Pauper lie

By Artchil B. Fernandez

Truth is an inescapable reality. One may run from it, hide from it, deny it or bury it with lies.  But in the end, there is nowhere to hide from truth.

Bongbong Marcos (BBM) discovered this fact of life belatedly or too late. Truth is everywhere, there is no way he can escape or run from it. He encountered truth again in his visit to Australia over a week ago. BBM handled truth the only way he dealt with it throughout his life – by lying.

To spruce up the image of his family and gloss over their dark side, BBM agreed for a sit-down interview with Sarah Ferguson of ABC news program 7.30 presenter.  It was in the second part of the interview that Ferguson confronted BBM with the ugly truth about his family.

Ferguson straight forward asked BBM about the ill-gotten wealth of his family, a huge part it has yet to be recovered by the Philippine government.  “Contemporary court judgments acknowledged the atrocities that were committed but also the plunder of the country’s resources. Why wouldn’t you want all of that money back in the hands of the Filipino?” she pointedly asked BBM.  BBM tried to evade the question with a nervous laughter but Ferguson did not allow him to get away with it.  “May I just ask you why that’s funny?” Ferguson admonished him.

Cornered, BBM had no choice but to give his now infamous “pauper lie.”  He claimed his family was penniless when they were exiled to Hawaii in the aftermath of the 1986 People Power Revolt.  “We went, we were taken to Hawaii. Everything. Everything was taken from us. We had nothing left,” BBM blatantly lied before the international audience.  Lying is so natural to BBM and the rest of his family, like breathing.

Truth is they did not arrive in Hawaii a pauper. US customs authorities made an inventory of what the Marcoses brought from the Philippines.  The list amounted to almost $1 billion in assets, including $717 million crates of cash, $200,000 in gold bullion, and $124 million in bank deposit slips.  If this is the definition of “nothing” to BBM, what would be “something” to him?

BBM tried to play the “persecuted” and the “oppressed” to get the sympathy of the audience.  If he was telling the truth, he would have easily won over the international community.  But lying only made things worse for him and his family.  His “pauper lie” only confirmed the truth about him and his family – they stole US $10 billion from the Filipino people.  One lie begets another lie and the lying never ends.

From the “pauper lie” BBM spun more lies.  He dismissed as mere “propaganda” the issue of corruption against his family.  The truth however cannot be buried for it is forever etched in the decisions of the courts.

The Philippine Supreme Court in 2003 ruled in Republic vs Sandiganbayan that $680 million in recovered Marcos loot in Swiss bank accounts were ill-gotten.  In 2012, the Philippine Supreme Court again ruled in Marcos junior vs Republic that $40 million in so-called ‘Arelma accounts’ of the Marcos family were ill-gotten. BBM was a direct beneficiary to these accounts.  Former First Lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos, mother of BBM was convicted by the Philippine anti-graft court Sandiganbayan for seven counts of graft involving $200 million in Swiss bank deposits in 2018.

To further parry the truth, BBM spent the rest of the interview spewing lies.

“Cases were filed against me, my family, the estate, etc. And up to now, the assertions that were made… have shown to be untrue,” BBM lied to Ferguson and her viewers.  Cases were filed and the Marcoses were guilty the courts declared.  In 1995, 9,539 human rights victims of the Marcos dictatorship won a class suit in the US District Court jury in Hawaii against the estate of the late dictator.  The Philippine Supreme Court in 1999 ordered the Marcos estate to pay P23 billion in tax liabilities.  These finely litigated cases are solid proofs of the guilt of BBM and his family.  BBM can lie about them but he cannot evade or erase the truth.

The Marcoses cannot be forgiven for the high crimes they committed against the Filipino people for they consistently lie about them.  BBM may have won the 2022 election and may interpret the result as being “forgiven.”  But this is not the case.

For forgiveness to be given to the Marcoses, they first must accept their guilt and express remorse or repentance.  Lying is not and is never an act of remorse or repentance.  In fact lying is an indicator of remorselessness and impenitence, of high pride.

Why can’t the Marcoses do a Zacchaeus?  In Luke 19:1-10, the tax-collector expressed true remorse for cheating people.  “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”  Jesus responded to his genuine repentance by declaring, “Today salvation has come to this house…”

Had BBM and his family apologized to the Filipino people for their high crimes and did some act of contrition by returning the rest of the ill-gotten wealth, there is a strong possibility they will be forgiven.  But instead of seeking forgiveness, the Marcoses continue to lie about the truth of what they did.

Worse, the Marcoses continue to engage in systematic and concerted effort not only to hide the truth but to destroy it.  BBM won the 2022 election by lying and deceiving people.  But the truth cannot be suppressed and it will continue to hound BBM and his family for the rest of their lives.  Only by accepting the truth and ending the lies can the Marcoses find real peace and true liberation from the pangs of their conscience.