Filipino Community in L.A. Remains Deeply Split Over Marcos

In exile, Ferdinand E. Marcos split Los Angeles’ Filipino community, leaving it bitterly divided over his efforts to return to his native country. In the hours after his death, there were sorrowful reactions from fellow expatriates--and a clear sign that the Marcos controversy has not ended.

“My initial reaction is sadness,” Rolando B. Fernandez, president of the Filipino American Community of Los Angeles, known as FACLA, said Thursday. “He was a good man. He was brilliant, and I respect him.”

Municipal Court Judge Mel Red Recana, another prominent member of the local Filipino community, also had kind words for the former president.

“He is a Filipino, after all. He did things we did not like, but he did good things as well,” Recana said. “This is now a healing period for all of us.”

Among the county’s estimated 155,000 Filipinos, the years have seen a closing of the rift between pro- and anti-Marcos factions that had deepened in the wake of his ouster from the Philippine presidency and allegations that he had looted the country’s treasury.

Fernandez, whose organization claims the largest membership among the county’s Filipinos, said he hopes that Marcos’ death will work to unify his fellow expatriates and not reopen old political wounds. But many of the Filipinos who showed up at an afternoon dance at FACLA’s Los Angeles headquarters not only mourned the death of the man some still revere as their president but also contended that he suffered needlessly.

“As Filipinos, we pray that his sins will be forgiven,” said Nemesio T. Bonoan, president of the Philippine Retirees Assn. of California. “Let us forgive and forget.”

Others in the crowd--some of whom were dressed in their traditional barong tagalogs and butterfly-sleeved gowns popularized by Imelda Marcos--called the news of Marcos’ death tragic and defended a man who has been accused of plundering his own country of billions of dollars and who was forced to give up his office.

“He was a great president, and he should be allowed to go home,” said Aledria Albano, who was busily circulating a petition among the dancers and card players asking President Corazon Aquino to allow the Marcos family to bury his remains in the Philippines.

The issue of where the former president will be buried has galvanized Marcos supporters and others who feel that his body should now be returned to his native country. And a small group of protesters met Thursday with officials of the Philippine Consulate to press their view that Marcos should return “for the sake of national unity.”

Alex A. Esclamado, publisher and editor in chief of the California-based Philippine News, supported the Aquino government’s decision not to allow burial in the Philippines and said Marcos loyalists should accept his death. He added: “I feel the death of Marcos will finally close the darkest period of Philippine history.”