Full military honors not for tyrants

We laud Vice President Jejomar Binay’s recommendation not to bury the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The recommendation is faithful to the interest of the people. It is a triumph of truth and history, things that would have definitely been buried together with the dictator if ever his remains would be laid to rest at the heroes’ cemetery.

However, we also would like to express our deepest concern about the accompanying proposal to bury the unrepentant dictator with full military honors. The suggestion is wrong in many respects.

Apart from being unnecessary, it is an insult. It does not provide proper closure; it only creates further political enmity. We believe Marcos can be buried without military honors.

And assuming, without conceding, that being a former president of the country, burial with military honors is his right, it doesn’t mean the present administration must do it. Marcos had long ago waived his right to be buried with honors. We owe it to all those who challenged his brutal rule and lost their lives fighting for freedom and democracy not to allow him burial with honors. Let us not mock our martyrs and heroes.
Second, it ridicules the military, an institution that was corrupted by the Marcos dictatorship to perpetuate itself in power. It is a slap in the face of all those who fought to reform the Armed Forces and cleanse it of its dark past. It also sends the wrong message to our soldiers: that despotism and militarism are rewarded.

Furthermore, giving Marcos full military honors will only legitimize the Marcos family’s efforts to rehabilitate the father’s tarnished image. We do not have any problem with the tall tales about his heroism and/or benevolence, for as long as the fiction is kept confined within the family. But the use of government resources, much more the military, to buttress this fiction as truth is another matter. The fiction betrays a family’s delusion, the honors would be historical revisionism at its worst.

We hope the Aquino administration will not allow the latter. It must not confuse compassion with injustice. The recommendation not to bury the remains of the late dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is a step in the right direction on the “daang matuwid.” President Aquino will only obfuscate the road by giving an unrepentant dictator full military honors.

Lastly, as we bury Marcos’ remains in his hometown, we hope the Aquino administration will not bury in forgetfulness the monstrous atrocities he committed, which are still waiting to be touched by the hands of justice. This is especially true about the illegitimate and odious debts the Marcos dictatorship incurred in the name of the Filipino people and his family’s ill-gotten wealth.

We hope the Aquino administration is one with the people on this issue.
—EMMANUEL M. HIZON,
vice president,
Freedom from Debt Coalition,
Barangay Pinyahan, Quezon City