RECYCLABLOG 11: 1974 Master ShowMa’am: Walang Matutulog!

In 1974, the Martial Law regime went on an international blietzkrieg PR campaign selling the Philippines as a world-class venue. Securing the 1974 Miss Universe pageant for Manila, Madame Imelda made sure the visitors would be impressed so she had the Folk Arts Theater built in a record 90 days (talagang walang tulugan!); finished just in time for the pageant’s staging! And as the original mastershowperson, Imelda staged that magnificent “sidelight” for all the contestants, organizers and tourists to marvel at: the “Kasaysayan ng Lahi” parade. The parade, snaked across the CCP complex grounds presenting the history of the Philippines in floats and “live” dioramas. The power couple, FL & FM, watched from a constructed grandstand filled with foreign diplomats and the emerging coterie of “Blue Ladies”. One of the highlights of the parade was the Lapu-Lapu “diorama” which featured a g-string clad Lapu-Lapu marching together with his fellow combatants. It drew the loudest cheers, mainly because the person who played Lapu-Lapu was no less than the “it” guy of that year, Mr. Body Beautiful, Vic Vargas. Of course, decades later,Mr. Vargas outed himself just before he passed away.. I guess he would have preferred the title which Vivian Velez held. (Another highlight of the parade was a fly-by made by a squadron of then modern Philippine F-5 jet fighters known as “The Blue Diamonds” headed by one Colonel Arturo Sotelo. It is the same Col. Sotelo who,12 years later, during the second day of the EDSA revolution, would lead a fleet of Huey helicopters to Camp Crame and defect to the Ramos side. Sotelo then ordered two of his Hueys to Malacanang to strafe the palace grounds… Should’ve done it during the parade and saved us from having to deal with all that martial law baggage. )

Source: http://indiosbravos.blog.com/2011/05/10/recyclablog-8-1974-master-showmaam-walang-matutulog/

RECYCLABLOG 10: Back to the Future

An acid test for Noranians. In the mid-seventies, Marcos crony Roberto Benedicto aired a television special that showed what the Philippines would be like in the approaching new decade: the ’80s. It was produced by another crony, Ed Finlan and hosted by his sometime screen partner and the one and only superstar, Nora Aunor. What was the name of the television special?
Give up?

Answer: “1980 Take Me There”

La Aunor, dressed in a gaudy futuristic costume of tin-foil and tights plus a cylindrical silver helmet, sang pop-songs and hosted the television special that featured a future Philippines reaping the fruits of the New Society: among others, a bullet-train-like railway system to the north and a bustling modern metropolis that looked like downtown Tokyo. Of course, this never happened..(our Northrail project funded by the Chinese is, as usual, embroiled in controversy care of Joe de Venecia, and Metro Manila, well, is somewhat modern and bustling but nowhere like Tokyo.). The special aired in Benedicto’s KBS Ch 9. A station that prior to martial law, was deep in the red but whose fortunes changed when Marcos took over all media in 1972. Ch 9 became one of the top television stations with the infusion of millions of pesos in fresh capital.

Source: http://indiosbravos.blog.com/2011/05/05/recyclablog-10-back-to-the-future/

RECYCLABLOG 9: Isn’t He Lovely? The Story of Victor, Nonoy and Katol

What does the limp of 80’s balladeer Nony Zuniga have to do with the lowly, ubiquitous “katol”? It begins with a “Lovely” story.

If you still remember, in 1980, Metro Manila experienced a rash of bombings from the months of August through October. On September 6, 1980, a Philippine-born American citizen from Los Angeles, California, almost killed himself and injured his younger brother as a result of an explosion of a small bomb inside the American’s room at the YMCA building in Manila. Found in the foreigner’s possession by police and military authorities were several pictures taken sometime in May, 1980 at the birthday party of former Philippine Congressman Raul Daza held at the latter’s residence in a Los Angeles suburb. Among those also identified in the pictures were Senator Jovito R. Salonga and his wife. These prominent Filipino opposition were photographed together with the bomb blast victim. His name: Victor Burns Lovely Jr.

Victor Lovely was rushed to the ICU at the V. Luna hospital and placed under the direct custody of Marcos chief of staff General Fabian Ver. While recuperating from near fatal wounds, the Lovely brothers (Victor, Romeo and Baltazar) were held incommunicado. Shortly afterwards, they were charged with subversion, illegal possession of explosives and damage to property. But the bombings continued.

