IN the interest of full disclosure, our family lost the youngest sibling and had radio station DYRE in Cebu closed by a ‘Presidential Commitment Order’ under the aegis of ‘Martial Rule’. It is a familiar tale to Filipino families who suffered in one form or another during the shift to constitutional declaration of “martial law” to an authoritarian legerdemain, or “ruling”, to extend what was a finite term as chief-executive.
Our resistance was one based on historic principles and democratic values. The process always political and electoral. There was of course those who lent themselves to the illusion of polemic utopia. They eventually were misled, cascading into the slippery slope of alien authored and foreign copied approaches to a people’s but armed revolution.
The sort that aimed to replace libertarian, or at the time, authoritarian rule to a worse form – totalitarianism. As God is the true and Divine Author of human freedom, it was a question of time when the political/ideological idolaters would be swept away. In the post-EDSA era, a ‘Martial Law Victims Reparation Act’ was passed. Interestingly, many of those who registered were the very sectors who allied with the armed ideology.
Unlike the Mother of Jose Rizal who was unjustly punished by walking a great distance and jailed, when offered by the Spanish Governor-General “monetary damages”, rejected it and instead pivoted that if Spain truly wanted to help, it should instead give the money to the people. Principles has no price. The loss of a love one has no return.
We must respect the Supreme Court decision to afford Ferdinand Marcos a soldier’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Let his corpse find a resting place. His children and his majority peace. The country cannot long suffer relitigating history in the streets captured by an armed ideology that reject democratic/judicial institutions. The people have moved on. Note, Senator and perhaps a VP Bong-Bong Marcos. Judgment is for history and heaven to make.
(Erik Espina)