 00:00:32.859 --> 00:00:34.600 different people. That is the central tension 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:36.880 of his life, isn't it? On one side, you have 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:39.579 the Malikas narrative, the strongman. the brilliant 00:00:39.579 --> 00:00:42.560 legal mind, the bar top notcher, the decorated 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:45.079 war hero. And on the other side, the dictator, 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:47.520 the kleptocrat, the human rights violator, the 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:50.240 man who, you know, arguably plunged a nation 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:53.310 into chaos. And that's our mission for this deep 00:00:53.310 --> 00:00:55.770 dive. We aren't just here to recite dates or 00:00:55.770 --> 00:00:59.509 give a dry history lesson. We want to move past 00:00:59.509 --> 00:01:02.929 the simple labels of hero or tyrant. We want 00:01:02.929 --> 00:01:05.069 to actually understand the mechanics of his rise. 00:01:05.469 --> 00:01:08.250 How did he structure a 20 -year rule? How did 00:01:08.250 --> 00:01:11.250 he legally and psychologically justify it? And 00:01:11.250 --> 00:01:13.069 maybe most importantly, what is the specific 00:01:13.069 --> 00:01:17.069 tangible legacy he left behind? Exactly. We need 00:01:17.069 --> 00:01:19.379 to look at the machinery. Because, you know, 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:21.420 you don't stay in power for 20 years just by 00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:24.500 luck. You do it through a complex system of patronage, 00:01:24.500 --> 00:01:26.980 of military control and and some very clever 00:01:26.980 --> 00:01:29.500 economic manipulation. And the stories are just. 00:01:30.349 --> 00:01:32.469 They're wild. We've got assassinations. We have 00:01:32.469 --> 00:01:35.030 fake war medals. We've got crates of gold bullion 00:01:35.030 --> 00:01:37.629 literally being flown to Hawaii. We do. And we 00:01:37.629 --> 00:01:39.650 have to ground all of that in the geopolitical 00:01:39.650 --> 00:01:41.590 reality of the time. The Cold War was everything. 00:01:41.769 --> 00:01:43.769 Right. You have the American reliance on military 00:01:43.769 --> 00:01:46.549 bases and, of course, the economic fallout that, 00:01:46.569 --> 00:01:48.510 well, you could argue the Philippines is still 00:01:48.510 --> 00:01:50.909 paying for today. So let's unpack this. Let's 00:01:50.909 --> 00:01:52.870 start at the very beginning, the origin story. 00:01:53.469 --> 00:01:55.969 Because it seems the legend of Ferdinand Marcos 00:01:55.969 --> 00:01:59.450 started way, way before he ever set foot in the 00:01:59.450 --> 00:02:01.709 presidential palace. Oh, absolutely. He was born 00:02:01.709 --> 00:02:04.689 in 1917 in Ilcos Norte, which is a province in 00:02:04.689 --> 00:02:07.329 the northern Philippines. His father, Mariano 00:02:07.329 --> 00:02:10.650 Marcos, was a lawyer and a politician. And his 00:02:10.650 --> 00:02:13.030 mother was a schoolteacher. And right from the 00:02:13.030 --> 00:02:17.129 get -go, Ferdinand was marketed as a prodigy. 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:19.240 And our sources seem to back that up, right? 00:02:19.300 --> 00:02:21.580 This wasn't just, you know, proud parents bragging. 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:24.000 He was actually academically dominant. He was. 00:02:24.080 --> 00:02:25.580 He went to the University of the Philippines 00:02:25.580 --> 00:02:28.020 College of Law, the premier law school in the 00:02:28.020 --> 00:02:30.340 country. And he wasn't just a bookworm. Yeah. 00:02:30.439 --> 00:02:32.319 He was on the swimming team, the boxing team, 00:02:32.400 --> 00:02:34.500 the wrestling team. He was a champion debater. 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:37.479 And then when he took the bar examinations in 00:02:37.479 --> 00:02:40.539 1939, he didn't just pass, he topped it. With 00:02:40.539 --> 00:02:45.180 that insane score. A score of 92 .35%. 92 .35%. 00:02:45.180 --> 00:02:47.580 Just to give you listening some context, that 00:02:47.580 --> 00:02:50.180 is an incredibly, almost unbelievably high score. 00:02:50.419 --> 00:02:53.139 It was so high that people were actually skeptical. 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:55.500 There were whispers that maybe he cheated because 00:02:55.500 --> 00:02:58.099 the score was, you know, practically perfect. 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:00.259 So what happened? They called him in for an oral 00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:02.680 re -examination. And he proved it. He knew his 00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:06.599 stuff inside and out. But here is where the story 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:09.259 takes a very dark turn. Because right as this 00:03:09.259 --> 00:03:12.400 legal legend is being born, we get what you might 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.520 call the first crime. This is the Nelundesan 00:03:15.520 --> 00:03:17.620 affair. I mean, this part of the story reads 00:03:17.620 --> 00:03:20.199 like a noir movie script. It really does. So 00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:22.939 Julio Nelundesan was a political rival of Ferdinand's 00:03:22.939 --> 00:03:27.300 father, Mariano. In 1935, Nelundesan defeated 00:03:27.300 --> 00:03:29.259 Mariano for a seat in the National Assembly. 00:03:29.740 --> 00:03:32.319 It was a bitter, deeply humiliating loss for 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:35.199 the Marcos family. And then on September 21st, 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:37.620 1935, essentially the day after he won the election, 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:39.919 Lindeson was at his home. He was brushing his 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:41.800 teeth or washing up near a window and he was 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:43.960 shot. Just through the window. A single rifle 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:46.240 shot. Killed him instantly. Wow. And the finger 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:48.139 pointed at the Marcos family almost immediately. 