t has been 21 years since that fateful day in February, 1986 when Ferdinand Marcos, preparing to flee Malacanang Palace, made a call to his former Defense Secretary, Juan Ponce Enrile to ask for "safe passage" for himself and his family, so they could safely leave the city for Clark Air Base in Pampanga.

What a difference two decades make! On July the seventh of this year (07/07/07), the Marcoses launched 7 books about the former dictator, and inaugurated the Marcos Presidential Center, in a desperate effort at rehabilitating his image with the public. If that wasn't enough, the Marcoses are now claiming that the late strongman was in fact the owner of many of the largest corporations in the Philippines. They assert that Ferdinand had temporarily "entrusted" his corporate holdings to friends and cronies. Now the family wants those holdings back. 

Well, this raises many curious questions. Here are just a few. First: if Marcos was such a savvy businessman who could amass mind-boggling wealth while working full-time as a politician, why was that fact not widely known or reported? For example: former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was one of the richest men in Italy before he became its Prime Minister. His great wealth due to the fact that he was the founder and main shareholder of Fininvest, one of the largest Italian conglomerates, was known to most Italians. Marcos had no such record.

Second: why would a legitimate owner of billion-peso assets transfer those assets to his friends and cronies without generating the usual documentary evidence that such transfers took place! And Marcos was supposed to have a sharp legal mind. Things just don't seem to add up...unless Marcos had something to hide.

Third: what about the Marcoses' income tax returns. Were all those companies that his heirs now allege are his, declared in any of his tax returns? The deeper one looks into this controversy, the more the Marcos family arguments fall apart.

At the end of the day, Ferdinand Marcos was chased out of the country in 1986 for a reason. He was perceived by Filipinos as a thief and a tyrant. The country had had enough of him and his ilk. People started amassing on EDSA and the rest is history. No amount of propaganda or "spin" can rehabilitate his tarnished image. In fact Transparency International still lists him as one of the world's most corrupt leaders. And all those companies that he allegedly owns—those belong to the Filipino people. God knows they've been paying for his excesses all these years.