Rewriting Marcos

OVER FIVE years in coming, but finally here. So we wrote in this very spot on April 15, 2011:

P43,200. THAT’S how much Filipino rights victims of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos received as compensation after a protracted class suit in the United States.

So announced Robert Swift, the counsel for some 6,500 claimants. Another 1,000 represented by Rod Domingo have yet to receive their shares.

P43,200. That’s the price for the physical sufferings, including torture, deprivations, distress and emotional trauma of Marcos’ victims.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines inaugurated last week its updated “Wall of Heroes: The Medal for Valor Awardees" on which was enshrined the name Ferdinand E. Marcos.

“Our official stand on this is that there are orders, giving him the Medal for Valor, so it exists. It’s valid, unless it’s either cancelled or revoked. These are deeds way before he became a political figure." So justified AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta of Marcos’ inclusion.

Much earlier, the House of Representatives made the rehabilitation, nay, the very transformation of Marcos from heel to hero a fait accompli with 216 congressmen signing the resolution to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Leading the signatories to the resolution initiated by Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero, who served as Marcos’ agriculture secretary, is the Imeldific herself, the representative from Ilocos Norte.

Other “notables” who signed are former President and now Pampanga 2nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her sons Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Mikey, and Camarines Sur Rep. Dato; Marcos’ nephew Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez; and celebrity congresswoman Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, wife of Sen. Ramon Revilla, Jr. and Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez, wife of actor Richard Gomez.

Part of the resolution read: “Allowing the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani will not only be an acknowledgment of the way he led a life as a Filipino patriot, but it will also be a magnanimous act of reconciliation."

Swift and damning is the retort of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, to wit: “Did Marcos really ‘serve’ the country? Was he truly until his death a ‘patriot’? While we cannot divine and judge his personal motives, the terrible suffering and damage wrought by Marcos’ 14 years of authoritarian rule is undeniable.”

Finding stage at the celebration of the Araw ng Kagitingan last week, the CEAP said that even as the nation “commemorate the heroism of those who fought fascism during World War II, let us not make a mockery of the service and sacrifice of Filipino war veterans by giving a hero’s burial to someone who is not only a fake war hero but was also responsible for undermining democracy and development during his long tenure as an authoritarian ruler.”

The CEAP reminded the people of that “elaborate tale of the Maharlika guerilla unit” that Marcos supposedly led during the war was “definitively exposed … as a total fabrication” by American historian Alfred McCoy in a well-researched study 25 years ago.

“Why should we now give the perpetrator of this lie a hero’s burial?” the CEAP asked.

Burying Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani would “desecrate” the People Power Revolution that ousted him in 1986 and made Filipinos famous worldwide for peaceful regime change which in turn was replicated in Eastern Europe and still resonates in the recent upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt.

A fact apparently lost in the short memory of the Filipino people, given the results of a recent survey of the Social Weather Stations which put Filipinos almost equally divided on the issue Marcos’ burial.

"To the survey question, 'In your opinion, is the body of ex-President Marcos worthy to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani or not?,' 50 percent answered Worthy to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, 49 percent answered Not worthy to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, and 1 percent had no answer," the SWS said.

Indeed, what does it matter that – as the CEAP correctly noted: “The recent compensation given to the many victims of martial law, though symbolic in monetary terms, is damning proof that the Marcos regime was guilty of gross human rights violations.”

So it shall then be ruled, Marcos is a hero and therefore is worthy to be buried at the heroes’ cemetery.

So it shall be as Santayana rued: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

As we are a people keen on forgetting, so we are a nation damned.

Marcos, Marcos, Marcos pa rin.

Marcos, Marcos, Marcos pa rin.