On September 12, 1980, bombs once again exploded in Metro Manila including one which resulted in the death of an American lady who was shopping at Rustan’s Supermarket in Makati and others which caused injuries to a number of persons. The targets were Marcos crony-owned establishments. Meanwhile, Victor’s youngest brother Romeo was presented to the media during the President’s anniversary television radio press conference. During the live nationwide broadcast, Romeo implicated Senator Salonga in the bombings. Still, the bombings continued.

On the night of October 4, 1980, more bombs were reported to have exploded at three big hotels in Metro Manila, namely: the Philippine Plaza, Century Park Sheraton and Manila Peninsula. The bombs injured nine people. A few days later, on the night of October 4, , Marcos had just finished delivering his speech before the International Conference of the American Society of Travel Agents at the Philippine International Convention Center when a small bomb exploded near one of the men’s bathrooms. One person was in the bathroom when the bomb went off. It was Nonoy Zuniga. He was preparing to entertain the American travel agents during one of the conference intermissions. The explosion badly mangled Zuniga’s left leg that it had to be amputated. Thus the iconic cane while crooning the 80’s hit “Never Ever Say Goodbye”. Salonga was arrested a few days after in Makati Medical Center where he was confined for respiratory problems. He was kept in detention for weeks without charges until his release for humanitarian reasons. The person who snuck in the  explosive was a 28-year old woman, Doris Nuval. Ironically, Nuval’s father was a friend and advisor to Marcos. She was eventually arrested. Nuval and Lovely gave a face to the radical non-communist anti-Marcos group called the April 6 Liberation Movement. Its name comes from the historic April 6, 1978 noise barrage that occurred on the eve of the first parliamentary election under Marcos’ New Society. For four hours in 1978, the metropolis was filled with the noise of banging pots, tooting horns and shouts of “Laban!Laban!”, giving Marcos a preview of the future People Power. The April 6 Liberation Movement was actually a metamorphosis of an earlier radical group, the “Light-A-Fire Movement” whose leaders where arrested prior to the rash of bombings. Led by  businessman Ed Olaguer, the “Light-A-Fire Movement” followed the tactics of an “Arafat/IRA” style insurrection of bombings and small arms actions in the urban areas against the government . The “terrorist” nature of the group initially scared off political sympathizers and had very little support so they had to choose strategic targets with the cheapest form of terrorism: arson. Their weapon of choice: Katol. The procedure was incredibly simple: light a shortened mosquito coil and leave it near a highly combustible area; the coil was extremely predictable time-wise, untraceable and you could get one at any corner sari-sari store. The group set off fires at the Sulo Hotel, Rustan’s and the floating casino. The government took notice and the fires made headlines. But as the group planned for a more “incendiary” route using C4 explosives (the type allegedly used in the Glorietta blast), they were arrested while meeting at a Quezon City home. The members were exposed, among them AIM professor Gaston Ortigas and a 60-year old grandmother Ester Jimenez (mother of the Paredes boys Jim and Ducky/they were all convicted and sentenced to death by electrocution in 1984). But the exiled Filipino opposition also took notice of the movement’s early success. They were emboldened and decided to continue the radical tactics. The chief promoter was Lopez family friend Steve Psinakis. But after the arrest of Victor Burns Lovely, the military cracked down on its alleged supporters. The movement eventually petered out. 

Years later, after the EDSA revolution, many of its supporters finally came out in the open. The most surprising revelation was that the radical movement was supported by Jesuits Toti Olageur (brother of Ed) and the respected historian Fr. Horacio dela Costa. Business tycoon Alfredo Yuchengco also came out in the open as one of the very few businessmen who actively financed the group. GMA’s National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales was also a participant, himself actually carrying out some of the bombings. Today Doris Nuval is project director for the Knowledge Channel; Gaston Ortigas a peace advocate; Ed Olaguer is fighting his demons; Steve Psinakis is now known as the father of Manila chic socialite Geni Psinakis, proprietor of trendy Zuzuni resto in Boracay and Nonoy Zuniga is a doctor still walking with a cane.

Source: http://indiosbravos.blog.com/2011/05/03/recyclablog-9-isnt-he-lovely-the-story-of-victor-nonoy-and-katol/

RECYCLABLOG 8: The Tomas-Imee Affair:Gone Baby Gone

Let’s take a breather from scandalous affairs of the political nature. You may have forgotten that Imee Marcos was once married to the tall, dark and handsome Tommy Manotoc:  multi-titled professional basketball coach, talented amateur golfer, father of club-scene enfant terrible Borgy, and… mysterious kidnap victim.   In early 1982, Tomas “Tommy” Manotoc was kept blindfolded for 41 days as a captive of  the NPA. The leftist rebels reportedly asked for a 29 million peso ransom and demanded the release of communist leaders Joma Sison, Satur Ocampo and Bernabe Buscayno among others. At least that was what Manotoc told a press conference in February 1982 after he was “rescued” by government agents. The press conference was facilitated by then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile (you know where the truth is headed in this one). The Tommy Manotoc-Imee Marcos affair played too much like a tele-novela that it was as surreal as that press conference (I remember the live telecast where Manotoc was escorted into the Malacanang press room looking anxious but not at all haggard and for a total “kidnapped” look, he sported a thick beard). 

