BY ALLOWING the premature and surreptitious burial of the remains of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, Duterte lost a golden opportunity to put the festering and divisive issue to rest and allow the country to move on, heal, and possibly unite. With the lifting of the TRO on the government’s order to the Department of Defense to make preparations for Marcos’ burial, his remains were interred amid a veil of secrecy and deception. It’s absurd, if not comedic, to note that the process was supposed to have been done behind the public eye yet the Marcos camp provided continuous updates of the proceedings on social media. Despite earlier pronouncements that it would be a simple burial for a fallen soldier, the army found it wise and proper to give the former president a 21-gun salute, an honor bestowed only to individuals with untarnished reputation and legacy.
Had the government and the Marcos family waited for the end of the 15-day period required for the Supreme Court order to become final, maybe, just maybe, the Filipino public could have grudgingly accepted the fact. Now, the gauntlet has opened for all anti-Marcos forces to question the motivation and legality of the move.
The issue will continue to haunt the country for the foreseeable future because the Marcos family has not come clean to find it in their hearts to apologize for the sins of Martial Law. On a few occasions, family members have asked for forgiveness but claim they have nothing to apologize for on the premise that if ever there were wrongs committed, they were personal to the perpetrator who was never criminally convicted. And the Duterte administration has doused fuel to the fire by allowing the burial without waiting for the end of the period for which the adverse party to the controversy can file a motion for reconsideration. Again, the rule of law and due process has been blatantly thrown aside and the country will continue to suffer for it.
Forgiveness and reconciliation can only come if there is a genuine desire from the wrongdoer to admit, apologize, and atone for their sins. As this is not forthcoming from the Marcoses, the country still exists as a broken mass of porcelain jar, possible but difficult to put together and restore.
The scars of the Marcos dictatorship will never heal in the nation’s collective backs because the country did not have a leader early on who had the wisdom and the foresight to establish a body like that of South Africa’s Truth Commission at the end of apartheid in 1994. Widely regarded as the most successful investigative forums to have emerged in countries where atrocities had been committed, it was the first to offer amnesty to individuals who disclosed in public their involvement in politically-motivated crimes. The commission was more interested in meeting restorative rather than punitive justice. Since then South Africa has taken great strides in economic and political development as a united country.
Can a body similar to the Truth Commission still be established in the Philippines to find restorative justice and unite the country? Not anymore because most of the perpetrators of the injustices of Martial Law have long died and those who are alive refuse to admit their sins. And the main requisite for the cathartic nature of the investigation to take effect is public personal admission, apology, and request for forgiveness. That opportunity had slipped years ago.
With the legally infirm interment of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, Duterte has not only failed to even just slightly light the way to national reconciliation, he has succeeded in breaking open a wound that just refuses to heal.