Much fuss about the Marcos burial

THE HIGHEST TRIBUNAL OF THE LAND, the Supreme Court, has rendered a decision allowing the burial of the late dictator’s remains at the revered grounds, the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB). It must have ventilated all the issues brought before it, the pros and cons, before arriving at the decision it handed down, to the consternation of the petitioners.

The issue has elicited much discussions from all sectors of the land, each side proclaiming legitimate reasons for and against the burial of the deposed dictator.

In a column in Philippine Daily Inquirer dated December 3, 2016 entitled The Learning Curve, columnist Butch Hernandez addressed the unknowing-the Millenials- by saying: Dear Millenials, you have stood up and declared clearly as you can- in the most delightlfully creative ways that you will not be a party to such blatant historical revisionism.

He was referring, of course, to the Marcoses’attempt to rewrite history and picture the late unlamented dictator as champion of human rights and the rule of law.

He further cited the resignation of Maria Serena Diokno chair of the National Historical Commission, to prove his point. In justifying her resignation, Diokno said in part, thus: the burial of Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is wrong, it demeans history, erases the memory of the lives lost and destroyed, mocks the collective action we took to oust the dictator and denigrates the value of our struggle for freedom.

Such brave, biting words coming from a former functionary of Duterte’s administration. The statements bluntly disfavor the President’s favorable stance over the Marcos burial.

* * * So it was done, the contested and detested burial. It would be historically ackward to undo the same without hurting the feelings and disshevelling the government’s functions. It is at most fait accompli.

* * * Let us learn from this costly lesson in our history and resolve never to commit the same blunder again.

Nunca jamas. Never again!