A Nation That Forgets

People Power Monument (1993) by Eduardo Castrillo

 

A NATION FORGETS

 

EDITORIAL

Heroes and history

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:10 AM August 29, 2017

Although taking on the dimensions of a rote exercise by now, Malacañang’s issuance of an official statement last Aug. 21 honoring Ninoy Aquino on the 34th year of his assassination and reminding the nation of his heroic place in the people’s fight for freedom, was commendable.

A bit of a surprise, in fact, given the general antipathy that has been directed at the Aquinos’ legacy by certain forces identified with President Duterte, who ran and won on a platform of change that promised a radical break from the conventions of the liberal democracy established after the Aquino-led People Power revolution of 1986.

But there it was — Mr. Duterte’s signature on words that unreservedly paid tribute to the opposition figure killed at high noon at the Manila International Airport tarmac — a brazen act of murder that would mark the beginning of the end of the Marcos dictatorship.

“Throughout his career,” the statement read, “[Ninoy] fought for what is right and just. Up until the very end of his life, he inspired a peaceful revolution that resulted in the liberties we enjoy today… His deeds have taught us that we should always aspire for the common good — even if one must go against the grain — and do what is necessary.”

Still, for what was a straightforward act of remembering a great Filipino’s sacrifice, a major counternarrative was mounted on social media in an apparent attempt to disparage Aquino’s memory.

A virtual flood of postings, suspicious for the similarity in tone, advanced a common argument: What exactly had Ninoy done? He was supposedly no hero, but a troublemaker whose very rabble-rousing forced Ferdinand Marcos to declare martial law; why even bother to remember him with laudatory words, much less a holiday? His so-called legacy — freedom and democracy after the toppling of the dictatorship — made life only worse for the Filipino, hence the “correction” now being done under the Duterte dispensation.

The abysmal ignorance of that position is one thing; the sheer vitriol that often accompanied its explication hinted at another methodical, deliberate campaign to further twist and muddle history, despite the trove of easily available evidence and testimony attesting to what really happened during the dark Marcos years.

And this is the worrying part: The revisionism appears to be working especially on the young, many of whom are wont to unthinkingly pine for a supposed “golden age” under the Marcos dictatorship — one with no traffic, no crime, no drug addicts, and no rallies.

The shadowy fabricators of this alternate history appear to have found their perfect targets — people with no memory at all of the struggles of those who came before them, whose blood and sacrifice helped rebuild the democratic space that is used so irresponsibly and sullied so wantonly today.

When Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., one of the last lions of the freedom movement, spoke a few days ago against the rash of extrajudicial killings under Mr. Duterte’s watch, he was likewise mercilessly mocked online, derided as old, out of touch and ready to be put to pasture.

Disrespecting elderly statesmen in this way reflects an insidious mindset that can only thrive in an environment of gross historical amnesia — the same lethal strain of forgetfulness that renders many Filipinos oblivious to, and unable to care about, the country’s heroic breed: its World War II veterans and martial law activists, for instance, as well as the men and women of our time who toil unheralded in the frontiers of social work, education, agriculture, etc.

But perhaps the Philippines is merely reaping the whirlwind of its own casual indifference toward learning from its past. The administrations after Edsa 1986 seem to have failed in teaching history right, and the larger society, too, must bear part of the blame for forgetting and forgiving too soon.

That collective memory gap is turning out to be far more dangerous and consequential than benign forgetfulness; now Philippine history, and its critical examples of heroism and patriotism, are under assault as well.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/106709/heroes-and-history#ixzz4sR4pXOGO

FORGIVE, DO NOT HONOR

Supreme injustice

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 12:40 AM December 21, 2016

Last Nov. 8, the Supreme Court decided that former president Ferdinand Marcos deserves to be given the honor of being buried in the hallowed grounds of the Libingan ng mga Bayani on the basis of a policy that allows soldiers to be buried in that cemetery. What could have been a historic opportunity to make a decision upholding human rights and justice turned into an ignominious and supreme injustice to the Filipino people.

Marcos was not an ordinary soldier; he was a tyrannical dictator who imposed martial law on the Philippines and unleashed a reign of terror for 13 years, leaving on its wake the murder, torture and rape of thousands of Filipinos who resisted the dictatorship. His ill-gotten wealth for his family and friends robbed the Philippine government of billions of pesos and continues to be the object of investigation and court proceedings here and abroad. By dismantling the democratic institutions of the country during martial law, he plunged the country into its lowest political, economic and cultural abyss.

To this day, the Marcos family has neither shown any remorse nor admitted guilt despite the global condemnation of the massive human rights violations committed by their patriarch. With arrogance and impunity, they have initiated a campaign to distort history, reinvent the Marcos years as the golden years in Philippine history, and declare Marcos as a national hero. In this project, the Supreme Court has proven to be an effective accomplice.

