EDITORIAL – Conscious minds

Call it ironic but the reason why Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is leading the latest Vice Presidential surveys are the votes of those who lived during the Marcos rule.
Yes, Senator Marcos actually zoomed to the top with the votes of those in the socioeconomic class ABC with 39 percent. He also led among Metro Manila voters with 47 percent. These are people who are relatively well-off in life as compared to the C and D class. These are also those who lived during the reign of Marcos’ father where atrocities and human rights violations have been notably recalled and drawn against the younger Marcos.
The survey noted that with the votes coming from the ABC class, it would seem that they are the conscious minds who have seen and lived through the Marcos regime but are now apparently not minding the grim experiences of the past.
On the other hand, Senator Marcos is not faring well among the young voters who were born way beyond the Marcos rule.
What the ABC class are seeing now is perhaps the vision of the young Marcos, obliterating the harrowing mistakes of the past.
That is what makes Marcos tick.
Now, he leads the surveys with 28 percent. Sen. Chiz Escudero, erstwhile frontrunner, dropped to 21 percent, Rep. Leni Robredo emerged second at 22 percent and Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s runningmate Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano at 15 percent. Sen. Antonio Trillanes is at no. 5 with 5 percent and Se. Gregorio Honasan takes the rear with 4 percent.
Sen. Marcos’ ascent to the top of the surveys only indicates a bizarre trend in Philippine politics. The more he is being dragged into the atrocities of the past, the more he rises up in the surveys.
Which leads us back to the question: Has the Filipino people, especially those who lived during the Marcos rule, forgotten the experiences of the past? Or is it the otherwise—the present correcting a past mistake?
Finally, did the Marcos reign really matter afterall among today’s electorate, most especially the conscious minds?
All too sadly, we could be staring at the naked truth.