In memoriam

BAGUIA

In the wake of the 46th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, social media has been abuzz with debate. While I have not seen material on my news feed defending the dictator, thank goodness, I have seen a couple of posts attempting to discredit opposition to the dictatorship and heirs of the struggle against it.

Administrators of one social media account juxtaposed a picture of Vice President Ma. Leonor Robredo, former president Benigno Aquino III, a nun and others assisting at Mass in commemoration of those who perished under Marcos and for other victims of martial law against a picture of President Rodrigo Duterte reaching out to victims of recent disasters.

Their argument was that those who attended the spiritual service were politicking in a time of sorrow and therefore ill-willed while the President was in contrast transcending dirty politics and responding correctly to the call of the time.

The propriety of consoling the disaster-struck is beyond question, but I find it revolting that their plight has been deployed to deodorize the President and demonize his political opponents. Such is a demonstration of ill will and politicking. It cheapens presidential charity and bespeaks a huge shortage of compassion for those who gave their lives for our freedom as well as for their loved ones who continue to suffer the pain of loss.

This is the kind of propaganda that eats at our people’s collective conscience. It operates by dehumanizing people on some pretext like alleged harmfulness of their political leaning so that the righteousness of their cause is belittled. By associating the sacrifices of our national martyrs with a calumniated political color, propagandists turn heroes and their sacrifices into targets for ingrates and foot soldiers of enforced amnesia.

The President, in spite of presiding over a milieu that has seen the deaths of at least 27,000 Filipinos within a so-called war on drugs was diminished by his critique in Israel of the Holocaust that saw Adolf Hitler prompt the mass murder of millions of Jews. Duterte’s words rang hollow because he earlier said he was willing to kill multitudes of drug addicts just as Hitler exterminated nations of Jews. Members of the Philippine political opposition, in recognizing the precious blood poured out for liberty by Marcos’ victims may yet rise far beyond their imperfections. Their political convictions may be unpopular, but their hearts are in the right place. In a situation that the malicious forcibly cast into a contest between Duterte’s red and the yellow of the throngs emboldened by the blood of Marcos’ principled foes, black and white still exist. It is good to remember costly heroism. It is wrong — as wrong as laughing at those buried by landslides — to deny martyrs of freedom the remembrance and appreciation they and their loved ones deserve.

As our contribution to battling the evil of forgetting the lessons of history, the College of Communication, Art, and Design of the University of the Philippines Cebu last week hosted an event titled “1081: Interactive. Retrospective.” I dare deniers of the darkness of martial law to view our interview with several survivors of the regime, listen to their testimonies, and come away without questioning their sanitizing of the era. The video is posted for the public in the event’s Facebook page. The interview is also a good resource for teachers of civics, history, political science and related courses who would like their students to have access to primary sources led by Meinrado Paredes, retired Regional Trial Court executive judge on topics like the horrors of martial law, the military under an authoritarian, principled political resistance, and solidarity with the poor.