On November 18, 2016, then President Rodrigo Roa Duterte deceitfully allowed the Marcoses to bury the body of their dictator-patriarch Ferdinand E. Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
The Filipino people were caught sleeping, as it were, given that all they knew was that the Marcoses wouldn’t dare force their luck burying their patriarch-dictator’s body in that sacred burial ground reserved for Filipino heroes. That resting place is for those who fought and died for the country’s sovereignty, peace, justice, and decent lives for the people under an independent progressive nation.
Cohorts
Since the February 1986 People Power Revolution when the dictator F E Marcos and his family were literally booted out of power from the Malacañang Palace, with what the world knows as the EDSA PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION in February 1986, the Filipino people expected them to be exiled in the US forever.
The Filipino people expected this because as a dictator, F E Marcos caused so much suffering to the Filipino people for he was believed to have plundered the economy, amassed more than P10 billion ill-gotten wealth, secured them in secret bank accounts. And with his equally traitorous AFP and PC top generals and ground personnel, committed atrocities against the people.
Torture and Arrests
Estimated number of victims of human rights violations (tortures, enforced disappearances, illegal arrests and imprisonments, rapes, killings, massacres) ran up to more than 200,000, as documented and estimated by the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission (HRVVMC), a Philippine government agency created by Republic Act 10368.
Wasted Economy
Official government records show grim statistics on the economy: GDP per person fell by 9.4 percent during the years, 1984 and 1985; agricultural workers suffered low wages as Marcos created export agricultural monopolies (bananas, sugar, coconut), exclusively benefiting his family and cronies; land reform program was limited to agricultural lands planted to rice and corn, and excluded lands planted to export crops, owned by big landlords and corporations; his import substituting industrialization policy and export-oriented industrialization policy failed the manufacturing sector to take off in the seventies and eighties; a weak economy resulted in poor job creation, leading to the OFW phenomenon, resulting in painful social costs to countless families; infrastructure projects were wasteful, financed through exorbitant debts and tainted with corrupt practices; and overall, Marcos plundered the government financial institutions, leaving a bankrupt Central Bank. Marcos’ dictatorship, in short, had his family and cronies to live it up, leaving 59.8% of the Filipino population then, wallowing in poverty.
No Hero
Common sense will say that F E Marcos, a brutal dictator-traitor to the Filipino people, cannot by any stretch of the imagination, be a hero. His remains ought not to desecrate the real Filipino heroes resting in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Interestingly, in her sane moment, VP Sara Duterte, President Bongbong Marcos’ campaign partner, rightfully commented, warning Sen. Imee Marcos, “I’ll Dig Up Marcos Sr.’S Body.” And she added, “I will throw him to the WPS (West Philippine Sea).” No wonder, the Filipino people often cry out aloud, “NEVER FORGET! NEVER AGAIN!”
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