BY GREG S. CASTILLA -“Listen to the news back home! Marcos is being interred today.” The text message from my friend who lives in Los Angeles needed no explanation. It’s crystal clear – history is being re-written.
“P…..ina,” was my immediate reaction. I resort to this Filipino curse when I am mad or angry and want to pick a fight with someone. That’s how I felt when my friend broke the news.
As a young activist during the Martial Law years, I probably cursed the dictator and his wife a thousand times because I wanted to pick a fight with the dictator and his cohort of irrational and sadistic military. And, in my own small ways, I did together with many other Filipinos. Some of my friends were not as lucky as me. They paid the ultimate sacrifice. They are the real heroes. But that would be another story to pen.
This time I am just overwhelmed, but no longer shocked, by the surprisingly quick decision made by the Marcoses to bury the dictator in the Heroes Cemetery. The dictator had a history of keeping people in the dark.
Doing things in secret and in a sinister way seems to be the trademark of the Marcoses. Like a cat at night, the Marcoses hoodwinked the Filipinos once again with a sinister move, flying the embalmed body to the cemetery – quite similar to what the dictator did when he proclaimed Martial Law.
Forty-four years ago, the late dictator declared martial law in the Philippines. But the presidential proclamation was actually signed September 17 and was made public only on September 23, which happened to be a Saturday. The formal announcement was made about 22 hours after the military had already arrested political opponents and closed down all media and taken over some big establishments. The timing was perfect because many were staying home for the weekend. It would be difficult to instantly and organizationally launch an organized opposition to the issuance of Presidential Proclamation No. 1081. The rest is history.
When I heard the live streaming on DZMM that the members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines gave a military honour to the dictator, I shuddered in shame. Did they really know what they were doing? Honoring a dictator is an insult to all his victims – dead or alive. And when I realized that the “secret” burial could not have been made possible without the connivance of the military, I could not hold back another “P..…ina.” The anger in me just grew.
If I were by the graveside, I would probably spit at the casket, a sure act of disrespect in a country where the dead are honoured. But what can one really do, if even the Supreme Court has turned a blind eye on the people’s clamour for common sense justice?
Even Digong, who is the president of all Filipinos and not just the Ilocanos, prefers to stroke his ego and refuses see the signs on the wall. The people are restive again and one thing can lead to another if he does not renege on his campaign promise to bury the dictator in the Heroes Cemetery, simply because he is close to the family. There is a lesson to learn here.
But when I heard that the interment had sparked a student-led protest along Katipunan in Quezon City and across the country that day, my anger and frustration melted in the face of the students’ determination to right the wrong. My despair gave way to hope.
If the Marcoses think that burying the dictator would bring closure to the anger that many Filipinos feel because of what the dictator did – abducting, torturing, killing thousands of Filipinos and looting the people’s coffers – they are mistaken.
There can never be closure without full accountability, without remorse, without justice, and without remembering the past.
I would like to end with a quote from Dan Rather, the retired American journalist, that applies to what the Filipinos are going through these days: “We are a great nation. We have survived deep challenges in our past. We can and will do so again. But we cannot be afraid to speak and act to ensure the future we want for ldren and grandchildren.”
“Are you listening journalists? Activists? Citizens? The time is now,” concluded Rather.