The Real Bongbong Marcos

Here's an interview on Bongbong Marcos by the Manila Bulletin on Feb 26, 2011. Some very interesting bits about the life of his father Ferdinand Marcos and his views on the current political situation in the Philippines.

Here's some excerpts.

MANILA, Philippines — Twenty-five years ago, he was on the other side of the battlefield, the one who firmly stood by the side of his father, former President Ferdinand Marcos, until the very end of the latter's 20-year rule brought about by the world’s first peaceful people uprising.

Today, amid the commemoration activities for that uprising that has come to be known as EDSA Revolution, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. has chosen to move on and reduce the experience to a painful memory.

“I have found myself a career. Once in a while your thoughts go back to the things that happened but only in a nostalgic sense. Tapos na so you get on with your new life and that’s really where we are.
Those after effects have become ripples in a pond, becoming smaller and smaller as time goes on. Today, it doesn’t affect me anymore because it really has no bearing on the things that I do,” shares the 54-year-old senator.

So whenever people would compare the similarities and exploit the parallelisms between the political paths taken by Ninoy Aquino and his son, President Noynoy Aquino on the one hand, and of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his son Ferdinand Marcos Jr., on the other, Sen. Bongbong could only shake his head in exasperation.

“It’s redundant and the answer is I don’t see the irony. I’m a senator and I will do my job as a senator and he will also do his job as the President. If I agree with him, I would support him. If I don’t, I will not. What does it have to do with mga malalim na kahulugan?” he says.

From the eyes of the fallen leader’s only son though, there was never a need to vindicate his father who only wanted the best for his people.

“My father does not need me to defend his administration. If my father was a good President and I’m a bad senator, he’s still a good President. The only person you can redeem is yourself. So the best vindication is to just do a good job,” stresses Sen. Bongbong.

That was exactly what Sen. Bongbong has been doing throughout his 17 years in government. His accomplishments during his terms as governor and congressman of Ilocos Norte, have made breakthroughs for the province and the country. Among them are the windmills that provided alternative source of energy, a tourism boom that yielded more jobs and strengthened local economy, the increase in agricultural productivity, and the provision of health insurance for each and every constituent.

But while he was born and raised in the world of politics, being in it was not part of his grand plan at all. In fact, Sen. Bongbong went to school in Oxford University in England where he would have wanted to pursue a science course, and live an ordinary life away from the limelight.

“I’ve always had an interest in numbers and science. I remember when I was going to Oxford, I told my father that I wanted to take up this course which dealt a lot with logic. He said 'No, you won’t make any money from this. You will be poor. You study something practical.' So I studied politics, political science and economics. I went on to study at Wharton. You can see I’m heading to private business, 'yun ang plano ko talaga. Eh nung nasa Wharton ako second year palang ako napatakbo akong vice governor na. Wala na. From then on, I was heading towards politics na,” he recalls.

So fate and his father’s wish carved his path to politics. And while he is in many ways like his father, Sen. Bongbong says he has become his own person – a quiet, low profile, and even shy politician and family man.

In this 60 Minutes interview, the senator shares his thoughts on the country, post-EDSA, the role of the youth in nation-building, those happier times with his legendary parents, on the joys of raising his three boys, and that strangely funny, decades-old myth of not being the real Bongbong Marcos. (Rachel C. Barawid)

Full story at the Manila Bulletin.