Thursday, November 13, 2008 Seares: The two Marcoses By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
FERDINAAND J. Marcos was a Regional Trial Court judge, not the country's president. He was from Cebu. The late president, Ferdinand E. Marcos, hailed from Ilocos.
But like Marcos the president, Marcos the judge didn't use his middle initial. Apparently, the judge enjoyed the amusement his name would set off in a new acquaintance. "Ferdinand Marcos? Really." It never failed.
There's another parallel, though not in the same scale: Both were swirled in controversy.
Marcos the dictator was deposed in 1986 and exiled by the Americans to Hawaii (which he, Willy Nepumoceno quipped, mistook for Paoay in FM's native province).
Marcos the judge was sacked in 2001 for alleged immorality by then Supreme Court chief justice Hilario Davide Jr.
A scandalized Davide saw the judge bring along to a judges' physical fitness activity a woman who looked extremely fit but was definitely not the wife. The litigation that entangled judge, spouse, and mistress was a battle royal.
He hated him
Here's the oddity: Marcos the judge hated Marcos the president. More precisely, he opposed the dictator's authoritarian rule.
According to RTC Judge Menmen Paredes who says Marcos the judge was a close friend ("very polite, very friendly"), a radio broadcast on the day martial law was declared reported thus: "A Ferdinand Marcos is against Ferdinand Marcos."
The two Marcoses probably never met, though the president must have known from his vast spy network that he had a namesake in Cebu.
Judge Marcos died last Sunday. The two Marcoses will probably meet up there, whichever place God has relocated them.