Tommy and Imee met in early 1981 through a mutual friend. It was reportedly love at first sight. And though Manotoc was already divorced from his first wife, beauty queen Aurora Pijuan, the divorce was not recognized in Catholic Philippines. But more importantly the relationship with the high profile Imee was frowned upon by by Imee’s parents: Ferdie and Meldy. Ferdinand was not too pleased because the Manotoc family was related to very prominent exiled political opponents: Raul Manglapus and Eugenio Lopez. Imelda, on the other hand, had more pompous reasons:  she was Maharlika’s queen after all and if Imelda thought she was royalty, then her children deserved no less. Everyone in the circle of her “Blue Ladies” knew that Imelda was still salivating from the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. She was maneuvering for a match up with one of Antonio Floirendo’s sons since Prince Charles had already been taken. But Imee and Tommy eloped.  They secretly got married in Arlington Virginia on December 4, 1981. The two flew back to Manila and that’s when the drama pushed full throttle. On the night of December 29, 1981, as Tommy Manotoc was driving back to his house in San Lorenzo Village Makati, his car was rear ended. Armed men jumped out, pistol-whipped Manotoc, dragged him into their car and drove away. Tommy Manotoc was kidnapped. The following day, a furious Imee confronted her father and asked if he had anything to do with the disappearance. The Apo reportedly just kept silent. The incident went unreported for several days until foreign correspondents got hold of a marriage certificate of Imee and Tommy.  The story of the marriage and the mysterious disappearance of Manotoc broke but after a few more weeks, no other details  of the disappearance  came out. Then the family of Manotoc received a first ransom note, supposedly handwritten by Tommy. The note said that he was being held by the NPA led by one Kumander Ulupong but Ricardo Manotoc, Tommy’s father, thought the note was fake saying that the handwriting on the note wasn’t Tommy’s. Ricardo publicly accused Ferdinand Marcos of involvement in the kidnapping (brave guy this Ricardo!). Through the Marcos controlled press, Ferdinand expressed concern about the kidnapping but did not say anything about Tommy Manotoc’s relationship with her daughter. The more vocal Imelda, suggested that ”If they really think the President is involved, they should be coming to him on bended knee to beg for their son’s life.” She also said that if Tommy Manotoc were killed, she would resign from all her public posts. Referring to her would be son-in-law as “that son of a bitch”, she said in private that it wasn’t worth risking a single life to save the man that married her daughter. 

Over a month after the news of the Tommy Manotoc’s disappearance broke, the charade was finally over. News was leaked to the press that government agents had an “encounter” with communist rebels in the Sierra Madre mountains and that they had “rescued” Tommy Manotoc. A day before Valentine’s, the bearded Tommy Manotoc was presented to the press. During the orchestrated news conference, the smiling Manotoc gave very vague comments and seemed to have heard very little from his captors and remembered even less. He apologized for his family’s insinuations that the president was involved in the kidnapping. Many Metro Manila residents anyway were very skeptical, in part because Imee was seen around town laughing and smiling during her husband’s absence. The government said that all of Manotoc’s captors had escaped except for one man who was killed. He was never identified. Tommy and Imee separated in 1999.

Source: http://indiosbravos.blog.com/2011/04/30/recyclablog-8-the-tomas-imee-affairgone-baby-gone/

RECYCLABLOG 7: Sieg Heil! Mein Fuhrer!

