There are many of us who lost members of our closest families, schoolmates, classmates, friends, acquaintances, as a direct consequence of Martial Law and its drive to crush every kind of opposition from 1972 to 1986.
Many died in the actual armed conflict that sought to restore the God-given rights of our people, the right to life, right to assembly and redress of grievances, among others.
Many victims of Martial Law were innocent of any wrongdoing. Many more died or suffered as an indirect consequence of martial law. Several bright Filipino young minds at the threshold of successful careers, some of them our very own outstanding Sillimanian alumni, decided to flee the country to the safety of other states during the Martial Law era.
I have spent the best years of my life fighting the Marcos dictatorship, and was there at EDSA with my family when the late Jaime Cardinal Sin asked the Filipinos to protect the mutineers led by then Gen. Fidel Ramos, and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile who had had enough of Martial Law abuses, and who stood their ground in defiance of the dictator.
It is incontrovertible that Marcos’ Martial Rule was a travesty of the highest ideals of nationhood, and could be argued not only as abuse of government power, but also as treason.
And yet, three decades later, there is a call by fellow Filipinos to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The Supreme Court has recently removed any legal impediments for his burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
My reflexive action is to oppose the burial on grounds that the Marcoses are unrepentant of their corporate crimes.
On the other hand, I think there are matters that are weightier than our sense of injury over Martial Rule.
Since the President himself, Rodrigo R. Duterte opened the Pandora’s Box of Marcos’ burial in the Libingan, it is incumbent on him to call for a conference of national reconciliation, and call the Marcoses and various oppositionists to come to a cathartic acceptance of mistakes and resolutions to move on towards national unity.
After all, Duterte himself has quoted the Bible that “there is a time for everything under heaven”. (Ecclesiastes 3).
If he feels strongly that this is the time for reconciliation, then surely, by God’s guidance, he could call the protagonists to a large or small gathering of people who can be persuaded to confess and forgive one another for the sake of our children and grandchildren. And then all axes can be buried.
Rev. Noel C. Villalba
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