Remember, remember Nov. 18, 2016, when Ferdinand E. Marcos was finally laid to rest—not as a dictator, but as a hero, a soldier—with military honors.
Why in the world did President Duterte let it happen? “I’m just being legalistic about it,” was Mr. Duterte’s unbelievable reply. From someone who is very vocal about his willingness to bend the law in the name of peace and order, this statement does not only contradict the President himself, but even his propeople pronouncements.
While the President has seemingly vowed to pursue the government’s drug war by any means necessary, he chose to do nothing and even defended the Supreme Court’s decision to give Marcos a hero’s burial. I wonder: How can Mr. Duterte fulfill his promise of change when he can’t even break loose from patronage politics? Did it ever occur to him that maybe his late mother was right to fight the fascist Marcos regime?
Anyway, whatever his reason may be, Mr. Duterte will go down in history as the Philippine president who allowed the clandestine burial of the country’s symbol of oppression and corruption, regardless of its legality, in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Change has yet to come.
DANIEL ALOC, tierra.giya@yahoo.com