Bambi Eloriaga-Amago
But perhaps the most polarizing post on the issue came from Ms. Lorraine Marie Badoy, daughter of former Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Anacleto Badoy. The post was inundated by hundreds of replies, both from pro and anti-Marcos commenters alike. Ms. Badoy begins her lengthy post by expressing her gratitude for finally knowing how the Filipinos’ money was spent. “I am grateful to know, for once, where our money went and that it was well-spent—unlike Bongbong’s Oxford “education”… But Imee did her homework well. Got one of the best plastic surgeons to chainsaw her baba and anime her eyes and god knows what else. Yes ok, it’s still a pain to know we paid for her makeover. Still, you gotta hand it to her. The homely girl with Arsenio Lacson-like features is no more.”
She then professes to see the cover for what it really is. “I see how massive wealth stolen from a country bleeding and down on its knees can be used to buy not just respectability but oh-darn-god adoration from the very people this family of shameless thieves have bled dry.”
Ms. Badoy then narrates, perhaps as a juxtaposition to the lavish Marcos lifestyle, scenes of extreme poverty one encounters every day on the streets. Then she brings up instances of human rights abuses perpetrated during Martial Law, especially the one involving Imee Marcos herself. “…I see the bloodied body of Archimedes Trajano—the 22-year-old Mapua student who had the temerity to ask Imee Marcos in an open forum ‘Must the Kabataang Barangay be headed by the president’s daughter?’ And this so angered the plastic-surgeried one that Archimedes Trajano was picked up right there and then by Imee’s bodyguards and tortured and killed.”
Ms. Badoy’s post has so far generated 5,152 shares, mostly by those agreeing with her views. But even after almost three decades since the collapse of the regime, Marcos loyalists and admirers still make up a significant number of the population. They are quick to defend Imee.
User Adelaida Honda saw Ms. Badoy’s post only as an envious rant. “Nag pa Surgery Lang Magnanakaw Na… Dahil Gumanda Nainggit Na… Whag naman laging Inggit at Galit ang Pina iiral nyo. (Having surgery doesn’t make her a thief. You are envious just because she became beautiful. Don’t always let anger and envy take control.” Maria Cecilia Alvarez agrees, accusing Ms. Badoy and others of having crab mentality.
Luchie Baptista Fiesta, after commenting “duh! Inggit lang kayo, (You’re just envious.)” got into an online tussle with another user, Alan Robles, who accused her of being tanga (stupid.) “Andyan ang Google – ang daling i-research ang ginawa ng mga Marcos. Hindi mo magawa? Tamad? O tanga? (There’s Google. It’s so easy to research on what the Marcoses did. You can’t do it? Are you lazy? Or stupid?)” Robles asked. Another user, going by the alias of Steve Rogers, joined the fray explaining: “You’re confusing inggit (envy) with galit (anger.) Two different things. I might be a little envious of rich people who earned their wealth and fame, but there would be respect in there too. When rich people who stole their money flaunt it they don’t get jealousy, they get anger.”
Amidst the heated discussion, user Rhodora Bucoy asked for patience and understanding. And sent out a plea that social media instead be used to enlighten the younger generation: “The way the pro-Marcos display their sentiments is irritating. But I don’t like to feel condescending to those who have peripheral understanding of Martial rule and its horrors. Lets use social media to enlighten the young generation the so-called millennials of the Marcos dictatorship and refute his sons’ mythic claim.”
