Sillimanians’ Statement on Marcos Burial at the LNMB
Sillimanians’ Statement on Marcos Burial at the LNMB
Issued Date: November 18, 2016
“When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers.” – Proverbs 21:15
When our sense of history and of justice are being trampled by political accommodation and judicial subservience—manifest forms of cowardice presenting themselves as legal prowess for technicalities—the only recourse is outrage. And rightly so, because to trample the sense of history and justice of many is not right.
Ferdinand Marcos may have been president and soldier, but his persona did not end with these, nor entirely left to these. They did not define him in the long run.
There are other things that must not to be forgotten or be conveniently set aside as irrelevant conjuncts to his being president and soldier: he plundered the wealth and soul of our people, and his family—who are the holders of his legacy—have refused all calls for apology.
This fact cannot be overshadowed, and must not be obscured by legal technicalities or political prerogatives. This is a defining fact of who Marcos was, and always will be.
In this regard, we, the members of the Silliman community signing this Statement, are one with the Filipino people in taking a stand that it was wrong for the former dictator to be buried with honors at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
In retrospect, we agreed for the right of the Supreme Court to look into the complicated legalities of the Marcos burial because we assumed that this body would exercise supreme probity and wisdom in an issue that has torn the nation for decades. Its conclusions urge us to look beyond and forget the well-documented abuses perpetrated by Marcos, thus revealing a stance that is the very height of ignorance, an outright violation of fundamental logic, a position devoid of intellectual integrity.
The Supreme Court has failed to live up to its mandate and its role as arbiter of justice in our society, just as Marcos failed his mandate as our people’s president, to lead our country toward virtuous progress, and as a soldier, to protect our people from all kinds of subjugation.
The Supreme Court has committed a travesty of logic and probity, just as Marcos, instead of leading and protecting, destroyed countless Filipino lives, and allowed the subjugation of the country under authoritarian rule and dictatorship, and robbing us our national soul.
We, the members of the Silliman community signing this Statement, believe that the Libingan is a sacred place. We must not tarnish its pantheons of heroes with the presence among them of the rotting flesh and waxen bones of a plunderer and a dictator, no matter how it has been declared legitimate by a Supreme Court that has failed to live up to its expected judicial wisdom and probity.
As citizens of this Republic, we assert the supremacy of our political will over those with transitory authority and temporary political assignments. The government has failed us, and thus the necessity of taking this stand.