Bagong Lipunan March

February 1986. It was reported that when rebel soldiers secured Malacañang palace and they entered the presidential bedroom they discovered a dialysis machine (presumably of Ferdinand Marcos), half-eaten dinners, betamax tapes and on the presidential bedside table, William Shirer’s book, “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, the 1,500+ page classic, chronicling the history of Nazi Germany. Definitely not bedtime reading for little Aimee. Political historians acknowledge the brilliance of Ferdinand Marcos as a lawyer, politician and leader. It was said that he obsessed with making his mark in Philippine history and it is not far fetched that he may have taken inspiration and lessons from Hitler and the Nazis. There are just too many parallels between the two that the book on his bedside, if you manage to plow through the thousand plus, fine-print pages seem to confirm. Hitler authored his “Mein Kampf”, Marcos his “Democracy: The New Revolution”, both written as an exposition of political ideologies. Hitler burned the Reichstag as a pretext to gain more “emergency powers” as new Chancellor of Germany, Marcos staged bombings and Enrile’s phony assassination attempt as pretext to declare martial law. Both raised the communist bogey. Hitler wanted to restore Aryan pride, dreamt of creating the super Aryan race, and used all these convoluted arguments of race as pretext to “re-take” territories that he said rightfully belonged to Germany. Marcos wanted to rename the Philippines “Maharlika” which according to him would rid us of our colonial shackles, symbolic though it may be. Hitler’s Aryans were to Marcos’ “Maharlikans” (incidentally “Maharlika’ was the name of his guerilla unit in WW2). He also planned the failed invasion of Sabah, under the pretext of a territorial dispute and to rally nationalist zeal against Malaysia so he could declare war and place the country under martial rule but failed when the muslim soldiers he had secretly trained staged a mutiny and were killed in the famous “Jabbidah Massacre”. 

The Nazi inspirations were more evident though once he consolidated power during martial law. Hitler was a master propagandist and Marcos took several cues from the pomp and pageantry of the Nazis. Under the “New Republic”, Marcos’ version of the Third Reich, he had national artists Lucio San Pedro and Felipe de Leon compose  the official anthem of the New Society “Bagong Pagsilang”. It was composed as a march and was grandiose in theme. Story goes that Marcos took inspiration in Hitler’s favorite martial tune “Badenweiler Marsch” or “Badenweiler March”. This famous Bavarian military march was played as an official theme song whenever Hitler entered the parade grounds. Something like Darth Vader’s Imperial March. Interestingly, the “Bagong Lipunan Hymn” was alternately known as the “Bagong Lipunan March” (hear for yourself in the attached music files). Children were made to memorize and sing this hymn every morning at school. Speaking of children, Hitler had his Hitler Youth and Marcos, his Kabataang Baranggay headed by daughter Imee Marcos. Hitler had his ruling party the Nationalsozialismus or Nazis while the New Society Movement or KBL (Kilusang Bagong Lipunan) was Marcos’ version of the “brown shirts”. FM’s third inauguration in 1981 was his version of Hitler’s Nuremberg rally, famously immortalized in Leni Reifenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will”.  Marcos pulled out all the stops and featured a cavalry during the military parade. Generals rode these fine white horses and as jets roared above, the military parade continued to pass in review, infront of herr Fuhrer Marcos, a 100-man chorale chanted, in cadence, and accompanied by the pounding of timpani drums: “Marcos, Marcos, Pangulong Marcos!” After his oath-taking, on cue, the chorale burst into Handel’s “Messiah”: “…And He shall reign forever and ever!” Sieg Heil! Hitler used the Jews as scapegoats for their country’s economic woes, confiscating their property and extracted them from German society. Marcos could not play the race card as he knew the Chinese were too entrenched in society and too important as allies so he focused on the families of his political opponents. Fewer in number, he branded them as the “oligarchs”, blamed them for all the inequities of the “old society”, jailed them, confiscated their businesses and successfully ostracized them from the New Republic. 

Hitler and Marcos were both superstitious men and believed in the occult. Though outwardly a Catholic, Marcos maintained strong relations with the Aglipayans, a cultist nationalist Filipino church. Marcos was obsessed with numerology; his presidential car plates were not No.1 but 777. He kept his right pinky fingernail long as a superstitious belief of retaining his longevity. Hitler obsessed too with signs and symbols. The parallels go on and on. And although there was no large scale Holocaust, many were killed, both true subversives and innocents, during his regime; according to son Ferdinand Jr., “collateral damage” in his father’s “struggle” to keep the Republic together. For me, Marcos’ greatest crime was that he rid us of the best and brightest statesmen, leaders and free thinkers thru co-option, incarceration or murder and now we are left scraping the bottom of the barrel with these second, third generation New Society discards screaming for a hero’s burial for their Fuhrer. Sieg Heil! Mein Fuhrer!

