Marcos’ World War II medals (2)

Marcos’ World War II medals (2) | Daily Tribune

To give in to the whims and caprices of the green-eyed monster in a community will lead to the deterioration and decay of human society.

When President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. visited Washington in September 1982, Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger presented him with a case displaying US medals supposedly awarded to him in World War II, and President Reagan complimented him at a special ceremony for fighting “valiantly” on the US side against Japan.

A Philippine government publicity brochure described Marcos as “his country’s most decorated soldier,” with more awards — 32 — than the 27 credited to American World War II hero Audie Murphy.

Supposedly included in these decorations were two US Silver Stars and a Distinguished Service Cross.

John Sharkey wrote the foregoing account in The Washington Post on 18 December 1983.

Stories written by Filipino reporters about Marcos during the period 1962 to 2016 almost always contained a slur or a slant against his person, like the following:

The biggest controversy from stories written by Filipino reporters about Marcos concerned his claim during the 1962 senatorial campaign of being the “most decorated war hero of the Philippines.”

He claimed to have received 33 war medals and decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor, “but researchers later found that stories about the wartime exploits of Marcos were mostly propaganda, being inaccurate or untrue. Only two of the supposed 33 awards — the Gold Cross and the Distinguished Service Star — were given during the war, and both had been contested by Marcos’ superiors.”

Often, because of envy or bias toward the person, Filipino authors use the wrong word, as in this statement: “For topping the national bar examination, Marcos gained notoriety.”

Why notoriety? In the Oxford, Collins and Cambridge dictionaries, notoriety means the state of being well-known for something bad. Is it bad to top the Bar exam?

It has been unfortunate for Filipinos who believed in and loved President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. that his military career during World War II had been the subject of debate and controversy, both in the Philippines and international circles.

“US military records show that he rejoined the United States Forces in the Philippines or USAFIP in 1944. Marcos’ military service then formally ended with his discharge as a major in the 14th Infantry, US Armed Forces in the Philippines, Northern Luzon in May 1945.”

Another account states that after his release, Marcos claimed that he spent much of the period between August 1942 and his December 1944 return to USAFIP as a leader of a 9,000-strong guerrilla organization called Ang Mga Maharlika (The Nobles). His accounts were later cast into doubt after a “United States military investigation exposed many of his claims as either false or inaccurate.”

As reported by a local Philippine newspaper on 20 August 2016: “3 US medals that Marcos was said to have received were fake, according to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.”

Marcos had a disturbed life because he was involved in a case where he was accused of killing a politician who had defeated his father in an election. Marcos was initially found guilty, but later, this was overturned by the Supreme Court.

Marcos served in the military during World War II, but the media reported questions about his actual experiences and the medals he claimed to have received.

According to a column by Jarius Bondoc in 2016, the Marcos war medals were revealed to be part of a fabricated narrative.

These awards were allegedly primarily bestowed at politically strategic moments, with questionable authenticity, including duplicates, with some being merely campaign ribbons.

(To be continued)