00:03:48.699 --> 00:03:51.819 Specifically Ferdinand. His father. and his uncles. 00:03:52.099 --> 00:03:54.780 The theory was, you know, a family conspiracy 00:03:54.780 --> 00:03:57.560 to avenge the political loss. And you have to 00:03:57.560 --> 00:04:00.099 remember, Ferdinand was a national rifle champion 00:04:00.099 --> 00:04:03.800 at UP. So he knew his way around a gun. He knew 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:06.020 his way around a gun. He was accused, tried, 00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:09.639 and quoted. He was actually convicted, sentenced 00:04:09.639 --> 00:04:12.520 to 10 to 17 years in prison. So hold on a second. 00:04:12.860 --> 00:04:15.219 The future president of the Philippines is sitting 00:04:15.219 --> 00:04:17.480 in a jail cell convicted of murder. For most 00:04:17.480 --> 00:04:19.680 people, that's the end of any political career. 00:04:20.120 --> 00:04:22.420 How on earth does he get out of that? This is 00:04:22.420 --> 00:04:26.060 the aha moment of his early life. This defines 00:04:26.060 --> 00:04:28.939 the Marcos playbook. While he was in jail, he 00:04:28.939 --> 00:04:30.980 didn't just sit there. He studied. He wrote his 00:04:30.980 --> 00:04:33.399 own appeal. And then he requested to argue his 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:35.579 own case before the Supreme Court. As a convicted 00:04:35.579 --> 00:04:38.500 murderer, that is incredibly bold. It is. And 00:04:38.500 --> 00:04:40.339 it worked. The justice who penned the decision 00:04:40.339 --> 00:04:43.420 was Justice Jose P. Laurel. Now, interestingly, 00:04:43.699 --> 00:04:45.959 Laurel himself had a, shall we say, a similar 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:47.959 history of violence and acquittal in his youth. 00:04:48.100 --> 00:04:50.439 You're kidding. No. And Laurel overturned the 00:04:50.439 --> 00:04:53.199 conviction. Marcos was acquitted. So this just 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:56.360 cemented the narrative. marcos is a genius he's 00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:59.040 untouchable he can get out of the tightest spots 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.699 imaginable using his brain and his mastery of 00:05:01.699 --> 00:05:05.560 the law exactly it created this aura of invincibility 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:08.480 it sends a message right i can commit the act 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:10.480 and i can legally maneuver my way out of the 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:13.600 consequence but if the legal genius was one pillar 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:16.649 of his myth The other was the war hero. Right. 00:05:16.730 --> 00:05:19.230 This is a huge part of the branding. Marcos claimed 00:05:19.230 --> 00:05:21.829 to be the most decorated war hero in the Philippines. 00:05:22.009 --> 00:05:25.209 We're talking about, what, 27 medals? 27 medals, 00:05:25.410 --> 00:05:27.889 the Distinguished Service Cross, even claims 00:05:27.889 --> 00:05:30.430 to the Medal of Honor. He said he led a guerrilla 00:05:30.430 --> 00:05:33.129 unit called Angmagamaharlika. The noble ones. 00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:35.129 The noble ones. He built his entire political 00:05:35.129 --> 00:05:38.110 brand on this idea, the soldier statesman. But 00:05:38.110 --> 00:05:40.310 when historians and, more importantly, the U 00:05:40.310 --> 00:05:42.149 .S. Army actually looked into the files later 00:05:42.149 --> 00:05:45.339 on, well. the picture just crumbled the sources 00:05:45.339 --> 00:05:47.560 here are pretty blunt i'm looking at u .s army 00:05:47.560 --> 00:05:49.800 documents that describe these claims as fraudulent 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:52.740 and absurd they found zero evidence that his 00:05:52.740 --> 00:05:55.680 supposed guerrilla unit the maharlika actually 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:58.540 fought the japanese in any significant way in 00:05:58.540 --> 00:06:00.920 fact some records suggested they were more involved 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:04.480 in uh black market activities that were actually 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:07.540 detrimental to the real resistance. And the medals. 00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:09.579 The medals are the kicker. Many of them were 00:06:09.579 --> 00:06:12.980 awarded in 1962. 1962? Wait a minute, the war 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:16.600 ended in 1945. Exactly. Nearly two decades later, 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:18.779 awarded just in time for his Senate campaign, 00:06:19.079 --> 00:06:21.680 he was retroactively building a legend to suit 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:23.800 a political purpose. He even started claiming 00:06:23.800 --> 00:06:26.819 genealogy, linking him to General Antonio Luna, 00:06:26.980 --> 00:06:30.199 a revolutionary hero, and a 16th century pirate 00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:33.459 named Limahong. So he's just crafting this epic 00:06:33.459 --> 00:06:36.899 destiny for himself. I'm the descendant of heroes, 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:39.300 the war hero, the legal genius. And it worked. 00:06:39.339 --> 00:06:40.939 It absolutely worked. He climbed the political 00:06:40.939 --> 00:06:42.779 ladder, House of Representatives, the Senate, 00:06:42.920 --> 00:06:45.019 Senate president. And finally, the presidency 00:06:45.019 --> 00:06:48.699 in 1965. He ran against the incumbent, Diosdado 00:06:48.699 --> 00:06:53.079 Macapagal, and won. He won. So 1965, Marcos is 00:06:53.079 --> 00:06:55.910 president. The slogan was... This nation can 00:06:55.910 --> 00:06:57.829 be great again. These were supposed to be the 00:06:57.829 --> 00:07:00.009 golden years. What did that look like on the 00:07:00.009 --> 00:07:02.550 ground initially? Well, initially it looked like 00:07:02.550 --> 00:07:05.370 construction. Massive, massive construction projects. 