A DYING MARCOS WANTED TO SETTLE NINE YEARS AGO
Dr. Salvador H. Laurel
It is well to recall at this point that nine years ago a dying Marcos personally asked me to convey to then President Cory Aquino a 90 - 10 settlement in favor of the government, but Mrs. Aquino would not hear of it. Let me narrate the incident which is now a footnote to history.
It happened on February 2, 1989, at about 5 o'clock in the afternoon. I was at home when an urgent call came from Honolulu. I was surprised to hear Imelda Romualdez Marcos on the other line. She was sobbing. "Doy, gusto kang kausapin ni Ferdinand! Mayroon siyang gustong sabihin sa iyo! Masama na ang kanyang tayo! Please come right away!", she pleaded.
"I am not sure I can leave right away," I replied, "I'll have to cancel my appointments. I can probably leave in a few days."
She interrupted me, "Baka hindi mo na siya abutin! Please come right away!"
I thought about it after closing the phone. The "Ill-gotten wealth" cases against the Marcoses had been pending in the courts since 1986, yet nothing had been recovered. Meanwhile, the nation was critically fragmented and short of funds. Perhaps, I thought, if we tried Lincolnian approach - "With malice towards none, with charity for all" - we might be able to "bind the nation's wounds" and move forward. Then I recalled Imelda's plea "gusto kang kausapin. " Perhaps there could be a chance to settle the issue fairly to all concerned?
The next day I left for Honolulu.
I could not recognize Ferdinand Marcos when I saw him at the Intensive Care Unit of the St. Francis Hospital. The Marcos I knew was athletic and articulate. The man I saw was almost skin and bones, hardly eighty-five pounds!
Imelda tried to cheer him up. "Andy, Andy, dumating na ang Batangueño! Narito na si Doy!" His eyes opened and seemed to recognize me. He tried to talk, his lips were moving - but there was no sound! I told Imelda, "I cannot understand what he was trying to say." Hearing me, the sick man signaled the nurse to remove the tube buried in his throat. A long tube was pulled out of his tracheotomy and the open wound was covered with a guaze. The nurse asked me to lean forward and place my ear near his lips. Then I heard his voice - very faint - hardly a whisper, "Salamat, brod, nakarating ka, I have something to tell you," he started.
I interrupted him "Before you start, Mr. President, may I ask one question?" He nodded. "Why did you call me? Why me of all people? I opposed you vehemently. I led the demos in the streets. I was probably one of those responsible for your ouster. Why me?"
He signaled me to stop. "Say no more brod, I never held that against you. I would have done the same thing if I had been the leader of the opposition. And you opposed me on principle - you opposed me on the issue of martial law - you never resorted to personalities. Besides I cannot forget that I owe my life to your father. Let me talk now. I have very little time."
"I'm listening," I said, and leaned closer.
"Please tell Mrs. Aquino to stop sending me her relatives," he (Marcos) said.
"They keep pestering me with so many proposals. Tell her I am willing to turn over 90% of all my earthly possessions to the Filipino people. Only 10% will go to my family. I have already created a foundation for this. Enrique Zobel has all the papers. All I ask is that I be allowed to die in my own country. The Philippines is my only country. I have no other country..."
He was mentioning two other "messages" when his breathing became more labored. The nurse had to stop him from talking. "He has to rest now," she said. As I was leaving I told President Marcos, "I will see what I can do." I noticed then that only the nurse and Col. Arturo Aruiza, who died only a week ago, were in the room.
I returned to Manila the next day, February 4, and immediately sought an appointment with President Aquino to convey the offer of the dying Marcos. I even asked my classmate, the Executive Secretary Catalino Macaraeg, to help me get a 3-minute meeting with Cory, but I was told that Mrs. Aquino had no time for her Vice President.
I hurriedly wrote her a letter that same day formally asking for a chance to transmit the message personally. Again I was refused.
Now is the time to let all these come out.
July 14, 1998
P.S. The articles in this site are excerpted from Dr. Salvador H. Laurel’s weekly column, Turning Point, which ran in the Manila Bulletin from 1995 to early 1999. This is an online repository of Dr. Laurel’s Turning Point articles, arranged by topic.
For permission to reproduce or quote any of the article posted here, kindly contact the administrators of the Salvador H. Laurel Museum and Library Facebook page at cdbonoan@gmail.com or miriamcast63@yahoo.com.
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