Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO/RYAN LEAGOGO
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman on Tuesday said the Libingan ng mga Bayani is a place for heroes, not for despots and plunderers, in opposing President Rodrigo Duterte’s go-signal to give the dictator Ferdinand Marcos a hero’s burial.
READ: LOOK: Memo on burial of Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani
In his scathing privilege speech delivered during the session on Tuesday, Lagman minced no words in calling Marcos a plunderer, a tyrant and a despot, responsible for the killing and silencing of critics during his regime when he imposed martial law.
“The late President Ferdinand Marcos must not be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani which is reserved for authentic heroes and patriots or for those who are presumed to be heroes and patriots because their records do not document the contrary,” said Lagman, a member of the Liberal Party and a member of an opposition minority bloc in Congress.
Lagman said even though death is a great equalizer, there is a “distinction in history” for people who died a tyrant and a despot.
READ: House leaders: Marcos deserves hero’s burial as former President
“Indeed, death is the great equalizer between the poor and the rich, the powerful and the weak, the famous and the unknown, the influential and the marginalized. But even in death, there is a separation, a distinction, in history and the people’s appreciation between a tyrant and a just ruler, a despot and his victims, a hero and a villain, a patriot and a traitor,” Lagman said.
Marcos does not deserve to be buried in a “hallowed” place reserved for the country’s most deserving heroes, Lagman said.
“Verily, the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) is the hallowed graveyard for heroes and patriots, not of despots and plunderers. Heroes eternally rest in the people’s embrace and admiration, while villains forever agonize in disgrace,” he said.
READ: Militant, minority solons oppose Marcos burial at Libingan
Lagman’s brother Hermon, a human rights lawyer, was a victim of enforced disappearance during the martial law regime.
Lagman then listed the abuses in power of Marcos and the excesses of his rule, such as the thousands killed as the regime cracked down on critics, the media outlets shut down to stifle democracy and the country’s burgeoning debt and declining economy during Marcos’ martial regime.
1. He declared Martial Law for malevolent and contrived reasons to perpetuate himself in power.
2. He padlocked the Congress and arrogated the role of sole legislator.
3. To stifle dissent, he incarcerated titans in the political opposition and personalities in the Left.
4. He emasculated the judiciary.
5. He wantonly violated the people’s political, civil, economic and human rights.
6. He forcibly closed media outlets, detained journalists, suppressed the freedom of the press and expression.
7. He closed and took over private enterprises and public utilities.
8. He plundered the economy and amassed ill-gotten hoards estimated to reach US $30 billion.
9. He allowed cronies to inordinately and criminally enrich themselves.
10. He ballooned the foreign debt from US $1-B in 1965 to US $28-B in 1986, the payment of which, including the behest loans, stifled the budget of the subsequent administrations at the expense of socio-economic services.
11. He submerged the economy to negative GDP growth.
12. He was ousted as a tyrant by people power and thus, dishonorably discharged by popular action, while the Supreme Court barred his return to the Philippines.
Lagman said Marcos’ atrocities illustrated by his 12 cardinal sins “nullified” Marcos’ being a soldier and former president.
“In the case of President Marcos, the following are the verifiable records and indisputable evidence which render him unfit to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” Lagman said.
Lagman said even Duterte acknowledged in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) that “that those who betrayed the people’s trust must not go unpunished and… they will have their day of reckoning too.”
Duterte’s warning of a “reckoning” in his SONA seemed to contradict his go-signal to give Marcos a hero’s burial, Lagman said.
“The predisposition of President Duterte to bury the late President Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is a gross departure from his foregoing statement,” Lagman said.
“The interment of Marcos’ remains in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is an undeserved reward, it is not a day of reckoning,” he added.