When the unraveling of our country’s financial position in 1983 turned desperate, then prime minister Cesar Virata gathered the courage to talk to Marcos. He knew he simply had to tell him what was burning up inside him for so long. Here is how Virata’s biography, as written by Gerardo Sicat, related it: “He told Marcos that the only way to prevent any default was for the President to seek the assistance of ‘his friends’ who had dollar resources that could bail the country out of its crisis. It was a short term measure that could help buy time… Virata did not have to name names, but it was cle…