00:07:05.550 --> 00:07:07.990 This is what economists and historians now call 00:07:07.990 --> 00:07:11.129 his edifice complex. The edifice complex. He 00:07:11.129 --> 00:07:13.170 launched these huge infrastructure projects. 00:07:13.949 --> 00:07:16.910 Roads, schools, bridges, and of course the cultural 00:07:16.910 --> 00:07:19.410 center of the Philippines, the CCP. The CCP is 00:07:19.410 --> 00:07:21.470 iconic, but when you call it a complex, that 00:07:21.470 --> 00:07:23.350 implies something psychological is going on. 00:07:23.410 --> 00:07:26.079 Oh, for sure. It was about projecting an image 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:29.500 of progress, of modernity to the world. Look 00:07:29.500 --> 00:07:31.480 at these grand buildings. Look at how far the 00:07:31.480 --> 00:07:34.259 Philippines has come. And Melta Marcos, the first 00:07:34.259 --> 00:07:36.480 lady, was heavily involved in all of this. But 00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:38.079 the question you always have to ask with infrastructure 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:41.480 is who paid for it? And the analysis shows this 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:43.720 was all funded heavily by foreign loans. You 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:45.879 got it. Putting on a national credit card. So 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.480 it created a visual facade of prosperity, but 00:07:48.480 --> 00:07:51.100 it was sowing the seeds of a massive debt crisis 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:54.319 down the road. Precisely. And speaking of foreign 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:56.779 money, we absolutely have to talk about the Vietnam 00:07:56.779 --> 00:07:59.220 War. This is where the geopolitics really kicks 00:07:59.220 --> 00:08:01.220 in. I thought Marcos was against the Vietnam 00:08:01.220 --> 00:08:04.240 War, at least initially. Didn't he campaign on 00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:06.939 keeping the Philippines out of it? He did. He 00:08:06.939 --> 00:08:09.779 was publicly opposed to sending troops. But once 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.639 he was in office, the pressure from US President 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:16.240 Lyndon B. Johnson was just immense. The US needed 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:19.199 allies in Vietnam to make it look like an international 00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:22.439 coalition. not just an American war. So Marcos 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.060 did a flip -flop. A classic political flip -flop. 00:08:25.100 --> 00:08:27.939 He sent the FILCAG, the Philippine Civic Action 00:08:27.939 --> 00:08:30.199 Group. But they were non -combat, right? They 00:08:30.199 --> 00:08:32.139 were non -combat engineers, yes. So he could 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:34.460 technically claim they weren't fighting, but 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:36.899 they were there in the war zone. And the implication 00:08:36.899 --> 00:08:39.320 is crystal clear. This secured U .S. political 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:41.559 support and, more importantly, U .S. funding. 00:08:41.799 --> 00:08:43.820 Which he needed for those edifices. He needed 00:08:43.820 --> 00:08:46.080 it for everything. But while he's building theaters 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:49.029 in Manila, Something very dark is happening in 00:08:49.029 --> 00:08:51.850 the south of the country. The Jabada Massacre. 00:08:52.429 --> 00:08:54.549 This feels like a major turning point in the 00:08:54.549 --> 00:08:57.570 sources. It's a critical, critical turning point. 00:08:57.730 --> 00:09:01.029 In 1968, there was a secret plan called Operation 00:09:01.029 --> 00:09:05.629 Merdeka. The idea, allegedly, was to train a 00:09:05.629 --> 00:09:08.549 special commando unit of Muslim recruits, Moros, 00:09:08.629 --> 00:09:12.730 to go in and destabilize Sabah. Sabah, the territory 00:09:12.730 --> 00:09:14.730 in Malaysia that the Philippines had a territorial 00:09:14.730 --> 00:09:17.350 claim to. Correct. And these recruits were being 00:09:17.350 --> 00:09:19.529 trained on Corregidor Island, of all places. 00:09:19.529 --> 00:09:22.789 An historic fortress. The very one. But the mission 00:09:22.789 --> 00:09:24.889 went sideways. The recruits reportedly mutinied. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:27.659 Or they refused the mission. Some sources say 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:28.899 it's because they didn't want to fight their 00:09:28.899 --> 00:09:31.240 fellow Muslims in Malaysia. Others say it was 00:09:31.240 --> 00:09:33.340 because they just weren't being paid. So what 00:09:33.340 --> 00:09:35.480 did the military do? To cover it all up, they 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:38.139 executed them. They just mowed them down. Yes. 00:09:38.379 --> 00:09:41.000 But there was one survivor, a man named Jibin 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.000 Arula. He managed to swim away, clung to some 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:45.940 driftwood, and eventually he testified about 00:09:45.940 --> 00:09:48.230 what happened. And when that news broke? It was 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:50.909 an absolute explosion. It completely alienated 00:09:50.909 --> 00:09:52.789 the Muslim population from the Manila government, 00:09:52.990 --> 00:09:55.190 which they already saw as Christian dominated 00:09:55.190 --> 00:10:00.129 and, well, treacherous. This single event directly 00:10:00.129 --> 00:10:03.129 ignites the Moro insurgency and leads to the 00:10:03.129 --> 00:10:06.470 formation of the MNLF, the Moro National Liberation 00:10:06.470 --> 00:10:08.950 Front. So the war in Mindanao that has lasted 00:10:08.950 --> 00:10:12.210 for decades, you can trace a direct line right 00:10:12.210 --> 00:10:14.899 back to this cover up. Absolutely. Yeah. It shattered 00:10:14.899 --> 00:10:17.419 a trust that has arguably never been fully restored. 