By Al S. Mendoza

 

THE following was from the Inquirer column of Artemio V. Panganiban on Feb. 20, 2022.

“…a post of former PCCG commissioner Ruben Carranza from his US enclave claims that Bongbong Marcos (BBM) could be arrested and jailed in the US for failing to pay his debts.  He has a contempt judgment against him [and his mother] in the US for disobeying the same US court that directed the Marcoses to pay $2B in damages to the victims of their family’s human rights violations.

“The original 1995 contempt order has been extended to 2031.  The total amount they must pay as a penalty [as of 2012]: $356M.  This is separate from the $2B judgment they owe their victims.  If they go to the US, they can be compelled to appear before a court.  If they refuse to appear, a ‘bench warrant’ can be issued against them and if they are arrested, they can be imprisoned until they pay the penalty and [based on the original judgment they violated] disclose where the rest of their ill-gotten wealth are…”

Panganiban ended his “With Due Respect” column: “If this contempt ruling has turned the Marcos cases into an extraditable offense, why has the US not initiated extradition proceedings on BBM? And have Carranza and his militant Filipino-American allies beseeched the US to initiate such proceedings?”

This is definitely another serious dent on the armor of Bongbong, coming on the heels of his tax evasion case that simply refuses to die down even as the Comelec has shot down several petitions asking for his disqualification.

As indicative of events continually renting the air, issues continue to dog the late dictator’s son’s campaign for the presidency.

But he’s not just holding on, he’s also showing some toughness, exhibiting a veneer of unbending courage to rise to the challenges.

However, even if the young Marcos can always run, he never can, will, hide from the muck his family had piled up from the patriarch’s regime from 1965 to 1986.

The brickbats, the incessant moves to pull him down from his brittle pedestal of popularity will go on and on and on.

He will never see the end of it.

He will always be chased by the exhausting shadow of an unlamented past wrapped in chicanery and larceny as a result of his father’s punitive, plunder-rigged 21-year reign,

In a sense, Bongb. ong is to blame for the backlash he’s been reaping, for the relentless bashing he’s been absorbing.

By opening his presidential bid with “vote for me is a return to the golden legacy” of my father, Bongbong had flung himself into a booby trap.

It was also a quicksand he had gotten himself into.

There was no escaping from it.

For, what “golden legacy” was he talking about?

If at all, there is only a “golden Buddha” to talk about.

And almost everybody, including the hardcore criminals in Muntinlupa, points to Bongbong’s father as the sole thief, keeper, of the “golden Buddha.”

Unfortunately, the dictator carried to his grave the solid gold’s whereabouts.

Poor Bongbong. Destiny’s child wuz robbed.

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