Marcos Is No Hero So Stop Pushing It

It is nerve-wracking to read the news back home in the Philippines concerning the efforts of some members of the Lower House of representatives to support the proposal of burying the late Dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani or the Heroes' Memorial. It seems our lawmakers have developed some freakish syndrome that manifests a severe form of historic amnesia. House Resolution No. 1135, initiated by Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero, is urging President Benigno Aquino III to allow the burial of the remains of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos – for years kept in a refrigerated crypt in Ilocos – at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Who was Ferdinand Marcos? He was a brutal dictator whose regime commited heinous crimes and violations of human rights. He was a corrupt leader who, upon leaving the Philippines due to a People Power revolt in 1986, left the country destitute and suffering from poverty and insurgency. He was no hero. He was judged by World History as a dictator, joining the ranks of other dictators that brought so much hardship and suffering to their own respective peoples. Until now, the Marcos family still deny such wrongdoing and would even flaunt themselves in public as if nothing has happened.

Never mind that he was a former President of the country. Never mind that he was supposed to be a war veteran. He was a dictator. And no dictator is worthy to be even labeled as Hero, much more buried with other fallen heroes of the country.

I am not therefore sure why most of our Representatives would even ever bear the notion, consider the possibility, linger in their supposed to be intellectual minds the idea, of burying the Philippines' worst President and dictator in the Heroes' Memorial.

I am not familiar with other Congressmen. I am only familiar with Negrense Congressmen. According to ABS-CBN's News website, the following Negrense Congressmen signed the said resolution in support for the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani:

Honorable Mercedes Alvarez (6th District), Honorable Iggy Arroyo (5th District), Honorable Albee Benitez (3rd District), Honorable Jeffrey Ferrer (4th District), Honorable Alfredo Maranon III (2nd District), Honorable Anthony Golez (Bacolod).

Honorable men and women, I have but one question, "What the hell were you thinking? Were you thinking in the first place? Or is this another "signing without thinking" moment in your lives?"

Remember, honorable men and women, that by signing that resolution, you have disregarded the actions taken by the late Dictator and made them trivial enough to make him "worthy" of being buried in the Heroes' Memorial. Remember Honorable Men and Women that the title Hero is not something one can easily gain for himself. By signing that resolution you have distorted the definition of HERO. “Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law,” according to Demosthenes, thus by signing the resolution, you have just turned an enemy of our Freedom, into an ally which he was not.

I am not sure if President Noynoy Aquino would consent to the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, Marcos who was the alleged mastermind of his father's assassination in the early 1980's.

But this resolution, so overwhelmingly supported by the representatives from the Lower House, is only a clear sign that our political leaders are as forgetful of their history as they are dimwitted with their reasoning or perhaps lack thereof.



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