The Order of Friars Minor in the Philippines has expressed disappointment at the Supreme Court decision allowing former President Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
In a statement posted on the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, the Franciscan order maintained that the late dictator was not a hero.
Brother Alejo Villanueva, OFM, provincial animator, said the friars could not forget Marcos’ plunder, the 3,240 persons killed, the 70,000 imprisoned and the 35,000 tortured during martial law.
“We, the friars of the Order of Friars Minor-Province of San Juan Bautista in the Philippines, who participated in the struggle for justice and peace during and after the martial rule express our sadness, disappointment, frustration, dissatisfaction, irritation with the Supreme Court decision,” he said.
On Tuesday, the tribunal voted 9-5, with one abstention, to dismiss the petition filed by anti-Marcos groups and personalities to block President Duterte’s order allowing the burial of Marcos at the heroes’ cemetery.
The Franciscan order said it is opposed to giving Marcos last rites at the cemetery in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, for a number of reasons.
“Martial law was a great blunder in our national history. It was a dark moment in our national life,” Villanueva said, adding that many brave Filipinos died fighting for democracy and freedom.
He said they are aware of the efforts of some people to rewrite history in an attempt to strike out the memory of Marcos’ crimes from the public consciousness, so that the young would perceive him as a hero.
“They deliberately distorted history. They try to mislead Filipinos’ collective memory,” Villanueva said.
The order added that the Marcos family should first acknowledge and apologize to the Filipino people for wrongs committed by the late president.
Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of the Diocese of San Carlos in Negros Occidental said he hopes the Supreme Court decision would be the match that would ignite a public outcry.
“Let’s make our protest and outcry even louder for the sake of the victims of martial law—both the living and the dead,” the prelate said.
He cited the case of church worker Hendrilino Selorio Cernal of Barangay Mabini in Cadiz City, who was 18 years old when he was shot in the hip during the Escalante massacre. He still has difficulty walking due to a bullet embedded in his hip.
“The Marcos loyalists want us to move on and forget the dark days of the dictatorship. But how can I do that when every day, I feel the pain of a bullet still embedded in my hip?” Cernal said.
In Iloilo City, Msgr. Meliton Oso, executive director of the Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center, said allowing the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani would not bring peace.
“There will be no peace for genuine and lasting peace is based on justice. No Justice, no peace,” Oso said.
In Negros Oriental, close to 300 people, mostly millennials, slammed the recent Supreme Court decision in a rally held at the quadrangle of Silliman University in Dumaguete City.
“Marcos not a hero!” chanted students, faculty, alumni and Dumaguete residents donning black shirts, after taking turns expounding on the importance of expressing outrage.
Civil Law professor Golda Benjamin said the Supreme Court is not the last frontier.
“The greatest revolutions started from anger. But in order to see victory, we have to rise above our anger, and begin a revolution using the skills that we have,” Benjamin said.
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said the decision of the Supreme Court to allow the burial of Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani would not mean the rewriting of history into a version where he is a hero.
“As crushing as this Supreme Court decision may be, may it remind us that they do not write our story as a people,” the group, through its secretary general, Ruth Lumibao, said in a statement.
“It is still ours, and we are its final arbiter, and shall mold our own heritage, and our own future. The shaping of history can never be left to a handful of individuals, but achieved by the many,” Lumibao said. —JULIE M. AURELIO, DJ YAP, CARLA P. GOMEZ, NESTOR P. BURGOS JR., IRMA FAITH PAL AND YOLANDA SOTELO