Marjorie C.

Baquial
EH 307
Human Rights Law- Atty Joan Dymphna Saniel-Amit

The Kingmaker: The Callous Flaunting of the Greatest Robbery

in the Philippines

Peter Bradshaw, a film critic, wrote a review of the Kingmaker calling Imelda Marcos
“a grotesquely self-pitying, wholly unrepentant and very rich woman,” with which I completely
agree. Seeing the first scenes of the documentary, I thought it would be another movie
glorifying the Marcoses and trying to revise the interpretation of Martial Law history.
As the movie progresses, the movie shows how disgustingly extravagant the Marcoses
were during Ferdinand’s reign as a dictator. What’s more appalling is the fact that Imelda is
flaunting it to people, to the movie crew, and to the Filipino people—the very people they stole
all that wealth from.
There was a scene where Imelda was handing out money to the poor people in Tondo,
saying that she pities them, that she feels so sad of what’s happened to her country. I was
enraged by that statement. She has the audacity to speak those words when her family, their
extravagance, and their love of the clout and greed of power has put them in that position. The
lack of remorse, and her acting innocent is so enraging.
Her way of speaking and flaunting her wealth is so loathsome. Her doling out 20- peso
bills made her feel like the “savior” of the masses when in reality, she’s stealing from those
people billions of dollars of tax money. She also spoke highly of infrastructure development
during those years, calling them “gifts” from her beloved Ferdinand. How she calls the San
Juanico Bridge as a gift, or the Philippine Lung Center as her own little project. It’s so enraging
to know what they think of our country. The way she tells the story makes me clench my fists.
The Philippines is not their playground where they can just play and do whatever they want.
They do not own the taxpayer’s money where they could just spend it however they like,
making extravagant infrastructures at the expense of the welfare of the Filipino people.
What’s clear to me is that those infrastructures were not built for the welfare of the
Filipino people. It’s for them to feed their delusional minds that they can do whatever they
want or do whatever they like with the money at their disposal. They lived like royalties while
the average Juan Dela Cruz was lying on the streets begging for the government to listen to
their woes.
However, above all the statements, events, and portrayals that were shown in the movie,
what puzzles me to this day is how the Marcoses are still able to do what they do today and
still able to get away unscathed. The fact that Bong Bong was almost elected as Vice President,
or that even Imee became Senator or even the thought of a Marcos in Politics. With all the
atrocities that they did in the past, the rational consequence should have been severe
punishment and consequences. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
The fact that they are met with drums and music when they visit places around the
country, that a lot of people shower them with praises, and glorifying them puzzles me and
scares me at the same time. Is it the Marcoses trying to change how they are perceived by the
masses or is it just that the Filipino people are so forgiving that they have already forgiven and
forgotten the human rights abuses this family perpetrated? Or is it both?
Towards the end of the movie, Imelda said “Perception is real; truth is not.” This may
sound absurd (it did to me), but at the same time, I agree with her on this one. It does not matter
what really happened. It does not matter that they imprisoned, tortured, and killed thousands
of people. What matters is how people perceive Martial Law to be. Her ambitions for the future
worries and, at the same time, scares me. Bongbong is only a few steps away from the
presidency.
It worries me that they would be able to obliterate the entire history of what really
happened during the Martial Law era and paint it as the “Golden Era” of the Philippines. This
is where the educational institutions should put their foot down and not let this happen. As
George Santayana in The Life of Reason accurately stated, “Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it.”