President Marcos decided to be like Aquino instead of Duterte
Analysis and Opinion
By Joe America
President Marcos fooled me, for sure. I thought he’d be another Duterte, blatantly corrupt and tending toward dogmatic rule. Nope. President Marcos is running a steady ship. Rational policies. Build-up of alliances. On the hunt for foreign investments. Steady economy, one of the fastest growing in Asia. Working to trim inflation.
He’s conservative, like Aquino, but is not afraid of big decisions. He tossed out pogos and let the ICC have former President Duterte. He has not snarled back at Sara Duterte, in public. He pushed through a sovereign wealth fund that no one else wanted. Maybe that was a mistake. He has not made many of them. He’s been firm in opposing China’s aggressions and building defense.
He spends a lot of time at events that give away goods to the needy. Maybe too much, but what a smallish critic I’d be if that were the best I could come up with to trash his work. He lets political corruption roll, as it always has, because its the only way to keep political support. Corruption is the nation’s largest industry and its political glue to hold flighty, self-dealing legislators and LGUs in line.
In thinking about what drives Marcos’ steady policy, I came up with the following summary in a comment here at the blog a few weeks ago.
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I think President Marcos has five key influencers offering guidance on policy. In descending order of influence:
1) Executive Secretary Bersamin, a rock of intelligence and stability,
2) His father, from the grave, who gave him leadership insights (oratory skill) and the motivation to correct the Marcos legacy by doing good works (a peculiar but powerful anti-drive),
3) His agency heads (Cabinet members), some more impactful than others,
4) His wife, who is an intelligent and sane force, and friend,
5) The lunatics he must put up with, including his mother, sister, the Dutertes, and others.
I don’t know where House Speaker Romualdez fits in. Maybe with agency heads.
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These are guesses. You’d have to ask him how close or far from accurate the assessment is.
His critics, mostly those harmed by his father (plus Duterte supporters, strange bedfellows), refuse to accept that he is a good president because he has not returned his family’s stolen wealth or paid his ovedue taxes. He ignores them, in the main, knowing full well that if he did as they wished, they’d rip him to shreds. An apology in the Philippines inspires attack, not reconciliation. It’s a strange cultural certainty.
So he does his best, works hard, leans on his advisers, and the Philippines moves forward, and possibly upward, as China brings the world’s attention to Asia.
The Philippines is at the center of it all.
President Marcos steers a steady ship. That’s a relief considering the chaos elsewhere and the disaster many guessed he would be. I’ll review him again in 3 or 20 years, lol. Many of my online friends don’t like it if I say good things about him.
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Cover photo from ABS-CBN article “Marcos Jr. leads distribution of government aid in typhoon-hit Nueva Vizcaya“.
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Nice post Joe. Will probably bring some negativity here but that is to be expected of saying something true
Thank you Gian. I swapped posts to run the “positive” Roxas article first, then this one. They actually fit the same master story line. Stop fighting. Unite for Philippine democracy.
To rephrase and summarize my similar comments, PBBM removed the doubting Thomas in me.
Yes, and I hope he has cause not to return. As Gian predicted, I am getting pushback from Yellows, including Will, on FB. They evidently have no trouble siding with DDS.
Sorry to hear that about Wil, but I have seen his FB comments before.
Maybe because it is 21st of August.
Haynakku, Will. I hope we will never see a Philippines over 3 years from now where Vice Ganda is put on a plane to a Chinese jail by Inday Sara, while the online mobs scream “dasurb for disrespecting Digong, joking about jetskis and The Hague”.
And the likes of Sass Sassot writing essays in the tone of “our Asian brothers from the People’s Republic are helping us deal with disorderly characters like Vice, while the Western Imperialists kidnapped our Best President ever to The Hague”. That BTW is a mix of what I know of East German propaganda (“our Soviet brothers”) and the Japanese occupation motto of “Asia for Asians”. Hoping that all doesn’t happen.
at one stage I thought ninotch rosca would write to counter sass sassot. but these days ninotcha seems more concerned with water tanks. not sherman tanks.
Same observation/assessment. I think he wants to be a good president after what his family did to the country. And yes, I think Liza has a positive influence on him.
Thanks for confirming my observations, Lourdes.
another parallelism:
Pnoy’s time – Bong Revilla and Jinggoy got jail time
PBBM’s time – Du30 sent to ICC, Quiboloy could be extradited to US
Ah, good points, Jeep. Thanks!
let us not forget that renato corona got impeached sa panahon ni PNoy. if sara duterte gets impeached sa panahon ni president marcos, then I would say there really is parallelism between the two.
