Malacañang to delegate ruling on Marcos burial - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Malacañang to delegate ruling on Marcos burial - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos This move indicates the great leadership and professionalism by Pres. Benigno Aquino III in addressing the most recent call by the former dictator's family to bury Marcos' frozen remains at the "Libingan ng mga Bayani," the final resting place for Philippine military heroes. The Aquino family has grieved for years for not getting justice for the assassination of their patriarch Ninoy Aquino, Marcos' strongest opponent during Marcos' militaristic rule. Pres. Benigno Aquino III, should not waste this opportunity to lose again their much deserved justice.

Definitely, this nagging issue of insisting on Marcos' frozen remains being brought to the "Libingan ng mga Bayani," even for the acceptable reason of giving Marcos the honorary burial for being a war veteran and commander of Staff, is a politically driven move by the Marcos family. Nice try, however.  But this Filipino's simplistic "forgive and forget" strategy invoked by the Marcos' camp this case should not be entertained.

Why? Generally, Filipinos forgive easily!  This is a disinctive driven-character that has been ingrained in the Filipino consciousness by the Spaniards that held the Filipinos captive for 300 years.  Consequently, Filipinos tend to have a "short memory."  However, globalization has made us pause and think about what we don't know.  Have the Filipinos really forgotten, or we just have been conditioned to forget, for example, a nagging question like, "What ever happened to the stashed Switzerland money deposits that were supposed to be returned to the Philippine Government?" This is just one of the eye-opening questions should wake us from our deep slumber.  It is in this connection that I will convince the readers that this particular presidential move by Benigno Aquino III, should deserve our undivided attention and our overwhelming support. 

I personally believe that an unconditional approval of the Marcos' family's request to bury the former dictator in the "Libingan ng mga Bayani" would be a final assault to the remaining honor and dignity of the Filipinos!  I am convinced that Filipinos should wake up and should be the "the conscience" of the majority.   We have become an accessories to the crimes commited against us over the years of our colonial years.   We have to claim the reality that silence or non-action, especially in the midst of abuses and atrocities, are collusions to what is morally evil! Therefore, this Marcos' ploy, should not just appeal to the Filipinos' ingrained deep sense of compassion and sense of moral obligation to love God and neighbor. This is a double edged sword.

We do not have to be a "martyr,"  in in the distorted traditional interpretation that our colonized ancestors have taught us to "love our enemies and forgive those who persecute us."  In today's more balanced perspective of forgiveness, the "forgiver" should not be coerced nor tricked to forgive the "transgressor."  Rather, the "forgiver" in their "process of healing" should have an intact sense of personal honor, justice and integrity in the end.

I  believe therefore, that if ever an objective and independent group would be created and would a make the decision to allow Marcos to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, both done as an act of charity and as a symbolic act of unity, this group's decision should have strong qualifications!  That is to say, that the decision should primarily take into serious consideration, not only the crimes that Marcos commited against the Aquino family, to the Filipinos and to humanity, but should also highlight the nobility and the peaceful accomplishment of justice by the "People Power" in EDSA in 1986.  Further, this independent body's decision should require a deep respect for the the Filipinos sense of decency, for genuine respect for the oppressed majority, and for strong advocacy for peace and justice for all.

Recently, it took the Egyptians eighteen days to topple a thirty year rule of dictatiorship in Egypt under President Mubarak. But we do not know when would the Egyptian people recover and heal. Today after the 25 years of the  1986 People Power that toppled Marcos' long years of dictatorship, the Filipinos can still continue be a strong presence in their witness against autocratic rule in the world. We have a voice and we can shout that "we can forgive but we should not forget" these evils  that dictatorship brings to humanity.

In short, I believe that the future resolution should not be as simple as allowing the former dictator to have a spot in the sacred ground of the "Libingan ng mga Bayani." I suggest that there should be a need to have a "holocaust memorial," an inscribed letter on the wall to remind the world about what happened during Marcos' dictatorial regime.  Just as there would detractors to deny the reality of the Holocaust, there would be the Marcos' followers who would erase the evil that the former dictator commited from the minds of the Filipino people. Filipinos, therefore, should find a way to make sure that the rest of the future generation will remember the evil of dictatorship and that this particular kind of evil should not be ever reapeated again, in whatever form, against the Filipinos nor against any other nation in the world.