No to a hero’s burial, no to a revision of history

MANILA, Philippines -- Unfazed by criticisms for its stand against interring former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) stands by its position and reiterates calls for lawmakers to withdraw their support to House Resolution 1135.

Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero, proponent of the resolution urging President Benigno S. Aquino III to allow the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, said in a radio interview that “he was saddened by CEAP’s opposition to his resolution” and urged them to “be open-minded and heed the Lord’s Prayer about forgiveness.’’

But CEAP president Fr. Gregorio Bañaga, in an interview with the Students and Campuses Bulletin, says true reconciliation should be based on justice.

“Who doesn’t want to be reconciled? We want unity and reconciliation, we want to move on, but let it be true reconciliation based on justice. We cannot reconcile and at your back, I stab you. Nelson Mandela formed a truth commission in South Africa to review the crimes and violations against human rights and their laws. They (violators) were not jailed but they had to confess, accept their mistake and repent. And then they moved on. Is there ever a statement by the Marcoses admitting that they indeed repressed human rights? Are they repentant? That is why in our statement, we quoted St. Augustine, ‘charity cannot substitute for justice denied’,” explains Fr. Bañaga.


Preventing a revision of history

Fr. Bañaga stresses that CEAP came up with a statement because they want to prevent a revision of our history.

“Falsehood might be peddled. What was the reason why the first EDSA Revolution happened? Do you mean to say that the Filipino people at that time made a mistake in throwing away the dictatorship. Filipinos easily forget the past. And because we easily forget, we never learn,” laments Fr. Bañaga, stressing that the decision to bury the late president at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, will “even exacerbate and show the separation and the division of the people.’’

As it is, the resolution is already dividing the nation, even as more congressmen are starting to show support for the resolution. As of presstime, there are 219 solons who have signed the resolution. Furthermore, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from March 4 to 7, revealed that 50 percent of Filipinos were in favor of the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani while 49 percent were not.

The former President is currently buried in a refrigerated crypt in his hometown in Batac, Ilocos Norte.


Fake war hero?

In the resolution initiated by Escudero, an agriculture minister during the Marcos administration, Marcos is described as “a well-decorated soldier, a veteran of World War II, a survivor of the Bataan Death March, and the longest serving president of the Republic who built the modern foundations of the Philippines.”

Therefore, according to the resolution, a burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani “will not only be an acknowledgement of the way Marcos led a life as a Filipino patriot, but will also be a magnanimous act of reconciliation which will strengthen the bonds of solidarity among the Filipino people.”

CEAP in its statement, said “that these exaggerated claims about Marcos cannot be farther from the truth, and do not at all justify a hero’s burial for him.”

Fr. Bañaga says American historian Alfred McCoy has long debunked the tale of Marcos as a well-decorated soldier. “Mccoy said 25 years ago that the Maharlika guerrilla unit which Marcos supposedly organized and led did not exist. Marcos was in the war, perhaps as an ordinary soldier. But to say that he was a hero is something else. And history does not seem to prove that,” he points out.


Marcos' rise and fall

The CEAP statement underscores that Marcos became “the longest serving Philippine President because he declared martial law, used military repression to silence opponents, destroyed what was then an imperfect but working democratic system, and perpetuated himself in power through an authoritarian Constitution which was never legitimately ratified.”

“The media was repressed and there was no news about what was really happening, particularly the excesses of the Marcos regime and repression of human rights. So what the people saw was President Marcos’ astuteness, intelligence, political savvy and some achievements. But as he stayed longer in power the true situation of the nation became apparent and the noble objectives of his party became corrupted. He stayed in power for 14 years. To do that, he had to change the Constitution. So we cannot really say that he did a lot. He did many things but in the end, we became even worse. The Philippines became the sick man of Asia,” Fr. Bañaga says, adding that the former President must not be compared to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who was a person of integrity.

Fr. Bañaga also compared the solons’ attempt to paint a false image of the late President and his regime to the outrageous claim of some people that the Holocaust never happened.

“This is something similar to some guys in Germany who denied that the holocaust ever happened, that it is not true that Adolf Hitler ordered the killing of six million Jews. They said it was just a fiction of the imagination. But in Adamson University, some Jewish professors came here at that time and were given sanctuary. They taught here. So how could you deny that it never happened,” says Fr. Bañaga who is also the president of Adamson University.


Significance of burial place

The real meaning of being interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani must also be defined to know who deserves to be buried there, he adds.

“In a survey on who should be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, on top of the list of Filipinos are Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Ninoy and Cory Aquino. Yet the Aquino family is not even insisting that they be buried there. Not even all the Presidents of the United States are in Arlington Cemetery,” he notes.

But if the late President would indeed be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, Fr. Bañaga says it will definitely have serious implications on the youth, the country and the world.

He believes the youth will be even more confused with the real meaning of history while the country will be further divided and have a lot of unrest, instead of peace.

“We are the ones who started the power of a peaceful revolt. In fact, people power was enshrined in our Constitution, during the time of President Cory. That was our gift to the world. So if we bury him at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, other nations will think that there was really no reason for our revolt in the first place. So what are we going to teach? We will revert history, we will reverse everything,” he says.

Fr. Bañaga says they are continuing to appeal to the congressmen who have signed the resolution to withdraw their signatures and support to this proposal.

“The Libingan ng mga Bayani is hallowed ground meant for true heroes. It was established as a memorial to pay fitting tribute to the gallant Filipino men and women who have brought honor to the country by fighting for freedom and democracy. How can we bury among our heroes the very man whose dictatorial regime we rejected and ousted during the EDSA people power revolution 25 years ago? It will be nothing less than a desecration and nullification of the Filipino people’s long struggle and victory for democracy which we are proud to have gifted the world as an example of non-violent political change,” declares CEAP in its statement. (report from Rachel C. Barawid/Manila Bulletin)