SC decision an injustice, denial of martial law sufferings–Ateneo

The statue of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos stands in Sarrat town, Ilocos Norte province. —INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

The leadership of Ateneo de Manila University on Wednesday condemned the Supreme Court decision allowing a hero’s burial for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the “historic and symbolic” Libingan ng mga Bayani, calling it an “injustice,” an “act of convenient equivocation” and a “denial” of the sufferings of martial law victims.

“In its decision, the Supreme Court argued by saying: ‘While he was not all good, he was not pure evil either. Certainly, just a human who erred like us.’ Such an argument amounts to a monumental denial of the suffering and murder of thousands of our people and the billions of public funds stolen during those tragic years of martial law,” ADMU president Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin SJ wrote in a memo to the university community dated Nov. 9.

“Ferdinand Marcos did not just err like us. Decisions that were made during his regime were marked by atrocity and impunity … Those years were deliberately disruptive of democracy and freedom. Martial Law isn’t just a stumble in the dark. It was a careful orchestration of violence and power conducted in the name of order and an artificial peace,” he said.

Villarin said the high tribunal “hides behind the letter of the law” and took the “myopic view” of the issue as one of “mere legality and politics.”

“The court has chosen to pass this issue back on to the executive. In so doing, it misses the opportunity and its own power to affirm the enshrined principles embedded in our Constitution, which they have affirmed as rising from the ashes of the Marcos administration,” he added.

Voting 9-5 with one abstention, the SC on Tuesday junked all petitions against President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to bury Marcos’ remains at the heroes’ cemetery, despite strong opposition from martial law victims, rights advocates, and the general public. The high tribunal ruled that the President did not commit grave abuse of discretion in exercising his prerogative, and that no law prohibited the burial.

In their separate opinions, justices who voted in favor of the burial said the issue was a “political question” that Duterte answered as part of his campaign promise, which the court did not have jurisdiction over.

Villarin called on the Ateneo community to “continue to protest and express our indignation” and to “discern what true closure might mean concretely in this case.”

“It is easy to think of the other as enemy but we will not yield to the sinister forces that want to divide us now as a people. The only way to get to the true path of peace, justice and reconciliation is to engage in the process of listening to each other,” he said.

“Even as we embark on these, I would like to remind everyone that not all wars are won on one battlefield. We will fight for the truth in our classrooms, in the work that we do in the communities we serve, in the many places in government, business, and civil society, wherever we find our alumni engaged in building our nation and our people, so that we will never forget what cannot and should not be forgotten,” Villarin added.

Members of the Ateneo community, as well as students from the University of the Philippines and other groups against the hero’s burial, peacefully assembled on Tuesday in protest of the SC decision.  The De La Salle University student government said a candle-lighting and noise barrage will be held in their campus on Wednesday evening also in opposition to the looming interment of Marcos at Libingan.