In the 70's, there was a joke that people around that time might remember. The joke goes by saying, "If President Ferdinand Marcos ordered General Fabian Ver to jump off a building, he would ask right away, 'at what feet, sir?'." General Fabian Ver, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, the commandant of the military, would do anything for the President. Of course, he wouldn't really jump off a building because President Marcos said so, but this just shows how far the people who are loyal to him can go. He had all the power, the people, and the means to control the Filipinos; this leaves us with a question in mind: was Ferdinand Marcos the first Filipino King?
First, what makes a king a king? In an absolute monarchy, the monarch is the sole authority. He is judge, jury, and executioner. He is the state, cannot be questioned, and is all mighty and powerful. If this is what makes a king, then Ferdinand Marcos ticks all the boxes. He was all the aforementioned. He was not a normal king; he was a merciless king. This King sought to control every way of life, from the length of your hair to the music that you listen to, to the books that you read, and to the way you should think.
How did this 'King' end up on this throne? All of these go back a half century ago, when the President used an ambush on the then-Defense Secretary Enrile, yes, that 'Enrile', as a pretext to place the entire country under martial law. These made the two-term limited president into the Tyrant that he was. He scrapped the existing constitution and threw it in the window. The once known as the 'Freest Press in Asia' were shut down, rounded up his political opponents, suspensed civil liberties, and institutionalized state-sponsored terrorism. With this much power over the people, he gained notoriety for his plunder. Corruption, forced disappearances, torture, and crimes against humanity remain unaccounted for.
But 14 years after sitting on his throne of tyranny, the people toppled this king. It was a bloodless revolution. It proved that the power of the people is stronger than the people in power. 38 years after the revolution, where are we now as a people? We have his prince on his old throne; he was laid in a Heroes Cemetery because his then-admirer, another 'wannabe' king whose throne is in the south called 'Davao', is now his prince's mortal enemy. Who also has skeletons in his closet and runs from the International Criminal Court for his possible crimes against humanity regarding his own so-called 'war on drugs'.
History does repeat itself, and the Filipino have not learned the lesson because the Filipino does not want to. Authoritarian rule can always come back, especially when the country's democracy is like an unfinished claypot. It's fragile and still needs to be strengthened. There are still people around who deny the horrors of this "king's" reign. But always remember, freedom is like a flickering candle; it leaves you in the dark when it goes out.