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:20.120 And as we move into a second term, that chaos, 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:22.600 that violence, it starts to spread to the capital 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:25.320 as well. Which brings us to the 1969 election. 00:10:25.820 --> 00:10:28.100 Marcos becomes the first president in Philippine 00:10:28.100 --> 00:10:30.600 history to win a second term. But the sources 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:33.340 we have describe this as the dirtiest, most violent 00:10:33.340 --> 00:10:35.860 and most corrupt campaign ever seen. They called 00:10:35.860 --> 00:10:38.460 it the campaign of the three G's. Guns, goons 00:10:38.460 --> 00:10:41.899 and gold. Guns, goons and gold. Catchy, but terrifying. 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:44.840 The spending was completely out of control. Marcos 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:47.039 reportedly spent so much money buying votes and 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:49.220 securing loyalty that he actually triggered a 00:10:49.220 --> 00:10:51.320 balance of payments crisis. Can you break that 00:10:51.320 --> 00:10:54.000 down for the listener? What exactly is a balance 00:10:54.000 --> 00:10:57.399 of payments crisis in this context? Sure. Basically, 00:10:57.460 --> 00:11:00.539 the country ran out of its foreign currency reserves 00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:03.080 because the government was spending far, far 00:11:03.080 --> 00:11:05.940 more than it was bringing in. To fix it, they 00:11:05.940 --> 00:11:08.539 had to devalue the currency, let the peso float. 00:11:08.759 --> 00:11:11.440 Which means the peso plummeted against the dollar. 00:11:11.620 --> 00:11:14.019 It plummeted. And when that happens, everything 00:11:14.019 --> 00:11:16.580 imported gets more expensive. Inflation just 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:19.279 soared. The golden years facade was cracking 00:11:19.279 --> 00:11:22.500 and fast. The average Filipino was suddenly much, 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:24.940 much poorer. And the people felt it. This is 00:11:24.940 --> 00:11:26.779 where we see the first quarter storm erupting 00:11:26.779 --> 00:11:30.759 in 1970. Yes. Massive student protests. And the 00:11:30.759 --> 00:11:33.340 imagery is so vivid. During a State of the Nation 00:11:33.340 --> 00:11:36.679 address, students literally threw a coffin and 00:11:36.679 --> 00:11:39.019 a stuffed alligator at Marcos as he was entering 00:11:39.019 --> 00:11:41.740 Congress. A stuffed alligator? That's very specific. 00:11:42.039 --> 00:11:44.200 In Philican culture, the buaya, or crocodile, 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:46.539 the alligator, is the ultimate symbol of greed. 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:48.940 It's the symbol of the corrupt politician. And 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:51.399 the state's response to these protests? Violence. 00:11:51.940 --> 00:11:55.840 The police dispersed the protests brutally. And 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:58.049 this had a radicalizing effect. Students who 00:11:58.049 --> 00:12:00.590 are, you know, moderates, just asking for reform. 00:12:00.870 --> 00:12:02.750 They started looking at the radicals and the 00:12:02.750 --> 00:12:04.809 communist movement and thinking, maybe they're 00:12:04.809 --> 00:12:07.549 right. Maybe the system can't be fixed. So violence 00:12:07.549 --> 00:12:09.929 begets more violence. And then we get the Plaza 00:12:09.929 --> 00:12:13.250 Miranda bombing in 1971. This is one of the biggest 00:12:13.250 --> 00:12:15.789 and darkest mysteries in Philippine political 00:12:15.789 --> 00:12:18.909 history. It was a liberal party rally, the main 00:12:18.909 --> 00:12:21.509 opposition party. Grenades were thrown onto the 00:12:21.509 --> 00:12:24.769 stage. Nine people died. Nearly 100 were injured. 00:12:25.129 --> 00:12:27.110 The opposition leadership was almost entirely 00:12:27.110 --> 00:12:29.750 wiped out in one night. And naturally, Marcos 00:12:29.750 --> 00:12:32.269 blamed the communists. Immediately. He blamed 00:12:32.269 --> 00:12:34.830 the CPP, NPA, the Communist Party of the Philippines, 00:12:35.009 --> 00:12:38.009 Sioux People's Army. But his critics and even 00:12:38.009 --> 00:12:40.190 later evidence from, you know, CIA, moles and 00:12:40.190 --> 00:12:42.250 other sources suggested that Marcos might have 00:12:42.250 --> 00:12:44.120 been involved. Or at the very least, he allowed 00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:46.080 it to happen to create a pretext for cracking 00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:49.000 down. A false flag operation. Create a crisis 00:12:49.000 --> 00:12:51.299 to justify your solution. It's a very strong 00:12:51.299 --> 00:12:53.720 possibility that historians debate to this day. 00:12:53.860 --> 00:12:56.740 But regardless of who actually threw the grenade, 00:12:57.220 --> 00:13:00.940 Marcos used it. He immediately suspended the 00:13:00.940 --> 00:13:04.139 writ of habeas corpus. Which means? Habeas corpus 00:13:04.139 --> 00:13:06.379 is the legal protection that prevents the government 00:13:06.379 --> 00:13:08.720 from just arresting you without a warrant and 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:11.539 holding you indefinitely. So by suspending it, 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:14.120 he could arrest anyone he wanted. It blurred 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:16.679 the line between being a legal protester and 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:18.860 being an armed rebel. It feels like the walls 00:13:18.860 --> 00:13:22.299 are just closing in. Then come the 1972 Manila 00:13:22.299 --> 00:13:25.220 bombings, department stores, water pipes blowing 00:13:25.220 --> 00:13:27.799 up. Right, a series of strange, mysterious explosions. 