📷Dec. 2023 Christmas Party at Malacanang ( Liza Marcos | Instagram)
The Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA) assails the hypocrisy in Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s recent call to government agencies to avoid lavish Christmas parties this December, when barely a month a half prior, multi-million peso renovations were done on Bahay Pangulo where Marcos Jr. and his wife Liza Araneta-Marcos reside.
Considering that Marcos Jr. made this appeal in light of the series of strong typhoons that devastated the country in the past two weeks, it is jarring that the Marcoses showed off last October the renovated presidential residence just days after typhoon Julian ravaged the country, leaving in its wake a total of 93,480 families or 322,397 persons affected in 960 barangays in Regions I, II, and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
It was with this backdrop that Liza Araneta-Marcos proudly showed the media the newly renovated Bahay Pangulo that was made to give off a resort-like feel, and featured a pool, gym, billiard table, arcade machine and racing simulator for presidential son Vincent.
Despite the call for frugality, the Marcoses can easily throw lavish Christmas parties away from the public eye, the same way they held what was supposed to be a hush-hush extravaganza for Marcos Jr.’s birthday on September 13, where British rock group Duran Duran, said to be a favorite of Marcos Jr., was flown in, especially for the birthday bash at a five-star hotel. Booking Duran Duran for a private party alone reportedly costs anywhere from PhP30 million to PhP50 million.
Combining Imeldific lavishness with Marcosian subterfuge, however, can only get the Marcoses so far. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should take heed in the public outrage inspired by the smuggled videos showing the dictator and his family partying like there was no tomorrow in Malacañang and the presidential yacht in the 1980s. If he knows his history, he should realize that profligacy had severely isolated his family from the impoverished masses and eventually led to their downfall.#
