LET me get this straight. This is neither about President Duterte nor about the Aquinos. This is for all the Filipinos who sacrificed during the dark years of dictatorship, for the victims of the evil leadership, and for us today who enjoy the freedom. The numbers are real: 3,257 murdered (several still missing), around 40,000 tortured, and over 60,000 illegally detained. Women vanished into the night… some brought to military safe houses where only military was safe while the ladies got raped repeatedly. Anybody can be arrested during those times - even an ambulant vendor can be accused of rebellion without any evidence.
Words have been spoken. Instead of being apologetic, Bongbong Marcos has been quoted in 1999 by saying “Some of these people who are claiming to be human rights victims have never been victims except (of) their own greed.” There was no admission of guilt, no remorse from the family but rather denial and many attempts of justification. How can one easily forgive and forget the pain if the Marcos family does not concede to the crimes during FM’s ruling? I am not invested in the glorification of the Aquino family.
Admittedly, there is truth to the claim of Marcos loyalists that the status of the Philippines did not get any better during the administration of the late Corazon Aquino and her son, Noynoy. But the stories of horror and corruption during Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship were also documented. I remember during the vice presidential campaign, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano accused the Marcos family of stalling government’s recovery of around $1 billion of their ill-gotten wealth. Cayetano also challenged Bongbong Marcos that he will withdraw his candidacy of he is wrong but Bongbong should not only withdraw but also return the ill-gotten wealth to the Filipinos if he is proven right.
During Marcos dictatorship, limited television programs have been shown to public because of strict censorship by the palace. My aunts who were most of the time glued on their television recount their stories when all they see every five minutes is a TV advertisement from the government that states “Para sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan.” Later on, a rumour circulated that comedian Ariel Ureta had been disciplined for replacing the slogan to “para sa ikauunlad ng bayan, bisikleta ang kailangan.” Ureta himself clarified in 2012 that he was not punished for it.
I think there is no way for social media apps like the Facebook or Twitter to enter the country if we are still under Martial Rule. The liberty we savour at present is a result of the brave souls who went out to vanquish the evil ruling of FM. They were not there to support the Aquinos. They were there because they had enough. Nowadays, historical records seemed to be easily manipulated, thus verification becomes a necessity. It’s easy to find thread of conversations of propagandists saying “Marcos is the best and brilliant president the Philippines ever had,” or that “Ninoy and Marcos are buddies” and so on and so forth.
Now that FM’s body has been laid at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the hope of unity only resulted in insult to injury. It can be remembered that Marcos’ remains arrived in the Philippines from Hawaii in 1993. It was kept in a frozen chamber in Ilocos Norte. The family should be satisfied by that agreement. Instead, some members of FM’s family got elected to local posts and even the Congress. And then the desire of transferring the body of the dictator to the Heroes Burial had been realized by the kin. For me, the best unifying act for the Marcoses after the favourable decision of the Supreme Court is to be satisfied with the ruling of SC and not go with the burial transfer. But then again, like a thief in the night, they went on with burying the villain at the heroes’ cemetery.
And just like that, thousands marched and rallied in protest against the burial. Their rally was not against Duterte, not against Bongbong, and definitely not against the Ilocanos. The protesters went out to remind us that Marcos is an antihero who was allowed to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. For those who criticized the student protesters who were not yet born during the martial rule, remember the lessons of our history, the real stories – not propagandas. We all know he is not a hero but he was allowed to be buried there, his family had the audacity to let it happen.
I would like to see Duterte succeed on his plan to change the country for the better. He might have misfired badly on this particular decision. While many are hoping that the Heroes’ Burial is not the final resting place of FM, I would rather push to change the name of the cemetery instead in order to avoid public confusion.