Part II
The Communist Party of the Philippines, in collaboration with the hypocritical Church, continues to celebrate the student revolt to “remind” the people about the alleged brutality of the Marcos dictatorship calling that day of lawlessness as “First Quarter Storm.” Not a whimper of condemnation was heard from Cardinal Sin for the violent dispersal of the demonstrating farmers. Clerics and some nuns continue to make a hype of the violent riot by militant students on Jan. 30, 1970, ignoring that they provoked the violence after attempting to burn Malacanang and ramming Gate 1 by the fire truck they commandeered.
Despite the gravity of the rioting, four students were killed in contrast to the Jan. 22, 1987 rally where 13 farmers were killed for peacefully demanding the implementation of the land reform promised by the Church-backed Cory Aquino government. The Catholic Church is not only used as tool to protect the interest of the US imperialist and the local oligarchy, but as an institution, it constitutes an integral part of the exploitative system that thrives on grave economic and social inequality. This explains why poor people seeking to be liberated unavoidably include the Church in their condemnation because it acts as the pacifier for resistance.
Truthful political analysts refer to change in the system of government a “revolution” because the people’s action has reference to the overhauling of the economic and political system. A genuine revolution has nothing to do with the change of leadership. Neither can one accept violence as a precondition for change. People can replace a corrupt and exploitative system peacefully or prevent a leader of the status quo government from spearheading a movement for change. This is what Marcos referred to as the Revolution from the Center because the government he presided initiated the reforms which short-circuited the stereotyped approach of the Marxist ideologues.
The structural political and economic changes in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, in Bolivia under Evo Morales, and the return of Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua were government-initiated revolutions because their leaders participated in the Constitutional process, and used the instrument of the State to bring about reforms. It was their outlook of society that made them progressive.
Today, the Catholic Church and the CPP/NDF are again collaborating with the US imperialist, the globalist and with the local oligarchy in raising the issue of human rights. The ploy serves to erase from the minds of the ignorant millennial generation that Marcos has not accomplished anything for his country and people. The yellow hypocrites led by the Liberal Party refuse to talk about that because people will eventually ask the same question—what have they accomplished in their more than 30 years in power?
Rather, they insist on raising human rights violations using martial law as their point of reference to deflect the truth that killings did happen during the time of their idols but refused to acknowledge them as violations. The issue has become embarrassing when President Duterte pointed out that their patron, the US, is not a signatory of the International Criminal Court. In fact, many African states are now withdrawing from the ICC because it has become a racist tribunal hauling accused leaders to the Hague to be tried and convicted for human rights violations by white Europeans who were once their colonizers and slave traders.
To this day, not one suspect in the killings that transpired during the Cory and Noynoy Aquino administrations has been brought to justice nor has been accused of human rights violation. There is much dishonesty in their adamant refusal to reopen an investigation to identify the mastermind in the killing of Ninoy Aquino, fearing it will defrock their lie that he was killed by Marcos.
Moreover, Bonifacio Gillego, who originally peddled the lie that Marcos is not a hero, himself agreed that the former President be buried at the LNMB. That means those he duped to believe his malicious prevarication are now the ones rabidly opposing his burial at the LnmB. We can never say Gillego was moved by compassion because that would mean retracting the canard he peddled against the person he slandered to the hilt.
Maybe it is high time to squarely ask Satur Ocampo, Neri Colmenares and those idiots identified with the Left why they object to the internment of Marcos. Their argument is odious for it is like Pol Pot and Stalin complaining of human rights violation when the whole world knows they (CPP/NPA) butchered no less than thousands of their own comrades to weed out of DPAs. If given their way, we might as well look forward to seeing them proclaimed as heroes and given honorary burial.
The ambivalence of the Church is most shameful and shows lack of decency. First, the Church has no moral clout to oppose the burial of Marcos at the LNMB because that honor is an official government act for which the Church has no business, it not being a taxpayer. Second, the Church cannot question the ground where Marcos should be buried because it is not one of its vast properties for which it does not pay taxes, including the income generated by their educational institutions.
History will never absolve the Church for committing the most heinous and barbaric torture like disemboweling and burning at stake heretics, unbelievers, and those suspected for witchcraft. The act of routinely eviscerating human beings for their belief has never been admitted by the Church nor has it made an apology for the barbarity committed by Fr. Tomas de Torquemada, that at times exceeded that of the Roman emperors Nero and Caligula who persecuted the early Christians.
The name Torquemada will forever be remembered in history as the greatest torturer of all ages, even surpassing the methods used by Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler. Torquemada was not excommunicated by the Church which means he died and remained a member and defender of the Church. As one would put it, “Torquemada wasn’t evil. He was worse than evil. He was the Satan par excellence.”
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