00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:30.419 No one was really getting hurt, but it created 00:13:30.419 --> 00:13:32.960 this atmosphere of terror and chaos in the capital. 00:13:33.299 --> 00:13:36.899 The government blamed urban guerrillas. But again, 00:13:36.980 --> 00:13:38.820 the only suspects who were ever caught were linked 00:13:38.820 --> 00:13:41.279 to the Philippine constabulary, the police force. 00:13:41.399 --> 00:13:43.480 It looked very much like stage setting. Setting 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:46.500 the stage for the big move. September 1972. Russia 00:13:46.500 --> 00:13:50.039 law. Proclamation 1081. Signed on September 21st, 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:52.679 but announced to the public on September 23rd. 00:13:52.740 --> 00:13:55.639 The official rationale was to save the republic 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:58.460 from the communists on the left and the oligarchs 00:13:58.460 --> 00:14:00.679 on the right. He promised to reform society. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:04.539 And the immediate action was... Absolute silence. 00:14:04.879 --> 00:14:07.639 Complete silence. All media outlets were shut 00:14:07.639 --> 00:14:10.940 down. Congress was padlocked. Opposition leaders 00:14:10.940 --> 00:14:13.799 like Ninoy Aquino and Jose Diokno were arrested 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:15.659 in the middle of the night. It was a total, complete 00:14:15.659 --> 00:14:18.600 takeover of the state. But Marcos was very savvy 00:14:18.600 --> 00:14:20.559 with his branding. He didn't just say, I'm the 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:25.039 dictator now. He called it the new society. This 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:27.720 is what's so fascinating. He called it constitutional 00:14:27.720 --> 00:14:30.940 authoritarianism. He wanted to reshape the Filipino 00:14:30.940 --> 00:14:33.100 psyche, not just the government. There were songs, 00:14:33.220 --> 00:14:35.559 slogans, propaganda everywhere. His daughter 00:14:35.559 --> 00:14:38.559 Amy led the Kabatong Barangay, a national youth 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:40.379 group. It sounds a lot like social engineering. 00:14:40.740 --> 00:14:42.899 It was exactly that. The goal was to discipline 00:14:42.899 --> 00:14:45.480 the populace while centralizing all power in 00:14:45.480 --> 00:14:48.039 one man. And to do that, you need an apparatus 00:14:48.039 --> 00:14:51.470 of control. Enter the Rolex 12. Right. A circle 00:14:51.470 --> 00:14:54.190 of 12 of his most loyal military and civilian 00:14:54.190 --> 00:14:56.950 advisors, people like Juan Ponce and Ryle, Fidel 00:14:56.950 --> 00:15:00.090 Ramos, Fabian Varar, they were the muscle. And 00:15:00.090 --> 00:15:02.629 the military itself expanded from around 65 ,000 00:15:02.629 --> 00:15:07.110 troops to over 270 ,000. That is a massive, massive 00:15:07.110 --> 00:15:09.090 buildup. And what about the U .S.? They were 00:15:09.090 --> 00:15:11.169 just watching this happen. The U .S. was in a 00:15:11.169 --> 00:15:12.570 bind, or at least that's how they framed it. 00:15:12.649 --> 00:15:15.370 The Carter administration later on had serious 00:15:15.370 --> 00:15:19.120 concerns about human rights. The Cold War was 00:15:19.120 --> 00:15:22.000 the absolute priority. The bases. The bases. 00:15:22.519 --> 00:15:25.299 Subic Naval Base and Clark Air Base were just 00:15:25.299 --> 00:15:27.480 too important for projecting American power in 00:15:27.480 --> 00:15:30.919 Asia. So despite the documented abuses, billions 00:15:30.919 --> 00:15:33.720 in military and economic aid just kept flowing 00:15:33.720 --> 00:15:35.679 to Marcos. And let's talk about those abuses, 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:37.860 because the new society wasn't just parades and 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:39.379 youth groups. The human rights numbers in these 00:15:39.379 --> 00:15:41.899 reports are just staggering. They are. Amnesty 00:15:41.899 --> 00:15:44.419 International and other human rights groups estimate 00:15:44.419 --> 00:15:47.480 that around 70 ,000 people were imprisoned, 34 00:15:47.480 --> 00:15:50.200 ,000 were tortured, and over 3 ,200 were killed. 00:15:50.340 --> 00:15:52.299 And the specifics in the reports are they're 00:15:52.299 --> 00:15:54.519 gruesome. We see terms like safe houses and the 00:15:54.519 --> 00:15:57.279 San Juanico Bridge. The San Juanico Bridge refers 00:15:57.279 --> 00:16:00.379 to a specific torture method. The actual bridge 00:16:00.379 --> 00:16:03.059 is a famous landmark. But in the torture room, 00:16:03.100 --> 00:16:05.279 it meant a victim was suspended between two beds 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:07.340 with their head on one and their feet on the 00:16:07.340 --> 00:16:10.080 other. If they sagged or fell, they were beaten. 00:16:10.240 --> 00:16:14.299 And there was sexual abuse, mutilation. Electrocution, 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:17.480 waterboarding, and a term that became terrifyingly 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:21.220 common in the Philippines, salvaging. Which ironically 00:16:21.220 --> 00:16:24.659 doesn't mean saving something. No. In this context, 00:16:24.899 --> 00:16:28.059 salvaging meant summary execution. Yeah. Taking 00:16:28.059 --> 00:16:30.389 a suspect. killing them, and then dumping the 00:16:30.389 --> 00:16:32.809 body in a field or a river to spread terror among 00:16:32.809 --> 00:16:35.029 the population. We have names in these files, 00:16:35.110 --> 00:16:37.490 too. People like Archimedes Trejano. A student. 