VIEWPOINTS

[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]

[av_heading heading=’VIEWPOINTS’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY OSCAR CRUZ
[/av_heading]

[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]

Rest in peace

THE TRUTH of the matter is that what is really important and truly significant is whether someone dead is resting in peace or not, whether he is with God or away from Him – which is infallibly known only to the dead individual himself and the ever living God alone. This is neither profound to know, nor complicated to understand.

In the last analysis wherefore, what definitely matters is not if someone is buried here, there, or anywhere, if people celebrate or demean his name, or if the same is a hero or not. Symbols are good.

But objective reality is certainly not changed by mere symbols no matter how famous – or infamous – these are. Truth ultimately prevails. Reality is what truly counts.

This is but promoting the significance of truth, enhancing the imperative of justice, underlining the implications of peace – none of which is abrogated but by mere symbols, by mere words. This is simply meant to say that what is true or false, that what is just or unjust and what is promotional of harmony or disharmony are not in the infallible domain either of the majority of society nor by the minority thereof for that matter.

Just as those who shout the loudest are not always right, in the same way, those who keep their silence are not always wrong. For any member of humanity to believe, act and behave as if he knows anything and everything even – this in fact is a public curse specially so when the same exercises executive, legislative, or judicial power in the local or national level.

It bears repeating time and again – specifically as to the so-called Libingan ng mga Bayani – that not all heroes are therein buried. In the same way, not all those therein in fact buried are honest-to-goodness heroes in accord with the intrinsic significance and objective implications of words.

What about those honest-to-goodness Filipino heroes who died long before the said Libingan was even thought of? Where are they buried? What about the good number of heroes in word and in fact who were killed by guillotine even, during the Spanish colonization? Where are they buried?

And what about the thousands of Filipinos slaughtered by bullets and bayonets during the Japanese regime? Where are they buried?

Furthermore, is it enough to have but a symbolic tomb for “Unknown Heroes”? If they are in fact even unknown, how could they be really considered as heroes?

So it is that what truly and really matters, what eventually and finally counts is whether someone dead – be this a king/queen or a slave, a billionaire or a garbage picker – is resting in peace or not. In other words, so what if someone is buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani? Does that necessarily mean that he is resting in peace, enjoying the company of saints, marveling at the vision of God? And when somebody is not therein buried, would this ipso facto mean that the individual concerned is damned to the unquenchable fires of hell?

The Philippines is far left behind in socio-economic development. A good number of Filipinos are wallowing in misery and hunger. The country is besieged by the curse of gross graft and abominable corrupt practices. There are so many progressive agenda left undone. Let the living attend to them.
Leave the dead in peace./PN
[/av_textblock]

[/av_one_full]