Last week, a few days before the 100th day of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Malacañang Palace, I wrote about how his administration squandered the crucial first three months in office.
It was borne out of frustration over the sugar importation scandal, shortages of food items, usurpation of presidential powers and the adamance of the President to jettison characters and their subalterns who abused their first taste of power and influence. Add to that the announcement of the Department of Agriculture Under Secretary, Domingo Panganiban, that 500 thousand metric tons of fertilizers procured by the agency on a government-to-government deal turned out to be a dud.
President Marcos in all fairness was focused on some agenda. He made his first working visit to Indonesia and came home with billions of dollars in investment commitments in addition to closer ties with our closest southern neighbor.
This was followed later by his first visit to the United States of America after the Marcos family were shanghaied to Hawaii by the CIA. Earlier, Rappler, a media outfit funded by the (US) National Endowment for Democracy, asserted that President Marcos will never be able to go to America as he is facing charges.
President Marcos, accompanied by a lean entourage of selected Cabinet members and businessmen, proceeded with the visit anyway. He landed in New Jersey where he was met warmly by enthusiastic members of the Filipino communities.
Later he motored to his final destination, New York City.
At the New York Stock Exchange, the nerve center of the world economy, the ebullient President. Ferdinand R. Marcos announced that “the time to invest in the Philippines is now!” He then proceeded to ring the bell of the NYSE. The tolling of the bell sent a stinging din to the ears of the anti-Marcos cabal who had been wishing and praying for a failed visit to the country where, once in the prime of his youth, he was exiled. All that is beyond him now. He was elected President in an unprecedented super-majority and shunning all the vilification hurled against him and his family, called for unity.
Marcos then moved on. The world democracies were stunned by the decision of the Filipino electorate in giving Marcos Jr. the mandate to govern the Philippines. And they listened to his eloquence as he spoke in the United Nations General Assembly before world leaders. There was no hint of bitterness, anger, or remorse. Just a message of hope and peace among nations.
He capped his US visit with a rare and enviable exchange with President Joe Biden where commitments to a stable peace, security, and prospects of trade were the business of the day. I need not go into the nitty-gritty of the visits as these had been published in detail.
Attempts by the political opposition and their US patron Loida Lewis to disrupt and demonize Marcos was met by a throng of supporters that dwarfed the few but rowdy troublemakers. Unfortunately for them, their lawlessness was promptly averted by the New York police who were deployed at strategic places in NYC on account of the UN general assembly.
They were bodily hauled by the authorities and locked up in jail. The last time we heard of them they were begging for donations to pay their bails for their temporary liberty. Loida is nowhere to be found. I do not think that neither Angat Pinoy will come to their rescue.
(To be continued)