PNoy got the humongous pork barrel scammers where millions of kickbacks went to politicians involved in duplicitous projects, one such politicians was freed from serving jail because apparently his signature was forged, and court of law believed him and granted him bail. and instead of returning the near 400millions pork, said politician kept the amount to himself and did not return it to govt’s coffer! then duly failed to get a senatorial seat.
likewise president marcos is now facing massive flood control scam projects that to my mind is nearly as gargantuan as the pork barrel scam. already one identity involved in signing off a flood control project as finished when it has not even started, quickly said his signature on the exit document was forged!
Of all the exposes of Senator Lacson
Slowly but surely Pork Barrel was checked
Villar lost along with him last 2010 where PNoy won.
Before as Police ge endeared himself to the Fil Chinese because he returned many kidnap victims to their families in one piece.
police these days have their own scam, many are sangkot sa missing sabungeros and accused of murdering some of sabungeros. as well, NBI chief santiago? resigned due to alleged harassment and smear campaign against him. I dont know if resigning will clear his name as people may will still continue to malign and talk about him. and leaving his post under a cloud of doubt may only cast him in no so flattering light.
very on topic.
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2098898/marcos-on-ninoy-aquino-day-choose-peace-above-quarrel
The President is intellectually well-grounded. I have no idea who writes his material, and how much is his alone. But it is impressive.
Apparently he writes his own per chatgpt
You’re asking about the speechwriter of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Based on publicly available information, it appears that Marcos largely writes his own speeches:
In 2022, Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez confirmed that Marcos Jr. drafted his own first State of the Nation Address (SONA) .
Additional reports reiterated that he was still personally writing his SONA speech .
There’s no widely documented figure serving as his regular speechwriter in the current administration. Instead, Marcos himself is credited with crafting his major addresses.
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However, if you’re curious about speechwriting for his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos (Sr.), there is a notable name:
Adrian Cristobal was recognized as the primary speechwriter for Ferdinand Marcos Sr. He is often quoted as shaping Marcos Sr.’s public image, and is credited as a ghostwriter for propaganda books like Tadhana: The Formation of the National Community and Today’s Revolution: Democracy .
Additionally, Filipino journalist Conrado de Quiros assisted Adrian Cristobal in speechwriting and helped ghostwrite a book for Marcos Sr. He worked under Cristobal during that time .
—
Summary
Context Speechwriter
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Primarily writes his own speeches
Ferdinand Marcos Sr. (dictator) Adrian Cristobal (primary), assisted by Conrado de Quiros
If you’re interested in the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Adrian Cristobal and Conrado de Quiros played significant behind-the-scenes roles in crafting speeches and narratives. Let me know if you’d like more insight into their contributions or anything else!
Thanks. I think he got assistance on his speech to the UN, but I think he’s good with words, better than most.
I agree.
choose peace above quarrel, the president seems to be building bridges! as well, I heard the president is said to have tapped rogelio singson, PNoy’s ex appointee, to replace bonoan, the dwph embattled chief bogged down by ghost flood projects. kaso, singson declined, he is old and no longer in best health but may serve in a committee overseeing flood mitigation projects.
Refreshing change from all the bridge burning all around.
We are living in stranger, interesting times. Some of us expected a do-nothing to sit in the Palace, I expected a vengeful restoration of a royal house where monuments of their humiliation would be swept away with bulldozers and dynamite, but instead we are presented with a working scion of a political family, once ruled as royalty for 20 years but now happens to be at odds with a more malevolent sister and a narcissistic mother (and her gazillion shoes in Marikina), but instead he is also married to old wealth.
It is also a bit surreal to witness him express outrage at wastage and corruption, most recently the misappropriation of flood control funds.
Still, we must persist in watching what he does, hoping he stays in his lane.
I agree on every point. Every single one.
rappler is apparently accusing president marcos of hypocrisy, he signed the bloated budget that allowed for the misappropriation of flood funds. maybe the same thing can be said about PNoy too who also signed the budget full of pork insertions. it is hard to put the cart before the horse though PNon did try to claw back the misspent monies and successfully punished the pork scammers. I hope marcos has as much success as PNoy had.
The ” bloated budget” warrants a study. But it is not the reason people are corrupt.
I like the way he is dealing with kleptospirosis.
we want to see action, how far can the president actually go whether we will can finally see the solution to flood problems, successful implementations of flood control like the building of quality dikes, etc and money well spent. at the moment, only mosquitoes and rodents and the diseases they carried are served by the rising flood waters.
Push back will always come from Wil and here recently CV.
It maybe individual it maybe wisdom of the crowd or other reasons.
Get revenge for sins of the past or take care of the future? I wasn’t hurt by Marcos Senior but can be hurt by a bad future. So we come at it differently.
