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Let’s not forget
TOMORROW is the 44th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law. It comes at a time of raging debate on the burial of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB). Martial Law victims should not be resented for arguing that it would be a criminal act to honor a dictator who committed a long list of crimes against the people.
The government should consider the repercussions of giving Marcos a hero’s burial at LNMB. It sends the message that it is okay to be a dictator, human rights violator, plunderer, corrupt leader, and a criminal – and that the government considers you a hero for doing such crimes.
This matter should not be easily dismissed as political either, or that President Duterte’s decision in burying Marcos at LNMB cannot be questioned. If the Supreme Court can only make judgments based on the existing laws of the land, then it should consider that Marcos violated several of these laws, including the various rights of the people guaranteed by the Constitution. If the court easily dismisses and plays powerless in this case, it could be perpetrating a culture of impunity – encouraging people to commit crimes based on whims without any accountability, and possibly be treated as a hero.
Marcos was no hero. To consider him a hero is an insult to the real heroes in Philippine history; the patriotic Filipinos who gave up their lives fighting the dictatorship; and the thousands of victims, families, and survivors of martial law barbarities.
A hero’s burial for Marcos is a dangerous and unacceptable act of historical revisionism. It will virtually get rid of Marcos’ bloody record of fascist violence, human rights violations, corruption, and economic hardships that Filipinos endured through 14 years of dictatorship.
We mustn’t forget and overlook Marcos’ grave crimes to the people: his colossal plunder, the sale of our national patrimony, his debt-borrowing spree, his family’s lavish and over-the-top lifestyle built upon the poverty of the people, his human rights violations which included but not limited to abduction, illegal detentions, tortures, and summary killings.
Allowing his burial in LNMB means glorifying all his crimes to the people
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