I am not sure if we could consider it an indictment of all of Marcos’ successors, but the over-all sentiment expressed by my listener-callers was that there hasn’t been much we can consider as advances since 1986 and there is a laundry list of where we seem to have marched backwards.

The only major advancement that the callers were quick to concede was democracy’s return – and even on this score there were so many "howevers", including sentiments expressed to the effect that maybe the return of democracy is precisely what has kept us from making great strides forward.

As one caller put it, without a touch of irony: "At least during the time of Marcos corruption was limited to one family." Not exactly accurate, but I am sure you get his drift.

There were the usual reasons pegged on the disparity in prices of commodities. One caller pointed out that during the 70s and 80s, a ganta of rice was priced in centavos; today you have to fork over more than 100 times that.

Another claimed that during the Marcos years one could go home in the wee hours of the morning and not worry about encountering a criminal mind; today people are worried about petty criminals, not to mention criminals in uniform and hoodlums in robes.

One caller said that not one among Marcos’ successors could match his foresight – for example, early on Marcos had the brilliant idea of looking to nuclear power to solve our power deficiency; today after being mothballed for over 20 years the idea of reviving the Bataan plant is considered reasonable.

Of course the conversation inevitably drifted towards the rice crisis, and Marcos was hailed as the only president who was able to achieve rice sufficiency. One caller insisted that only Marcos was able to impose discipline, not only on society but even on the military. And another echoed the sentiment, citing the execution of the drug trafficker Lim Seng.

It was clear to me that in the midst of all the political noise that has been bedeviling the Arroyo administration from Day Two many of our countrymen see the Marcos years with rose-colored lenses. Maybe it is simply a function of time – it has already been 22 years after all since Edsa 1. Maybe it is also a function of information control: no other administration had as total a grip on information dissemination as the Marcos administration, and we must remember that we didn’t have the ability to text or send email during the 70s and 80s. Maybe it is a function of frustration too: after so many good starts and raised expectations we seem to come back down to earth with a hard thud, and find ourselves having taken two steps back after just one step forward.

But undeniably it is also a function of fact: No other administration had built as many schools, paved as many roads or erected as many public buildings as the Marcos administration did. The North and South Expressways are two of the more prominent examples. From the time both were built, facilitating travel from Metro Manila to nearby provinces, it was only in the last five years that both highways were upgraded – repaved and widened, actually, and not even extended.

In contrast, the images we have of his successor administrations have been a restoration of the oligarchy during Cory’s time coupled with a wanton disregard for anything associated with Marcos; during the Ramos administration it was all excitement and pomp and pageantry that was rendered inutile by the Asian financial crisis and then tainted by the Centennial scandal. Of course Erap will forever be tainted by the fight of his cronies over Bingo 2-ball, which led to other revelations that resulted in his ouster; GMA, on the other hand, will always be remembered for (could we name them all?) Macapagal Avenue; "Hello Garci" and the desire to lead by one million; numerous surveys showing the Philippines as "numero uno" in corruption; leaving her ailing husband’s side to witness the signing of the ZTE NBN broadband deal; and now the stark reality of the Philippines being the world’s biggest importer of rice.

Not to mention cases like Nani Perez’, which apparently happened right under her upturned nose, and Norberto Gonzales who began the practice of Cabinet members refusing to testify by citing executive privilege in order to hide what only they and their God would know.

Bring back Marcos? Even if this were possible, I’d say No thank you. But yes, I too desire much better governance from the people we’ve been entrusting our futures to – but so far it seems we’ve always been making mistakes – in fact compounding one mistake with another.