“HISTORY is written by the victors,” an old adage says.
After decades of contentious debates spanning different presidencies, deposed dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos has schemingly been laid to rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, thanks to newly elected president Rodrigo Duterte.
Like a thief in the night, Duterte was interestingly out of the country when the unannounced burial happened on Friday, November 18, 2016 at the Heroes’ Cemetery.
Immediately, kababayans all over the world took to the streets to protest against the burial, contending that “Marcos was not a hero” as the Marcos family and their supporters, Duterte and the Supreme Court have argued. Why bury Marcos while the request for reconsideration of the Court decision was still pending? Why the secrecy and the rush in the execution of the contested burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani? The bottom line: Was Marcos worthy to be in the National Heroes’ Cemetery?
NO. Being a past president, soldier, senator were not enough to make up for his transgressions made against the Filipino people. NO, these titles could never override all the human rights violations, murders, plunder and abuse of power he committed while he was president.
NO, a person who caused husbands and wives to be widows and widowers, children to be orphans and mothers and fathers to bury or even mysteriously lose their sons and daughters, does not deserve to buried along with true heroes who unselfishly offered their own lives for the Filipino people.
The Marcoses may have strategically aligned themselves with the “victor” of this season to revise history, but in the end, the truth shall prevail. In the end, the voice of the Filipino people fighting for the truth will liberate and heal this fragmented nation.
To quote my good friend Sen. Kiko Pangilinan:
Malilibing siya pero hindi ibig sabihin na mananatili siyang nakalibing dun. Dahil habang may mga taong naninindigan laban sa naging pag-aabuso ng diktadura, itutulak natin na ang mga labi niya ay dapat ilipat,”
(He might have already been buried but it does not mean that he will remain there. Because as long as there are people standing up against the abuses of his dictatorship, we will push for the transfer of his remains.)