00:16:37.690 --> 00:16:39.909 He made the mistake of asking a question at an 00:16:39.909 --> 00:16:42.549 open forum about Amy Marcos' appointment to a 00:16:42.549 --> 00:16:44.750 government post. He questioned her qualifications. 00:16:45.190 --> 00:16:47.870 He was dragged out by her security, beaten severely, 00:16:48.129 --> 00:16:50.929 and his body was found a few days later. Then 00:16:50.929 --> 00:16:53.789 there's Liliosa Hilau, Edgar Jobson. These were 00:16:53.789 --> 00:16:55.789 young, bright people, the future of the country, 00:16:55.909 --> 00:16:58.149 who were silenced. And it wasn't just individuals. 00:16:58.289 --> 00:17:01.769 There were massacres. The Escalante Massacre, 00:17:01.870 --> 00:17:05.410 the Malisbong Massacre, where, what, 1 ,500 Moros 00:17:05.410 --> 00:17:07.609 were killed inside a mosque. It was a period 00:17:07.609 --> 00:17:10.910 of intense, systematic brutality, all hidden 00:17:10.910 --> 00:17:13.849 behind the propaganda of the new society. But 00:17:13.849 --> 00:17:15.569 while this political repression was happening, 00:17:15.710 --> 00:17:18.890 there was a parallel project, an economic looting 00:17:18.890 --> 00:17:22.109 of the country. This is Section 5 of our deep 00:17:22.109 --> 00:17:25.569 dive, The Economics of Plunder. This is where 00:17:25.569 --> 00:17:28.849 the term kleptocracy rule by thieves really gets 00:17:28.849 --> 00:17:31.250 defined. The official estimates of the stolen 00:17:31.250 --> 00:17:34.390 wealth range from 5 billion to as high as 10 00:17:34.390 --> 00:17:37.049 billion U .S. dollars. Just to put that in context 00:17:37.049 --> 00:17:39.369 for everyone listening, what was his official 00:17:39.369 --> 00:17:43.250 salary as president? It was about $13 ,500 a 00:17:43.250 --> 00:17:46.680 year. So the math just doesn't work. Not even 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:48.880 close. How do you even steal $10 billion? You 00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:50.359 can't just take that out of the National Register. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.359 No, you have to institutionalize the theft. This 00:17:53.359 --> 00:17:55.880 is what we call crony capitalism. It's not just 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.619 simple corruption. It's a systemic takeover of 00:17:58.619 --> 00:18:01.019 the entire economy. How did it work? They did 00:18:01.019 --> 00:18:03.380 it in a few ways. They diverted foreign aid. 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:05.720 They took massive kickbacks from all those public 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:08.319 works projects. But the biggest and most destructive 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:11.319 mechanism was creating monopolies. Give us an 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:14.380 example. The coconut levy fund scam is a big 00:18:14.380 --> 00:18:16.720 one mentioned in the sources. This is just heartbreaking 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:19.319 because it targeted the poorest of the poor. 00:18:19.579 --> 00:18:22.720 The government imposed a taxa levy on all coconut 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:25.319 farmers. They promised this money would be used 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:27.279 to develop the industry and help the farmers. 00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:30.400 Sounds good in theory. In practice, that money, 00:18:30.500 --> 00:18:33.140 billions and billions of pesos, was collected 00:18:33.140 --> 00:18:36.000 and placed into a single bank. That bank was 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:38.690 then bought by Marcus's cronies. like Dan and 00:18:38.690 --> 00:18:41.509 Kawanko, using the farmers' own money. Unbelievable. 00:18:41.970 --> 00:18:44.210 They then used that bank to buy up all the coconut 00:18:44.210 --> 00:18:47.069 mills and trading companies. So the cronies ended 00:18:47.069 --> 00:18:49.390 up owning the entire industry from top to bottom, 00:18:49.470 --> 00:18:51.630 bought with the farmers' own cash, while the 00:18:51.630 --> 00:18:54.140 farmers themselves got nothing. It completely 00:18:54.140 --> 00:18:56.539 decimated their livelihoods. And all that profit, 00:18:56.599 --> 00:18:58.539 where did it go? It didn't stay in the Philippines. 00:18:58.900 --> 00:19:01.819 No. It went into secret Swiss bank accounts. 00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:04.519 It went into shell corporations that were fronted 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:06.779 by people like Jose El Campos. And it went into 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:09.160 real estate. They bought landmark buildings in 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:12.099 New York, the Crown Building, 40 Wall Street, 00:19:12.380 --> 00:19:16.380 mansions in London, Rome, Hawaii. And the Guinness 00:19:16.380 --> 00:19:18.539 Book of World Records actually cited them for 00:19:18.539 --> 00:19:21.460 the largest ever theft from a government. That's 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:24.119 a wild record to hold. It is. But the domestic 00:19:24.119 --> 00:19:27.220 impact was the real tragedy. By the early 80s, 00:19:27.220 --> 00:19:29.819 the economy had completely crashed. Foreign debt 00:19:29.819 --> 00:19:33.799 went from around $360 million in 1962 to over 00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:37.819 $26 billion by 1985. And poverty. Poverty skyrocketed. 00:19:37.819 --> 00:19:40.339 It went from 41 % of the population to nearly 00:19:40.339 --> 00:19:43.940 59%. Real wages just plummeted. Economists have 00:19:43.940 --> 00:19:46.019 a term for this, don't they? Immiserizing growth. 