Velez: A question of heroes reboot

ON THE 35th death anniversary of Senator Ninoy Aquino, this daughter of the late strongman, Imee Marcos, tells us to move on, to forget this dark past where this senator was martyred for standing up against her father’s dark regime. Two days later, Imee was the invited the guest of honor during the 122nd anniversary of the Cry of Pugad Lawin.

There is a cry now among the public, especially from the victims of the Marcos’ regime. Why is this daughter pushing her name back to national acceptance? Just like her brother, there seems no remorse, but a revision of the history that claimed thousands of lives and plundered millions of wealth.

It seems once again, we are a nation that has forgotten who the heroes and who the villains are. As we end the National Heroes Month, it seems we need to look back at our history, and continuing history.

There is a book by National Artist Nick Joaquin called “A Question of Heroes,” in which he weaves his value judgment on the heroes of the Philippine Revolution, demystifying and questioning why we claim the movers of the anti-Spanish movements as heroes.

Foremost, we look at Rizal as the “First Filipino.” Joaquin quoted Leon Ma. Guerrero who described Rizal was “a nationalist who did not recognize his nation when it suddenly rose before him, a bloody apparition in arms.” Rizal was a nationalist in words, but refused to acknowledge the Katipunan’s Revolution.

Joaquin’s judgment on the movers of the La Solidaridad Propaganda Movement and the Katipunan is interesting and invites debates on his judgment. That Bonifacio was a failed revolutionary for his defeat in battles, that Aguinaldo was a middle class figure unable to carry on the Revolution and fell to America’s hand, and how he sacrificed Goyo del Pilar and Heneral Luna. That Lopez Jaena wrote propaganda only for pay, and later turned against Soli. That Mabini did nothing to protect the Revolution.

Joaquin leaves the final hero, Ricarte, a caretaker of the Revolutionary Government, as a symbol that the Revolution that started with the ilustrado had spread, into the shadows, into the truly revolutionary class. He could have included the likes of Sakay.

This is history written in an interesting view from heroes as characters. Too bad I lost that book to a friend. But this is a good read, a good take-off point to understand history is not just about adoring heroes, but questioning their motives.

We can use the same questioning on the presidents and their aspirants whose names are recycled in the past 50 years, from Marcos to Aquino to Macapagal-Arroyo. Can we call them heroes? What about the present occupant who fancied himself an outsider champion of the poor and of Mindanao? What about the Marcoses who want to come back? Historians say we are looking at the wrong way. The heroes have always been the poor, who sacrificed from the Katipunan to EDSA to the present.

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