“Moving on” has been the mantra of the Marcoses since they put into motion a shrewdly orchestrated bid to return to power.
The first piece in this plot was to find a willing accomplice whose narrow loyalties and shallow sense of history would likely turn, once in power, toward the rehabilitation of the Marcos legacy and set the stage for a stunning comeback. Rodrigo Duterte, it turns out, is such an instrument.
Mr. Duterte has not only proven to be a reliable ally with emotional ties to the old Marcos regime. He also has the right combination of pragmatism wedded to a dulled moral and historical sense. This makes him see the Marcos burial issue as merely a question of burying a former soldier and president, or simply a dynastic political contest between the Aquinos and the Marcoses.
Such reductionism typifies those who tend to treat politics in this country as mere family business. It is also behind the blithe dismissal of the burial issue as “much ado over nothing,” unable to comprehend that symbols—like a plot of ground hallowed by a people’s memory—are cultural markers of what this country values and honors.
More deeply, there is the larger canvas of right and wrong, that cosmic sense in all of us that in spite of the horrors of our time, this is a moral universe. Wrongdoing cannot be left unpunished, much less honored. The thing that rankles, that stands between victim and victimizer, between the aggrieved and the offender, must be confronted and given due justice.
Until there is an acknowledgment of the truth of what happened, of what Ferdinand Marcos actually did and did not, forgiveness from those who suffered during this dark period of our history cannot be given. Reconciliation is premised on mutual acknowledgment of the truth and a fair measure of what exactly each party is accountable for.
This is why in other countries that went through troubled times, like in South Africa, the first move taken toward unity and healing was establishing the truth and pinning down accountability through investigations conducted by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Unfortunately, because of our culture of “awa,” we tend to set aside the tortuous task of pursuing accountability. There is the pressure to smoothen interpersonal relations, especially when the balance of power is asymmetrical and we are forced to mask our extreme discomfort over injury that has not been redressed. Grimly, we stifle protest and bottle up our inner rage as we get bulldozed by siren calls to “move on” and show goodwill and bonhomie.
Our own nature tells us that there is this iron nexus of sin and penalty, crime and punishment. Buddhists call this karma. Eventually, we reap what we sow, as when the prophet Jeremiah foresaw the sacking of Jerusalem, exile and subsequent diaspora as the inevitable and irrevocable consequence of the idolatry and rife injustice in ancient Israel. As in our time, there were those dream merchants who denied the prospect of national disaster. Prophet and priest—those tasked with discerning and interpreting the times—assured the people that Yahweh would intervene to save the city from the iron hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Wasn’t the temple—symbol of God’s presence—in their midst?
God himself denounced this as cheap optimism: “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying ‘peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14)
Unless and until we see signs of repentance on the part of the Marcoses, retribution in behalf of the victims of martial law, and restitution for the plundered wealth that has impoverished our people, there can only be unrest.
The Marcos burial issue has opened unhealed wounds and exposed the depths of the fissures that divide this nation. Once again, rage erupts into the only tool we have at hand—“people power.” Outside analysts and local pundits framed by them call this useless anarchy; we call this direct democracy, our last resort when our institutions fail us.
Dr. Melba Padilla Maggay is a social anthropologist and president of the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture and of Micah Global.