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BY LUIS BUENAFLOR JR.
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‘We don’t need another hero’
Out of the ruins
Out from the wreckage
Can’t make the same mistake this time
We are the children
the last generation
We are the ones they left behind
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change it
Living under the fear till nothing else remains
We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond… – Tina Turner
TODAY marks the birthday of one of our national heroes, Andres Bonifacio. If he were still alive he would be 154 years old. He would probably have a heart attack and die anyway if he saw what the vandals and vagrants did to his national monument in Caloocan.
So what made Andres Bonifacio a hero anyway? According to Wikipedia:
“A national hero of the Philippines is a Filipino who has been recognized as a hero for his or her role in the history of the country. Loosely, the term may refer to all Filipino historical figures recognized as heroes, but the term more strictly refers to those officially designated as such. In 1995 the Philippine National Heroes Committee officially recommended several people for the designation, but this was not acted upon. Currently, no one has ever been officially recognized as a Philippine national hero.
“The reformist writer Jose Rizal, today generally considered the greatest Filipino hero and often recognized as the Philippine national hero, has never been explicitly proclaimed as the (or even a) national hero by the Philippine government.
“Besides Rizal, the only other Filipinos currently given implied recognition as national heroes are revolutionary Andres Bonifacio and Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.
“While other historical figures are commemorated in public municipal or provincial holidays, Rizal, Bonifacio and Aquino are commemorated in public nationwide (national) holidays and thus are implied to be national heroes.”
The National Heroes Committee recommended the following nine individuals to be recognized as national heroes on Nov. 15, 1995:
* Jose Rizal
* Andres Bonifacio
* Emilio Aguinaldo
* Apolinario Mabini
* Marcelo H. Del Pilar
* Muhammad Dipatuan Kudarat
* Juan Luna
* Melchora Aquino
* Gabriela Silang
Their report was submitted to the Department of Education, Culture and Sports on Nov. 22 of that year. However, no action was taken afterwards.
It was speculated that any action might cause a number of requests for proclamation or trigger debates that revolve around the controversies about the concerned historical figures.
So the tag “national hero” is a misnomer as nobody has been officially declared one yet.
And what about Jose Rizal? We were made to believe he is our national hero. It seems officially he’s not. Where did that notion come from that he is? There is a suggestion that Rizal was an American-made hero and it comes from claims that American Governor General William Howard Taft had initially suggested the naming of a Filipino national hero, with Rizal as the preferred candidate due to his less radical and militant leanings relative to other possible candidates. There is enough evidence on record to support these claims.
Pathetic, even someone who is supposedly our national hero is just the creation of our American colonizers. So this makes Jose Rizal as American as apple pie and not as Filipino as buko pie.
Now back to that list recommended by the National Heroes Committee, I don’t see the names of Ferdinand Marcos or Benigno Aquino Jr. Definitely Marcos was not a hero; he’s just a former President who declared martial law which, of course, was legal according to our Constitution.
As I have been saying, the only people saying Marcos was a hero are also the same idiots screaming he’s not. No wonder they have this penchant for walking around with their “little birds” exposed.
Benigno Aquino a.k.a. Ninoy was no hero either, he’s just an opportunistic politician who actually did nothing for the natives and the country except to promote himself. His so-called assassination which some say was actually self-inflicted that backfired (pun intended) did nothing for the natives except inflict upon them his incompetent wife Cory, nincompoop son Noynoy and daughter Kris, the national irritant on television.
So Ninoy Aquino was not a hero. Of course neither was Ferdinand Marcos. And we certainly don’t need another hero./PN
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