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Bambina Olivares

“Cut and cut cleanly. The time has come.”
Donald Trump, the outgoing president of the United States, might do well to heed the terse advice given in February 1986 by then-senator Paul Laxalt to the autocratic Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos.
Like Trump, Marcos had just been beaten at the polls by his opponent Corazon Aquino, the widow drafted by the opposition after her husband and long-time Marcos rival, Benigno Aquino, was assassinated upon his return from exile in 1983.
Also like Trump, Marcos declared victory despite mounting evidence of his defeat.
Although he had called the 1986 snap election as a bluff, never thinking that Filipinos would seriously elect a plain housewife with zero political experience to lead the country, he was confident that his appointees on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) would manage to manipulate the vote count in his favour, should the need arise.

Outraged at being asked to falsify electoral results for Marcos, 30 Comelec employees walked out of the counting centre. Meanwhile, an independent civic group that called itself Namfrel (National Citizens Movement for Free Elections) had been conducting its own unofficial count, which put Aquino significantly ahead of Marcos.
Like Trump, Marcos refused to resign or concede. The strongman, now much diminished, was effectively barricaded within the walls of Malacañang, the presidential palace, desperately contemplating various scenarios that might allow him to stay in power. He could not quite accept the reality that his regime was ending. He turned to his old friend, the US, for backup.
As a Southeast Asian bulwark against communism, the Philippines was a strategic American ally. The then-US vice-president, George H.W. Bush, had sung Marcos’ praises as recently as 1981, during his third presidential inauguration, following a sham election.
Bush raised his champagne glass in a toast to Marcos, declaring with a straight face: “We love your adherence to democratic principles and to the democratic processes. We would not leave you in isolation … it would be turning our backs on history if we did.”
But America, in the end, discarded Marcos. When it became clear that Aquino had won, the Reagan administration told him it was time to step down.

Like Trump, Marcos could not fathom the extent to which he was detested. He had underestimated the patience of the Filipino people after two decades of governing through repression, fear and corruption, which saw political opponents, student activists, journalists and dissenters imprisoned, abducted, tortured or killed, while he and his cronies merrily looted the country’s coffers.
Undeterred by Marcos’ declaration of a state of emergency, Filipinos – including my mother, Ninez Cacho-Olivares, a journalist and outspoken Marcos critic – took to the streets to protest his false claims of victory, chanting “Marcos Resign!” and “Tama na, sobra na!” – “Enough is enough!”.
Philippine court throws out US$3.9 billion Marcos family forfeiture case
Their fervour was buoyed further by two high-profile defectors from the Marcos camp, Defence Secretary Juan Ponce-Enrile and the vice-chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, General Fidel Ramos, who would succeed Aquino as president in 1992.
Both Aquino and Marcos proclaimed themselves president, taking the oath of office on the same day, February 25, during two separate swearing-in ceremonies. As Marcos was about to be sworn in, the television screens abruptly went blank.

Within hours, Marcos and his family, plus household staff and loyalists, had fled the country, hastily ferried to Hawaii in US military helicopters loaded with diapers stuffed with millions of dollars, gold bullion, and jewellery. And with that, a jubilant country celebrated the restoration of democracy, however imperfect, under Aquino.
Like Marcos, Donald Trump in defeat steals from the authoritarian playbook, echoing the late strongman’s refusal to concede with grace.
Like Marcos, he has no qualms about gaslighting an entire nation, prostituting its institutions and insisting that he, not President-elect Joe Biden, won the 2020 elections in a landslide. And like Marcos, he thinks nothing of pressuring allies to overturn electoral results.
Unlike Marcos, however, Trump is merely a grifter, not an astute politician with a keen eye towards his legacy. Trump is a narcissist incapable of sacrificing his own self-interest for the greater good of the nation; instead he relishes the chaos and division he sows.


Marcos had some dignity. Being flown out of the country so unceremoniously by the American military was humiliating enough, yet he accepted, however grudgingly, that his fate was to be exile.
Mostly, he seemed bewildered at how swiftly and irrevocably history had rendered whatever presidential ambitions he might have still had utterly irrelevant.
There was no need for petulance, no need to delegitimise a fair election with relentless lies, no need to continue demanding a recount a month later. With Trump, unfortunately, there is no nadir. And his party still indulges him, at least publicly.
So, which Republican Senator is going to tell Trump that the time has come to cut, and cut cleanly?


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Donald Trump

Donald Trump should remember the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos when considering his exit strategy

Protesters hold mock hammers with the words “No Hero” in front of a portrait of the late president Ferdinand Marcos as they denounce his burial at the Heroes' Cemetery in Manila in November 2016. Photo: Reuters

(FILES) This file photo taken November 15, 1985 shows Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos (L) and his wife Imelda (R) appearing before college students undergoing a two-year compulsory military training in Manila. - Imelda Marcos was found guilty of corruption on November 9, 2018 and ordered arrested in a rare conviction for the former Philippine first lady accused with her late dictator husband of embezzling billions of dollars from state coffers. (Photo by Romeo GACAD / AFP)

epa05179467 Filipinos give soldiers flowers in front of the People Power monument during the 30th anniversary of the fall of the then President Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship, in Quezon city, east of Manila, Philippines, 25 February 2016. The People Power Revolution (EDSA) was a bloodless citizens' uprising that ousted late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. EPA/MARK R. CRISTINO

President Donald Trump talks to the media outside the White House on Oct. 21, 2020, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images/TNS)

Philippines court throws out US$3.9 billion Marcos family forfeiture case

Late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, left, pictured with his wife Imelda in 1985. Photo: AFP

(FILES) In a file picture taken on February 16, 2001, former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos (2L) accompanied by tourism official Marides Fernando (L), looks at her famous shoe collection after formally opening the suburban Marikina Shoe Museum. A museum guard's quick thinking saved part of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos's infamous shoe collection when huge floods devastated the nation's capital, a report said on October 8, 2009. AFP PHOTO/JOEL NITO / AFP PHOTO / AFP FILES / JOEL NITO

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures with a fist bump after addressing congressmen and Government officials at the presentation of Republic Act bills ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Manila, Philippines, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018. Philippine officials say President Rodrigo Duterte has told his Cabinet that medical tests show he doesn't have cancer, but he won't be releasing a public report on his health. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

Marcos family to return wealth, including gold bars, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte claims

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo: AFP

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Like the outgoing US president, Marcos was beaten soundly at the polls. Like Trump, Marcos declared victory despite mounting evidence of defeat
Marcos eventually accepted his fate, and was flown out of the Philippines under humiliating circumstances. Will Trump follow the same script?



Like Trump, Marcos was beaten soundly at the polls. Like Trump, Marcos declared victory despite mounting evidence of defeat. But he eventually left under humiliating circumstances – is the same in store for the outgoing US president?


US presidential election 2020

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Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Opinion | Donald Trump should remember the Philippines’ Ferdinand Marcos when considering his exit strategy

Like the outgoing US president, Marcos was beaten soundly at the polls. Like Trump, Marcos declared victory despite mounting evidence of defeat Marcos eventually accepted his fate, and was flown out of the Philippines under humiliating circumstances. Will Trump follow the same script?

Like the outgoing US president, Marcos was beaten soundly at the polls. Like Trump, Marcos declared victory despite mounting evidence of defeat

Marcos eventually accepted his fate, and was flown out of the Philippines under humiliating circumstances. Will Trump follow the same script?