To honor him as a hero is mocking the thousands of victims who died and those who were tortured and continue to suffer because they fought and resisted the dictatorship;

To honor him is to say that the massive human rights violations committed by the Marcos regime with impunity; the unprecedented plunder of our country’s resources and the destruction of our democratic institutions never really happened in our recent history;

To honor him as a hero is to deny that the Filipino people exercising their sovereign will, ousted the dictatorship for his crimes against the people during the 1986 People Power Revolution;

Lastly, to honor Marcos is to dishonor the dignity, legitimacy and the very credibility of the Supreme Court itself as an institution that stands for fairness and justice.

We urge the nine Supreme Court justices who supported this decision to reflect on the impact of their decision on the thousands who died and those who are tortured and are reliving their suffering and to consider the future of the Supreme Court, whose credibility has been seriously eroded because of this unjust decision.

As an institution of learning that values VERITAS (truth), peace, justice and the integrity of creation, we will continue to promote an enlightened and critical understanding of the struggles of Filipinos against martial law and the historic redemption of our freedoms and human rights in the People Power Revolution where Maryknoll / Miriam College was an active participant.

We promise to promote Philippine history from the prism of those who struggled to fight for democracy and not from the revisionist version of those who are now trying to systematically distort and conceal the brutal realities of the past.

We commit ourselves to always remember and never forget the bitter lessons of the past so we can continue to build a future for the next generations based on respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and dignity of the Filipino people.

PROF. AURORA DE DIOS, executive director, Women and Gender Institute; DR. JASMIN NARIO-GALACE, executive director, Center for Peace Education; CARLO GARCIA, executive director, Environmental Studies Institute; NIKAELA CORTEZ, president, Sanggunian ng mga Mag-aaral ng Miriam

http://opinion.inquirer.net/100168/supreme-injustice#ixzz4TwGJnNqD

To forgive is not to honor evil. To forgive is not to forget history. To forgive is not to deny truth.

HUKAYIN!

EDITORIAL

Dishonoring our nation and our heroes

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:11 AM September 13, 2017

On Monday, while the rest of the nation ignored or mourned the 100th birthday of Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator’s family hosted a celebration at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.

In a transparent attempt to further the administration-supported, court-sanctioned rehabilitation of the mastermind of military rule, Imelda Marcos and her family invited the diplomatic corps as well as high government officials, even including members of the opposition, to the ceremony.

It was an extraordinary gesture, properly Imeldific in scope of ambition, and while many did not honor the invitation, it served to make a point: The Marcoses are not putting closure to the controversy surrounding both dictator and dictatorship, but rather opening a new, revised chapter in the country’s history.

That the Marcoses could even attempt this whitewashing — in a cemetery designated a “national shrine,” bodyguarded by the same Army that Marcos first politicized and then turned into a weapon against his own people, under the legal aegis of a Supreme Court decision—gives the lie to the central rationalization of that unfortunate ruling.

Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta’s majority decision began with an appeal to closure: “In law, as much as in life, there is need to find closure. Issues that have lingered and festered for so long and which unnecessarily divide the people and slow the path to the future have to be interred. To move on is not to forget the past.”

How wrong the Court was! The ruling did not provide closure to the Marcos “issue,” because it offered his family and his supporters the opportunity to begin revising historical record. And the Marcoses, never shy about opportunities economic or political or legal, have done exactly that.

The Court ruled that the Libingan ng Mga Bayani was not in fact the national heroes’ cemetery — but ordinary citizens can read the cemetery’s name and judge for themselves. While the majority decision busied itself with distinctions like this, the Marcoses and their supporters lost no time in treating the Libingan the way ordinary Filipinos see it, as the final resting place for heroes.

How naive the Court was, to think that the Marcoses would not use the prominence, the significance, of the Libingan ng Mga Bayani as a means to support their conviction that Marcos was, in fact, a bayani.

...How cowardly the Court was, to imagine that history was something remote, something removed from judicial decisions. “There are certain things that are better left for history — not this Court — to adjudge.

The Court could only do so much in accordance with the clearly established rules and principles. Beyond that, it is ultimately for the people themselves, as the sovereign, to decide, a task that may require the better perspective that the passage of time provides.”

In truth, the Court made history, or created a new vector for it, when it disregarded settled precedent and current law to arrive at the narrowest possible justification for allowing the burial of Marcos’ remains at the Libingan. But the Marcoses have proven themselves to be adept at maximizing the potential of cowardice. If the Court will leave it to “history” to adjudge Marcos, his family will rush in where cowards fear to tread.

And that is why we had that sorry spectacle on Monday: honors paid at the national heroes’ cemetery, for a man whose political career dishonored both nation and its true heroes.

http://opinion.inquirer.net/107087/dishonoring-nation-heroes#ixzz4sdjJWmxN