It's been a quarter century. Many Filipinos have already died, others are retired or about to enter the third age, but surely they all had a feeling of satisfaction yesterday when they heard the news that would be compensated for having been victims of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, who chaired Philippines with an iron fist between December 1965 and February 1986.
American lawyer Robert Swift announced yesterday that the 7,500 Filipinos who in 1986 reported being victims of the repression of the Marcos regime will receive $ 1,000 each from next week. This figure, which in Western settings may seem a pittance, and more if one takes into account the damage done and the time has passed, no longer a small fortune in a country where one in three people in a population of 94 million live on less than a dollar a day.
The announcement made by Swift has special significance because it was the eve of this day twenty five years ago a popular revolt that culminated in four days led to the Cory Aquino presidency. That February 25, 1986, Filipinos took to the streets, supported by the Catholic Church and the military and ousted Ferdinand Marcos.
That day, the dictator and his family left the Malacanang presidential palace in a helicopter of the U.S. armed forces toward the U.S. Clark Air Base and from there to exile in Hawaii, where Marcos died six years later . The revolt ignited after electoral fraud were found in the elections held in February of that year and was denied the victory to Corazon Aquino, widow of Benigno Aquino, opposition leader who was assassinated in 1983 just off the plane in returning home from exile.
"Cory" Aquino, mother of current President Benigno Aquino, called for civil disobedience. There was a failed coup, millions of Filipinos took to the streets and the army sided with the people and refused to attack his fellow soldiers and the population. And on February 25, 1986 was sworn in to assume the presidency.
It was the culmination of a tumultuous time, governed by a climate of violence and repression, the Church compared to the "dirty war" that gripped Argentina in the mid-70's of last century. In those months before the election many Filipinos challenged the regime and took to the streets to demand democracy and many paid with torture and imprisonment.
Now, finally, will be partly compensated their sacrifices. The money will be a pool of about 8,000 million dollars to the Marcos family operated. A total of 7,500 million from three companies, based in the United States, linked to the family of Ferdinand Marcos and expropriated by a judge in Hawaii, where the Philippine dictator died in 1989.
And others seized $ 354 million to his widow, Imelda Marcos, and his eldest son Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The money from these payments will be welcomed by the victims of Marcos. However, they will see the bitter aftertaste of twenty-five years later, the current president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, the son of Corazon Aquino and Benigno Aquino, is still struggling against poverty and endemic corruption that plagues the country and which the Marcos family again be represented in the echelons of power.
Imelda Marcos did in the last election a seat in the House of Representatives, his son Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos, was elected senator and does not rule in a future report to the presidential race and his sister, Michael was chosen governor of the province of Ilocos North historical family feud Marcos.
Logaron Filipinos independence in 1898, but was not recognized until July 1946. After twenty one years of a dictatorial regime imposed by Marcos, regained democracy in 1986. In 2011, however, the country is still dominated to a greater extent by the sixty families that are socially and historically the core of Philippine society, according to observers agree in pointing out the political reality of this archipelago of over 7,000 islands. 
American lawyer Robert Swift announced yesterday that the 7,500 Filipinos who in 1986 reported being victims of the repression of the Marcos regime will receive $ 1,000 each from next week. This figure, which in Western settings may seem a pittance, and more if one takes into account the damage done and the time has passed, no longer a small fortune in a country where one in three people in a population of 94 million live on less than a dollar a day.
The announcement made by Swift has special significance because it was the eve of this day twenty five years ago a popular revolt that culminated in four days led to the Cory Aquino presidency. That February 25, 1986, Filipinos took to the streets, supported by the Catholic Church and the military and ousted Ferdinand Marcos.
That day, the dictator and his family left the Malacanang presidential palace in a helicopter of the U.S. armed forces toward the U.S. Clark Air Base and from there to exile in Hawaii, where Marcos died six years later . The revolt ignited after electoral fraud were found in the elections held in February of that year and was denied the victory to Corazon Aquino, widow of Benigno Aquino, opposition leader who was assassinated in 1983 just off the plane in returning home from exile.
"Cory" Aquino, mother of current President Benigno Aquino, called for civil disobedience. There was a failed coup, millions of Filipinos took to the streets and the army sided with the people and refused to attack his fellow soldiers and the population. And on February 25, 1986 was sworn in to assume the presidency.
It was the culmination of a tumultuous time, governed by a climate of violence and repression, the Church compared to the "dirty war" that gripped Argentina in the mid-70's of last century. In those months before the election many Filipinos challenged the regime and took to the streets to demand democracy and many paid with torture and imprisonment.
Now, finally, will be partly compensated their sacrifices. The money will be a pool of about 8,000 million dollars to the Marcos family operated. A total of 7,500 million from three companies, based in the United States, linked to the family of Ferdinand Marcos and expropriated by a judge in Hawaii, where the Philippine dictator died in 1989.
And others seized $ 354 million to his widow, Imelda Marcos, and his eldest son Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The money from these payments will be welcomed by the victims of Marcos. However, they will see the bitter aftertaste of twenty-five years later, the current president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino, the son of Corazon Aquino and Benigno Aquino, is still struggling against poverty and endemic corruption that plagues the country and which the Marcos family again be represented in the echelons of power.
Imelda Marcos did in the last election a seat in the House of Representatives, his son Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos, was elected senator and does not rule in a future report to the presidential race and his sister, Michael was chosen governor of the province of Ilocos North historical family feud Marcos.
Logaron Filipinos independence in 1898, but was not recognized until July 1946. After twenty one years of a dictatorial regime imposed by Marcos, regained democracy in 1986. In 2011, however, the country is still dominated to a greater extent by the sixty families that are socially and historically the core of Philippine society, according to observers agree in pointing out the political reality of this archipelago of over 7,000 islands.
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