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:49.019 That's it, exactly. The GDP might have ticked 00:19:49.019 --> 00:19:50.660 up on paper for a while because of all the debt 00:19:50.660 --> 00:19:52.759 -fueled spending, but the people on the ground 00:19:52.759 --> 00:19:54.859 actually got poorer and poorer. So you have a 00:19:54.859 --> 00:19:57.480 starving population, a brutal military, and a 00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:00.200 leader who is, by all accounts, losing his physical 00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:02.480 grip. We're moving into the decline and fall. 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:05.839 By 1981, Marcos officially lifted martial law. 00:20:06.430 --> 00:20:08.890 But it was a complete sham. He kept all his decree 00:20:08.890 --> 00:20:11.569 -making powers. It was just a PR move to plunder 00:20:11.569 --> 00:20:13.690 the pope who was visiting and to appease the 00:20:13.690 --> 00:20:15.849 U .S. But the real turning point, the moment 00:20:15.849 --> 00:20:19.089 everything truly changed, was August 21, 1983. 00:20:19.809 --> 00:20:23.349 The assassination of Ninoy Aquino. Benigno Ninoy 00:20:23.349 --> 00:20:25.829 Aquino was the face of the opposition. He'd been 00:20:25.829 --> 00:20:28.930 in exile in the U .S. He decided to return, knowing 00:20:28.930 --> 00:20:32.190 full well how dangerous it was. He famously said, 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:35.119 The Filipino is worth dying for. He lands at 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:37.380 the Manila International Airport. He steps off 00:20:37.380 --> 00:20:39.759 the plane. And before his feet even touch the 00:20:39.759 --> 00:20:42.200 tarmac. Gunshots. He was killed right there on 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:44.519 the airport stairs, surrounded by soldiers who 00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:46.380 were supposed to be protecting him. The government 00:20:46.380 --> 00:20:48.640 immediately blamed a lone gunman, a supposed 00:20:48.640 --> 00:20:51.859 communist hitman named Rolando Gallman. But nobody 00:20:51.859 --> 00:20:53.980 bought it. The security was just too tight. It 00:20:53.980 --> 00:20:57.319 sparked this massive nationwide outrage. And 00:20:57.319 --> 00:20:59.279 not just from the usual student activists this 00:20:59.279 --> 00:21:01.500 time, but from the middle class. The business 00:21:01.500 --> 00:21:04.220 elites. This is where we see the confetti revolution 00:21:04.220 --> 00:21:07.099 in the business district of Makati. Yellow confetti 00:21:07.099 --> 00:21:09.500 raining down from all the office buildings. Capital 00:21:09.500 --> 00:21:12.279 flight accelerated. The economy went into a complete 00:21:12.279 --> 00:21:16.539 tailspin. And Marcos himself was physically deteriorating. 00:21:16.829 --> 00:21:19.529 The lupus. He had lupus. His kidneys were failing. 00:21:19.750 --> 00:21:22.210 He was secretly undergoing transplants. There 00:21:22.210 --> 00:21:25.230 was a power vacuum and Imelda was increasingly 00:21:25.230 --> 00:21:28.089 stepping in to fill it. So under immense pressure 00:21:28.089 --> 00:21:30.529 from the U .S. to prove he still had a legitimate 00:21:30.529 --> 00:21:33.789 mandate, Marcos calls a snap election in early 00:21:33.789 --> 00:21:36.849 1986. He thought he could rig it one more time 00:21:36.849 --> 00:21:40.269 and put the issue to rest. He ran against Corazon 00:21:40.269 --> 00:21:43.650 Aquino. Ninoy's widow. And the fraud was just 00:21:43.650 --> 00:21:46.369 blatant. But there's this incredible, almost 00:21:46.369 --> 00:21:48.349 cinematic moment that happens in the tabulation 00:21:48.349 --> 00:21:50.529 center. The Kamala computer technicians, they 00:21:50.529 --> 00:21:52.609 were sitting there and putting the votes. And 00:21:52.609 --> 00:21:54.490 they saw the numbers being manipulated in real 00:21:54.490 --> 00:21:56.869 -time votes for Aquino being shaved off, votes 00:21:56.869 --> 00:21:59.470 for Marcos being patted. And about 30 of them 00:21:59.470 --> 00:22:01.349 just stood up and walked out in protest. And 00:22:01.349 --> 00:22:03.150 it was televised? It was televised. It showed 00:22:03.150 --> 00:22:05.029 the entire world that the election was a sham. 00:22:05.210 --> 00:22:07.809 So both sides declared victory. It was a standoff. 00:22:07.930 --> 00:22:10.619 And then the military finally breaks. Defense 00:22:10.619 --> 00:22:12.940 Minister Enrail and General Ramos, two of his 00:22:12.940 --> 00:22:16.079 original Rolex 12, they defected. They holed 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:17.759 up in military camps along the main highway, 00:22:17.900 --> 00:22:20.779 EDSA, and then Cardinal Sin, the Archbishop of 00:22:20.779 --> 00:22:22.900 Manila, went on the radio and called on the people 00:22:22.900 --> 00:22:25.819 to go out and protect them. This is it. EDSA, 00:22:26.019 --> 00:22:29.519 the people power revolution. Millions of people 00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:32.480 pouring onto the highway. Nuns kneeling in front 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:35.079 of tanks, holding rosaries. Marcos ordered the 00:22:35.079 --> 00:22:37.299 military to disperse the crowds. He was on the 00:22:37.299 --> 00:22:39.799 phone with General Ver, who was itching to open 00:22:39.799 --> 00:22:42.099 fire. But ultimately, the troops on the ground 00:22:42.099 --> 00:22:44.559 refused to shoot their own people. It was over. 00:22:44.740 --> 00:22:47.319 So the endgame. Marcos gets on the phone with 00:22:47.319 --> 00:22:49.759 Washington. He talks to U .S. Senator Paul Laxalt. 00:22:50.009 --> 00:22:52.869 He asks for advice. And Laxalt gives that famous, 00:22:53.069 --> 00:22:57.329 chillingly simple reply. Cut and cut cleanly. 00:22:57.390 --> 00:23:00.049 Meaning, it's time to go. The U .S. Air Force 00:23:00.049 --> 00:23:02.609 flew the family out of the palace, first to Guam, 00:23:02.609 --> 00:23:04.769 then to Hawaii. And they didn't exactly pack 00:23:04.769 --> 00:23:06.609 light. The inventory of what they brought with 00:23:06.609 --> 00:23:08.910 them is just mind -blowing. It's the physical 00:23:08.910 --> 00:23:11.490 evidence of the plunder. They arrived with 22 00:23:11.490 --> 00:23:14.670 crates of cash. We're talking over $700 million 00:23:14.670 --> 00:23:18.960 in value. Gold bullion. Exquisite jewelry. There 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:21.400 was even a solid gold statue covered in diamonds. 