Were Filipinos all wrong at EDSA '86?

As of last count, 219 congressmen want Ferdinand Marcos interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Resting Place of Heroes). The Army now reveres him in a Hall of Heroes among 39 Medalists of Valor. The Supreme Court has cleared his foremost crony Danding Cojuangco of the multibillion-peso coconut levy mess.

All this gives Filipinos reason to pause and ponder: were they all wrong at EDSA ’86?

Millions of Filipinos made history on February 22-25, 1986. To the main thoroughfare of EDSA in Metro Manila and in other cities they had marched in a last stand against Marcos’s 14-year dictatorship. In peaceful resistance, to which Marcos’s military eventually defected, they ended his tyranny and plunder. The EDSA People Power Revolt restored basic freedoms of speech and assembly, election and enterprise. Participants then returned to their workaday lives.

There are contrary views, of course. For Marcos admirers (and even his communist archenemies), the EDSA Revolt merely restored the old elite. Truly the handful of families that had dominated the provinces towards the end of the Spanish regime regained political and economic clout post-Marcos. Loyalists blame even the rise of poverty and crime to the expulsion of Marcos.

For those who fought him, EDSA ’86 began the long, unfinished task of making Marcos, his stooge-generals and cronies pay. Thousands of citizens had been tortured, killed or arrested without warrant during Marcos’s reign. Last month 7,500 such victims were recompensed from the seizure of his secret ranches in Texas and Arizona. Marcos never ordered the atrocities, his son Bongbong said; he never stopped them either. Reportedly $10 billion in national wealth systematically was stolen. Of the total, the Presidential Commission on Good Government has recovered and liquidated only $2.1 billion, for land reform. More remain snagged in court dockets.

It’s only proper to lay Marcos to rest at the Libingan, they say, for he was a war veteran and a President. Supposedly would be buried with him is the bitter division of Filipinos. But Marcos is a bogus war hero, foes cry. Having worn the uniform does not merit him a plot at the Libingan, more so since his 27 medals allegedly came from contrived exploits. Not to forget, he abused his Presidency.

But Marcos accomplished more than any other President, stalwarts aver. Granting that he did, detractors retort, having overstayed in power for 14 long years, the least he could do was undertake something. Corruption is widespread today than during Marcos’s time, one side shouts. Untrue, the other rejoins, that’s just the impression due to a press now free to expose. Marcos still is so well loved by millions of Filipinos, the arguing goes on. But that’s supposedly only because history schoolbooks avoid narrating his sins. Marcos is painted as the vilest of all Presidents. Yet if so, Filipinos apparently never learned from it, and keep electing grafters and abusers.

A recent survey by the Social Weather Stations showed Filipinos exactly split about burying Marcos or not at the Libingan. Fifty percent of respondents favored such a hero’s interment, 49 percent opposed, and one percent gave no answer. Of the 50 percent pro-hero’s burial, 30 percent were amenable to official honors, while 20 percent preferred private rites only.

In a subsequent survey, the SWS asked more respondents to name up to five true heroes. While Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio justifiably emerged at the top for their roles in the birth of the Republic, the other honorees came as a surprise. Ninoy and Cory Aquino of contemporary times ranked third and fourth, ahead of revolutionaries Apolinario Mabini and Emilio Aguinaldo, fifth and sixth. Contemporary Marcos, in seventh, outclassed predecessor-Presidents Ramon Magsaysay and Manuel Quezon, and first colonial repulser Lapulapu.

Filipinos’ sense of heroes defines their politics. Noynoy Aquino became President following the national grief over his mother Cory’s death. Similarly, Marcos’s seventh status among heroes explains the comeback of his heirs. In last June’s elections son Bongbong became senator, daughter Imee governor, and wife Imelda congresswoman of Ilocos Norte. Some invoke Filipino Christianity — forgive and forget — to push for the hero’s burial. Others would sweep the problem under the rug, since it’s allegedly only the body being venerated, not the legacy. And there’s the text joke going around that a Libingan burial is no big deal since “Bayani (Hero)” is deleted from the title.

There’s irony in the 219 congressmen’s petition, the Army’s opening of the Marcos Hall, and the acquittal of Cojuangco. These occur during the Presidency of Noynoy Aquino, whose family was among those that suffered most under Marcos rule, with the assassination of patriarch Ninoy. It is on the 25th commemoration of EDSA ’86, coinciding with the silver anniversaries as well of major media outlets, political parties, and resurgent industries.

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