Maglana: Hayahay para sa mga Marcos

CEBUANOS use the term “hayahay” to mean comfortable, for instance to say “hayahay nga kinabuhi” or a comfortable life. Colloquially, it also means easy or to breeze through. It has even been used as a tagline for a radio station.

Lawyer and development consultant Roy Raagas observed that the Supreme Court decision allowing the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) was “hayahay” for the Marcoses.

It was “hayahay” because the decision happened relatively fast, and the Marcoses did not have to publicly campaign hard. All because the strategy they selected secured the action they needed with little risk to them.

The Marcoses ignored a 1992 agreement with government, and delayed laying their patriarch to his final rest for 27 years. A little more than a month after President Rodrigo Roa Duterte was sworn into office, National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana issued a directive on August 7 operationalizing the verbal orders of the President on the burial.

The anti-burial campaign and the petitions lodged with the Supreme Court (SC) may have slowed down the process. But on November 8, the SC ruled it was within the discretion of the President to allow the burial. Four months and eight days into the new administration, the Marcoses got what they wanted.

Other than the “Kailian March” in mid-October and a few actions in front of the SC, the Marcoses and their supporters did not mount huge mobilizations, although the pro-burial campaign was felt online. Perhaps mobilizations were unnecessary because other elements of the strategy were at play.

This strategy apparently entails getting the highest elected official of the land to carry out their objective. The Marcoses made overtures to previous administrations about the interment, in particular those headed by former Presidents Erap Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In 2014 Fidel Ramos, another former national chief executive, accused Erap of attempting to have Marcos buried at LNMB mere days before his oath in 1998. Arroyo shifted position from opposing the burial during her time to now endorsing it.

From the looks of it, President Duterte delivered what none before him could. Perhaps because only he had the requisite capacities and will for it.

His campaign platform included a pro-burial position, although he also promised to consult with Martial Law victims, obtain consensus and seek a plebiscite. He made good his burial promise. He backed down on the plebiscite and has never met Martial Law victims on the burial issue despite repeated attempts of different groups to seek audience.

If confronted about the issue now, he could say that he just did what he promised he would—and did not 16 million vote for him on the basis of that?

His resolute ways also served the agenda. As popular explanations go, he listens to advisers but would make up his own mind about an issue and stand by it. But we forget that this is also a consummate politician whose legal and political skills are beyond question; and who, as events concerning foreign relations have shown, is capable of playing the game of subterfuge.

The framing of the issue before the SC was a masterstroke, and one which the opposition was not able to reframe. The SC did not rule on whether Marcos was a hero. They just said that “President Duterte's decision to have the remains of Marcos interred at the LNMB involves apolitical question that is not a justiciable controversy“. Not on questions of history and justice, but only whether there was grave abuse of discretion in allowing the burial of a former soldier and president. It was convenient that administrative and military regulations were used to settle the question.

Getting the burial on the table was a low-risk gambit for the Marcoses. They did not have to plead for the decision. They had government doing it for them; public resources like those from Office of the Solicitor General were used to argue on their behalf.

When the decision came out, it was the SC, particularly the nine magistrates, that got vilified. It was even the fault of others for not changing the law when they had the chance to do so. Even if the decision had been unfavorable to an LNMB burial, the Marcoses would not lose face because they were not petitioners to begin with.

Why President Duterte took on the Marcos burial will be the subject of much discussion. Perhaps he truly believed that it stood in the way of unity and needed to be resolved for the country to move on. This would have been more believable had not the President kept repeating his debt of gratitude to the Marcoses.

That he acknowledged the financial contribution of Governor Imee Marcos (allegedly taken out by Imee as a loan, and which she denied) even when she is not listed in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures is a matter of record, and should be the subject of further investigation and action.

Otherwise, pagkahayahay na lang gayud.

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