Moving on

Imee Marcos has triggered a firestorm when she suggested it is time to move on. She is, of course, referring to the martial law past to which her family remains inextricably bound. Imee, who is probably running for the Senate in 2019, should not have brought up the subject, especially this early.

Martial law will certainly be made an issue against her in the coming polls. But it will just be one issue among many during the campaign. And with the right strategies, it can easily be drowned out, or at least minimized, in the din of so much political noise.

Imee needs to realize that despite the noise, the noisemakers are but very few, consisting mainly of those who truly were affected by martial law, but mostly of those who have chosen to make of martial law a political capital. Despite the sparsity of their actual numbers, they have taken to counting the rest of the 100-plus million Filipinos in their ranks.

But nothing can be farther from the truth. Imee’s brother Bongbong placed fifth in a 2010 run for the Senate, in an election highlighted by the winning candidacy of Noynoy Aquino for the presidency. The Aquinos proclaim themselves to be the main victims of martial law.

The results of the 2010 elections clearly show that the Filipinos have moved on. Had they not, Bongbong would not have won, much less place so highly in the race for 12 Senate seats. Then, in 2016, Bongbong nearly won the vice presidency, losing by only 200,000 votes give or take, no more than the population of four average-sized towns.

Bongbong claims to have been cheated, and maybe he was. But even if he wasn’t, for a Marcos to lose in a national election virtually by the skin of his teeth clearly shows the nation has learned to move on and that it is time those afflicted by the martial law syndrome stop invoking the name of the entire nation in their own political causes.

This is not to say they need to abandon their causes or that these causes have lost their relevance to them. These causes, I submit, will forever burn in their hearts and it is to their credit that they never flinch nor choose to abandon them. But they need to accept the fact that not all Filipinos share their causes or even their sentiments.

It is preposterous and hypocritical for them to claim speaking for the entire nation because they do not. All they need to do is look at the numbers or do little manon-the-street interviews. The Filipinos have moved on, not because of any pleading by any Marcos family member, but because it is the right and practical thing to do. The future waits. We cannot stay rooted in the past.

‘The Filipinos have moved on,

not because of any pleading by any Marcos family member, but because it is the right and

practical thing to do.’