MARIA Imelda Josefa Marcos–Imee Marcos to most Filipinos–has long dropped the family name of her husband Tommy Manotoc. Since the 1990s, when she was separated from the former golfer and began to be linked romantically to a Singaporean businessman and resident, she has carried her maiden surname. The Marcos name enjoys household recognition across the country.
Imee’s run in the Senate race next year is what has brought Imee repeatedly to vote-rich Cebu. Voters are “aware” of her but will they “vote” for her? And it is what the most recent controversy is all about.
A non-issue
A group that calls itself Samahan ng mga Progresibong Kabataan tells her not to come. Imee insists she has “the right to visit Cebu.” It is, of course, a non-issue, a no-brainer. Each side is making noise over something that is beyond argument.
Imee has the right to travel anywhere in the country.
The protesters can go to the streets and tell her in placards and media statements to go away. But they don’t have the right nor the capability to stop Imee from coming and going. As Imee claims her right of movement, so can the demonstrators assert their right to free speech.
The acoustics merely support each side’s wish to be heard and supported by their audience.
‘Not welcome’
The protesters call her “persona non-grata,” a label used by the host government on a a rejected foreign diplomat. It used to be a misnomer but through the years the term has acquired the second meaning: an unwanted visitor. Not only LGUs through their mayor or council express disgust over the acts of a non-native by declaring the guest “not acceptable or welcome,” Now, it’s almost any group or individual spewing out hostile sounds.
It serves a purpose: to highlight the sentiment, which to the Samahan is contempt for Imee and her family. It enables them to bring out again the “sins” of the Marcoses as reason for slamming the door on her. The protesters’ propaganda device.
Imee did not have to go along with the “non grata” line. But it was a peg for making sound bites about, say, the traffic problem, scarcity and price of rice, poverty and suspension of the value-added tax, among the concerns of Cebuanos. Imee’s excuse to engage.
What to do instead
The protesters should drop the “Go away” tack. Instead, they may ask Imee to confront the elephant in the room: the unresolved issue of corruption of the Marcoses.
Imee is a governor wanting to become senator. Her brother Bongbong is former senator who ran for vice president and awaiting the outcome of his protest against VP Leni Robredo. Mother Imelda is an incumbent congresswoman, a convicted accused who is out on bail. Imee’s son Matthew Joseph is a board member who has substituted Imelda in her bid for governor. All of them wanting to continue serving as elective officials. They got elected and will seek reelection with the issue of corruption and unrecovered wealth still unresolved.
Imee has been “tightlipped” over the conviction of her mother on seven counts of corruption involving Swiss bank accounts where, the Sandiganbayan ruled, she stashed ill-gotten funds.
Don’t drive Imee away. Instead protesters may ask her to open up and, just maybe, she might offer atonement so that people will finally, in her words, “move on.“