Source: http://indiosbravos.blog.com/2011/04/26/recyclablog-7-sieg-heil-mein-fuhrer/

RECYCLABLOG 6: 1972 Ad of the Year

“SA IKAUUNLAD NG BAYAN, DISIPLINA ANG KAILANGAN”: ubiquitous Martial Law slogan seen on print, newspapers, painted on walls, flashed on TV in 1972. Macoy Big Brother’s directive to its captive citizenry. Actually, a very clever slogan and if you remember the sleek blue and red logo, also quite a cool design even by today’s standards. So who came up with it? Well FM’s Joseph Goebbels, Information Minister Francisco “Kit” Tatad”, called on all the top advertising agencies and asked them to come up with a slogan that would launch the centerpiece discipline program of the new Marcos Reich. Tatad briefed them that the regime would like pound on its citizenry the value of discipline in ridding themselves of the “old” ways: corruption, political patronage, abuse of power (hello?), etc... So some agencies came up with specific programs and “tactical” ads like: “Kung may reklamo ka kay mayor, isumbong mo kay mayor!” (?–pretty lame and why would you complain to mayor about mayor?) followed up with “Kung hindi sinundan ni Mayor, isumbong mo sa amin!” (ayun naman pala, may follow up pero malabo pa rin pare). 

Anyways, the winner was “Sa ikauunlad ng Bayan…” by THE GROUP headed by Tony Cantero who turns out to be the brother-in-law of Tatad. But in fairness to d’ Group, that was a good campaign. Shortly after, they launched the “Mabuhay ang Pilipino!” campaign. Sing with me now: “Mabuhay, mabuhay, mabuhay ang Pilipino!”. The campaign “jingle” including herr Fuhrer’s Martial Law hymn; “Bagong Lipunan” (sing again! “May bagong silang, may bago nang buhay, bagong bansa, bagong daan, sa bagong li–punan…) composed by no less than national artists Lucio San Pedro and Professor Felipe Padilla de Leon (more on this in another post). All this: PRO BONO (hindi nauna si David Guerrero at legit ang cliente). 

The campaign was so successful that it had other people in power, green with envy, so green that they launched a counterpart green campaign (nauna nanaman ang Pinoy!): the Green Revolution, courtesy of Madame First Lady. The ads by THE GROUP were subsequently pulled off the air to favor Madame’s programmes. Politics then, politics now. Well, we know the power of advertising!

Source: http://indiosbravos.blog.com/2011/04/26/recyclablog-6-1972-ad-of-the-year/

RECYCLABLOG 5: The Marcos Sex Tapes…That’s Hot!

(FIRST POSTED JAN ’08)

In February of 1971, radical students barricaded the University of the Philippines, fended off the QC police and metrocom, and staged what would be known as the “Diliman Commune”. Taking control of the campus grounds and the state university’s radio DZUP, they broadcast, on loop, a tape of an alleged tryst of Ferdinand Marcos and his paramour, American B-actress Dovie Beams. In the audio tape, Marcos was pleading with Beams to perform oral sex (I wonder if Marcos had some presidential cigars too…hmmm). The tape also featured FM’s vocal prowess as he serenaded his Lovey Dovie with an incredibly romantic Ilokano love song: Pamulinawen.. (yah, that probably was the “Your Body is A Wonderland” of that era). 

Dovie Beams came to the Philippines in 1969 to film the war picture “Maharlika”. Yes, based on the World War 2 exploits of a dashing lieutenant named Ferdinand Marcos and the unit he led: Maharlika. It starred other American lightweights but surprisingly also featured a performance by Oscar award-winning actor Broderick Crawford. Crawford won as Best Actor for his role as Willie Stark in the 1950 Oscar Best Picture “All The King’s Men” (recently re-made by Steve Zaillian, starring Sean Penn). Maharlika was co-produced by Quentin Tarantino’s idol, Cirio Santiago and a certain Val D’ Auvrey (who never produced another film thereafter). The film was completed but never released here nor in the U.S.. As the rumors about FM’s relationship with the bombshell Beams swirled about town, a miffed Imelda allegedly nixed the showing of “Maharlika”. Beams hurriedly left the country in 1971, and was never heard from again. “Maharlika” resurfaced in 1985, on European videoshelves as “Guerilla Strike Force”. FM should be grateful that cellphones nor the internet were not yet invented at that time otherwise you can bet that the FM-Dovie Beams would have been a big hit on YouTube next to the dancing inmates of Cebu. So who secretly taped the two? Well, at that time, everybody’s favorite usual suspect: the CIA. Allegedly, with the knowledge of Beams, as blackmail against FM so the U.S. could have him by, pardon the pun, the balls, during this critical and paranoid Vietnam War era.

Source: http://indiosbravos.blog.com/2011/04/25/recyclablog-5-the-marcos-sex-tapes-thats-hot/