00:23:21.619 --> 00:23:24.119 And back in Manila, the protesters stormed the 00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:26.660 Malacanang Palace. And what did they find? The 00:23:26.660 --> 00:23:30.319 shoes. Imelda's 2 ,700 pairs of shoes. It became 00:23:30.319 --> 00:23:33.500 the global symbol of their obscene excess. While 00:23:33.500 --> 00:23:35.599 the country was in deep poverty, she had a department 00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:38.579 store in her closet. So Marcos is in exile in 00:23:38.579 --> 00:23:40.859 Hawaii. Does he just accept defeat and live out 00:23:40.859 --> 00:23:43.019 his days? Not at all. He immediately started 00:23:43.019 --> 00:23:45.339 plotting to return. There are the Marcos tapes 00:23:45.339 --> 00:23:47.440 recordings of him talking about buying tanks 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:49.660 and missiles for an invasion to retake the Philippines. 00:23:49.920 --> 00:23:52.240 But his health finally caught up with him. He 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:55.279 died in 1989 of organ failure. But the story 00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:57.440 doesn't end with his death, does it? No, not 00:23:57.440 --> 00:23:59.880 by a long shot. His body was brought back but 00:23:59.880 --> 00:24:02.480 kept in a refrigerated crypt in Ilocos for decades. 00:24:02.619 --> 00:24:04.940 The family refused to bury him unless it was 00:24:04.940 --> 00:24:08.150 a hero's burial. And in 2016, President Duterte 00:24:08.150 --> 00:24:10.910 allowed it. He was buried at the living nun Namuga 00:24:10.910 --> 00:24:13.930 Bayani, the hero's cemetery. Which sparked massive 00:24:13.930 --> 00:24:17.329 protests all over again. It was seen as a blatant 00:24:17.329 --> 00:24:20.839 attempt to rewrite history. to legitimize the 00:24:20.839 --> 00:24:22.680 dictatorship. And speaking of rewriting history, 00:24:22.900 --> 00:24:25.200 the family came back. They returned to politics 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.740 despite the theft, despite the human rights abuses. 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:29.420 And the Swiss government eventually returned 00:24:29.420 --> 00:24:33.640 about $684 million of the stolen funds. Class 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:35.779 action lawsuits in the U .S. awarded billions 00:24:35.779 --> 00:24:38.259 to the human rights victims, though collecting 00:24:38.259 --> 00:24:41.440 it has been incredibly difficult. But the family 00:24:41.440 --> 00:24:44.609 itself, they maintained their innocence. They 00:24:44.609 --> 00:24:47.309 call the documented abuses political accusations. 00:24:47.750 --> 00:24:51.509 And then in 2022, his son, Ferdinand Bongbong 00:24:51.509 --> 00:24:54.049 Marcos Jr., was elected president of the Philippines. 00:24:54.410 --> 00:24:57.230 It's a remarkable, some would say shocking, political 00:24:57.230 --> 00:25:00.089 resurrection. It speaks to the power of branding, 00:25:00.190 --> 00:25:03.329 of social media, of historical revisionism, and 00:25:03.329 --> 00:25:06.230 perhaps the failure of the post -EDSA administrations 00:25:06.230 --> 00:25:08.049 to deliver on the promises of the revolution 00:25:08.049 --> 00:25:11.220 for everyone. Many people look back at the myth 00:25:11.220 --> 00:25:13.000 of the golden years with a kind of nostalgia, 00:25:13.339 --> 00:25:15.460 forgetting the mechanics of the plunder we just 00:25:15.460 --> 00:25:18.299 discussed. So what does this all mean? We have 00:25:18.299 --> 00:25:22.039 a new society that became a kleptocracy, a supposed 00:25:22.039 --> 00:25:25.519 war hero who faked his medals, a dictator who 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:27.599 was ousted by the people in a peaceful revolution, 00:25:27.960 --> 00:25:30.849 yet his family is back in power. It brings us 00:25:30.849 --> 00:25:33.190 right back to that Marcos paradox. Yeah. He had 00:25:33.190 --> 00:25:35.890 the vision and the intellect to build a strong 00:25:35.890 --> 00:25:38.109 nation. I mean, he really did know the law and 00:25:38.109 --> 00:25:40.750 the system better than anyone. But he used all 00:25:40.750 --> 00:25:43.410 those tools to build a personal empire instead. 00:25:43.730 --> 00:25:47.049 He centralized power to reform society. But that 00:25:47.049 --> 00:25:49.390 very centralization just made it easier to steal 00:25:49.390 --> 00:25:51.390 from it. That's a very heavy legacy to unpack. 00:25:51.769 --> 00:25:54.549 It is. And here's a provocative thought to leave 00:25:54.549 --> 00:25:56.670 you with, to leave everyone listening with. We 00:25:56.670 --> 00:25:58.170 often think of history as something settled. 00:25:58.619 --> 00:26:00.680 The dictator falls, democracy wins, the end. 00:26:01.019 --> 00:26:03.880 But the Marcos story shows us that history is 00:26:03.880 --> 00:26:06.500 fluid. It can be revised. It can be rebranded. 00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:09.460 So the question is, if a figure with such a heavily 00:26:09.460 --> 00:26:12.079 documented record of theft and abuse can see 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:14.019 his family return to the very center of power, 00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:16.940 what does that say about the durability of truth 00:26:16.940 --> 00:26:19.460 itself in our modern age? That is something to 00:26:19.460 --> 00:26:22.259 mull over. Thank you for listening to this deep 00:26:22.259 --> 00:26:24.759 dive into the machinery of the Marcos regime. 00:26:25.059 --> 00:26:27.440 Always a pleasure to explore the archives with 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:29.680 you. Keep asking questions. We'll see you in 00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:30.619 the next deep dive.