How are we supposed to weather all these problems? What is left for us to do? How should we protect our hard-won rights? These are questions that have been repeatedly asked by well-meaning-but-tired-and-getting-burned-out friends. Their tone is consistent: frustrated, sad, and angry, all at the same time.
These are people who have spent many years doing things they believe would redound to the improvement of lives of those of us who have less. They are not only activists who have led struggles towards strategic changes we want to see in our country, they have also managed not a few programs that have benefited those in the margins—the poor and the voiceless. 2016, however, is beginning to wear them out.
I do not have the perfect answers, I guess no one has. All I know is, we have to draw strength from each other. We do not allow political tragedies to pull everyone down. Instead, we support each other, take inspiration from our heroes, hold hands, so everyone remains standing. We must continue to believe that as a people, our indomitable spirit will overcome challenges. We have done this before and surely, we can do it again!
It is perfectly understandable why people are sad and angry. We are not robots. We have a stake in our country. We feel bad because we care, and are concerned about our people’s well-being. What should worry us more is if we reach that stage of no longer feeling disturbed by the killings that happen every day, the utter disregard for law and due process, the blatant abuse of authority, the violations of women’s and human rights. We should be very worried when atrocities happening day in and day out no longer affect us.
For as long as we still express our discontent, our disagreement with abuses, I dare say, we are still in fighting form. It is when we have been desensitized into silence that we have surrendered, that we have lost our cause. Never let that day come.
It is quite easy to be distressed by how our institutions seem to fail us.
We have an Executive Department that’s led by a single strongman who is overly consumed by his war against drugs which has put thousands, on mere suspicion of being drug dependents and/or pushers, to death. We have a president who makes no bones about his low regard for the lives of those who have been victimized by drug syndicates. After all, according to him, their brains may have already been affected by illegal drugs.
By now, President Duterte should already appreciate that governance cannot be a single-issue affair.
Unfortunately, this president’s positions on issues, no matter how big, according to his own speeches, are significantly shaped by his personal views and experiences. It is not surprising therefore, that policy pronouncements are rarely cohesive, and can swing from one end to the other. This leaves his Cabinet members grappling to make sense of conflicting statements.
Take the Marcos burial at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani issue for instance. This is a campaign promise to the Marcoses precisely because Duterte’s father was close to the late dictator. The many years of human rights suppression, the killings, torture and illegal arrests, the plunder of the nation’s coffers are not as important as the relationship between their two families. The suffering of tens of thousands of martial law victims are not material to the President’s positioning on the issue. Ferdinand Marcos should be buried in the cemetery reserved for heroes, as its name denotes.
What is most disappointing perhaps is how another of our institutions, the Judiciary led by the Supreme Court, also failed us with its decision on the matter. By a vote of 9-5-1, our honorable JUSTICES totally turned a blind eye on the evils of Martial Law and its architect, Ferdinand Marcos. Nine Associate Justices decided for the entire country and gave the go signal so the dictator can be interred at the LNMB.
This decision by these Justices is bereft of justice for an entire generation of Filipinos who had to endure martial rule. The decision is a mockery of justice in this country. The people’s struggle against Marcos that culminated in his being ousted has been trivialized by the Supreme Court. This is a big blow to our democratic gains paid for by lives of those who perished during the dark years of Marcos rule.
The argument that the decision does not make Marcos a hero is hogwash. In the minds of the people, only those qualified to be called heroes can be buried at the LNMB. The nine Justices who said that per law, Marcos can be buried alongside our great men and women also did a great disservice to the memories of those already in the LNMB. Those untarnished men and women who dedicated their lives to honor our country have been greatly dishonored by having the dictator there.
Instead of the claim that the decision will bring unity among us, we instead see more divisions. We hear more people express their disgust at this SC rule, and rightly so.
With how government is run by a strongman and with the Supreme Court treating a late dictator like a hero, it is now up to the people to remain vigilant and continue our unfinished struggle. We, the people will correct the wrongs done to us. We will draw courage from one another. We will not be silenced. This is a dark time in our history and we will make the truth light our way.
For the future of our young people, we shall overcome.
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