Stop Marcoses’ return to Malacañang, Diokno urges youth

Serena Diokno. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The youth must learn from the country’s dark past and stop the return of the Marcoses to Malacañang, the country’s former top historian said.

Speaking at the anti-Marcos burial protest at EDSA People Power Monument, former National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) chair Dr. Maria Serena Diokno on Wednesday urged young people to stop historical revisionism.

“Let’s know our history, let’s learn our history,” Diokno said.

Diokno, who resigned from her post on Tuesday, also blasted President Rodrigo Duterte for allowing the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

The interment of Marcos at LNMB not only revises history, it also paves the way for Marcos rule in the country, according to Diokno.

Although the Supreme Court ruled that there was no grave abuse of discretion on the part of President Duterte when he ordered that the remains of Marcos be buried at LNMB and that the late dictator could be buried at the heroes’ cemetery, Diokno said there is a big difference between “could” and “should.”

“Huwag na nating pansinin ang sa Supreme Court. Ang sinabi ng Supreme Court justice, at least  9 sa kanila, base sa kanilang pagtingin sa batas ay pwede. Pero tandaan natin: Magkaiba ang pwede sa dapat,” she said.

(Don’t mind the Supreme Court. The justices, at least 9 of them, decided that based on their interpretations of the law, [Marcos could be buried at LNMB].’Could’ and ‘should’ are different.)

She also slammed the President for his close ties with the Marcos family.

President Duterte’s critics claimed that hero’s burial of the late strongman was the Chief Executive’s payback for the election support poured by the Marcos family.

“Isa lang naman ang makulit doon. Palagay ko masyado siyang nakakapit sa mga kaalyado niyang nagnananis bumalik sa Malacañang na hindi naman natin papayagan,” she said.

(Someone was importunate. I think he clings too much to his allies who lust after Malacañang.)

Teaching history

Diokno said she will go back to teaching at the University of the Philippines after five years of leave.

She also vowed to organize public history symposiums and lectures with other social scientists and historians.

“I’m teaching history and I know that this subject doesn’t appeal to the youth today. Admit it. You take up history just because it is a requirement in General Education,” she told millennials at the rally.

Diokno said, however, when Marcos was surreptitiously interred at LNMB the youth suddenly got interested in Philippine history.

“That’s OK,” she said.

The former NHCP chair was treated “like a rockstar” during the rally as the youth lauded her for resigning in protest.