It is on record here that I agree with that position.
I am one of those who has let go of the past, it is all in god’s hand now, things out of my control. the past is gone and already in the pages of history. but what I can control and has a role to play is the present and the future. they can still both be shaped an amended, outcomes yet to be written.
We all have our part, thanks again for your much appreciated insights.
Bbm is a big relief from duterte which is a big nightmare to the country
That’s true, Rico. But even if Duterte were not in the picture, President Marcos, on achievements and stability, would score well.
funny the way sara duterte tried hard to discredit president marcos. apparently the president smelled of whiskey! when he beso beso her the last time they met, eons ago.
I say the president has good taste! I am very partial to suntory whiskey! as well, my local parish priest drinks wine in front of everybody. he also smelled of wine. mass wine.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1257166
A link about Sandigan clearing the Binays.
I invested emotionally in this space sort of condemning the Binays but after so many years and with the aquittal, I say let them be, but watch them so they would not be prone to irregularities.
Like Joe said:
The future is more important.
Very similar situation. I think the old man was willing to cheat but he didn’t want his kids to cheat. How much moral indignation do we choose to invest, and will it hurt or help the future?
Thanks,Joe.
This multi- situational comment threads really teaches me small lessons per small impactful lessons.
father and son duo, like jinggoy and erap, and now jejomar and jun. abi will not be happy but I think, nancy is. anyhow, binay father and son duo got free because of insufficient evidence. maybe, the court just dont know how to interpret what really constitute evidence, or maybe the evidence sought is so well hidden no one can find it, or it has been destroyed. though in the future, if evidence is indeed found, the case can be re-opened. long arm of the law.
I am wondering how the future will be in terms of flood control for the Philippines.
Worst Case: Korina Sanchez will be made a general-purpose culprit as many people dislike her and most are indifferent to her.
not that I care too much about her personally, my sentiment towards her is neutral, but I dislike scapegoating in general.
Scapegoating makes everyone who created a mess – often a plurality – feel better but doesn’t solve the problem
Best Case: there will be true work to improve how projects are funded and monitored.
What I think most likely: something around 2/3 towards worst case, with many culprits – and a few reforms but not enough.
The rage about Sotto vs Sanchez on FB makes my skin crawl. My goal is to remain ignorant and not care a whit. I am happy to see President Marcos rage against flood project corruption and will be interested to see which of the scoundrels become legislators.
quite a number of flood control scoundrels are already legislators, having just won seats in congress. senator ping lacson named who they are, and mayor of bagyo magalong also have names. magalong is assisting the president re flood control anomalies in bagyo. the president made a promise he will not leave office without flood resolutions coming to fruition. though I doubt if he can get the scoundrels concerned, knowing how filipinos normally react when cornered, they are likely to bolt overseas at the 1st instance!
de lima is correct, a 3rd party should be investigating flood anomalies, not congress itself. though loren legarda’s son, newbie congressman leviste, has been approached with millions of bribe by a dwph engineer. leviste refused the bribe and the engineer is now detained.
https://x.com/ChelDiokno/status/1958440473628196932 OT, Rep. Diokno is proposing a bill that all laws which involve some sort of punishment have to be officially translated into Tagalog, Visaya and Ilokano. Makes sense as these three languages are the most spoken/understood.
Making the law into less of a perceived alien construct – which it STILL is for a lot of masa Filipinos – into something understood by a lot more as rules for the entire nation.
diokno is to be lauded. this should give jobs to interpreters who can interpret court legalese for local consumption. though there ought to be google interpreter or AI app that can scan and translate legal docus and court findings into any local dialect without any trouble at all! and it wont take days to do it. as well, konektadong pinoy has lapsed into law, so AI should and could well be, well and truly implemented. all we need now is some enterprising filipinos who can kickstart and maintain the app.
Ang problema ko lang sa sariling wika. Bilang halimbawa sinubukan magsimba sa Tagalog mass para ako laging pabago bago at naninibago kahit nagtatagalog naman ako mandalas kesa mag ingles.
I once failed in wikang pilipino in grade school. I have a problem with placing po so to be sure, I placed po at the beginning of each sentence, in the middle, and at end. I think a lot of bisaya have the same problem. teacher then explain to me and to the whole class the right place to put po in the sentence. took me a while to get it. english is good, and I think, we all understand english, it is our medium of instruction, still. though sometimes, nadulas ang dila switching from bisaya, to tagalog to english. and there is much laughter.
po magandang po umaga po. turns out to correct one is magandang umaga po.
Thanks for sharing po
DOTR sec comparing his experience with Aquino, Duterte and Marcos Admins.