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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources-8/marcos-morales-sm.webp" alt="Ricardo Morales" />
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(Failed assasination attempt: President Marcos presenting alledged assassin, Captain Ricardo Morales on live TV, February 22, 1986)
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Morales graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1977. Morales was aide-de-camp of the then first lady, Imelda Marcos. He was also a member of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement or RAM.


He was the Army captain shown on national television by President Ferdinand Marcos. He had been captured by "loyalist" troops who caught him spying for rebel officers about to stage a coup.


How can you trust a traitor?


After that EDSA People Power episode, his fellow officers did not trust Morales for "biting the hand that fed him."


Although he reached the rank of brigadier general, he was only given minor assignments. His last assignment before he retired from the military service was as chief of the poso negro (septic tank) disposal unit at Fort Bonifacio.


How a general, and a PMAyer at that, ended up in his last days in the military as head of the waste disposal unit in the Army general headquarters is a commentary on how his fellow officers regarded him.

"Mabaho siya" (He stinks), a fellow PMAyer said. Of course, the officer was saying it in a figurative sense.


Morales was introduced to then Mayor Duterte by a retired Coast Guard officer who was close to Digong.


At the time Morales was on "floating status," meaning an officer with no assignment.


"Naawa ako sa kanya dahil lulugo-lugo" (I took pity on him because he looked dejected), the retired Coast Guard officer said.


After that, Morales hung out with Digong or served as an alalay (factotum) to the mayor in public.


"Kung alam ko lang na magiging ganoon siya, 'di ko na sana siya pinakilala kay Boss' (Had I known that he would become corrupt, I would not have introduced him to the Boss).


This retired Coast Guard officer, who was Digong's trusted man when he was still mayor, pointed out to me some people who also hung out with Digong before and are now exploiting their Cabinet positions.

Traitor then and now: Morales was aide-de-camp to Imelda Marcos part of the failed coup againt FM