In his Oct. 19 front-page piece (Analysis) titled “Marcos burial,” Amando “Ka Doro” Doronila wrote: “Human rights abuses and violations are an insufficient argument to single out Marcos for exclusion from a state funeral. Most of the victims of human rights … were activists of the Left and political opponents of the Marcos regime.” Is Doronila saying that it was all right to violate human rights if the victims were “activists of the Left and political opponents of the Marcos regime”?
But wasn’t that the core purpose of Marcos’ martial law? His purpose was to throttle dissent so he could continue being president even after he had served the two-term constitutional limit, and if possible to be president for life. He did not only violate the legal rights of his political enemies, he also jailed them, tortured them and murdered them. The most prominent of them was former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Thousands of student, labor, religious, social and cultural activists who fought the 14-year dictatorship were also incarcerated, tortured and killed.
“The most damning charge against the Marcos regime is that it destroyed Philippine democracy,” Doronila stated. But of course. To stifle dissent, to put down resistance, to abuse human rights, he had to kill democracy. He had to suppress the rights of anti-dictatorship activists, whether of the Left or of the Right. It also enabled him to plunder the financial and natural resources of our country with impunity.
To assert that the violations of the human rights of leftist activists and political opponents are “insufficient” to justify the denial to Marcos of a state funeral is to treat them somehow as inferior citizens who are not entitled to the full enjoyment of their civil, social and political liberties. The humblest citizen is entitled to full human rights. A conscious violation of those rights by any authority charged with enforcing the laws and protecting those rights is cause not just for legal retribution but also for social and
public dishonor.
—MANUEL F. ALMARIO,
spokesman,
Movement for Truth in History,
mfalmario@yahoo.com