The hypocrites led by this good-for-nothing administration should stop entertaining the thought that they are smarter than the rest of us by making that cheap gambit of demanding from vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. an apology for the alleged “atrocities” committed during the period of martial law. Maybe it is the easiest way to entrap him and divert the attention so the people will forget to ask them about the more than P10 trillion they squandered to buy the loyalty of political sycophants and former rebels-now-turned-professional mendicants.
Instead of them answering what they have accomplished, this pretending-to-be-honest administration thought it wise that if Bongbong will bite their ploy, he would now be answering questions from people who in truth have their pre-set judgment on him. Instead of him talking on issues people would want to hear and hope will help improve their lives, Bongbong will be tied down defending on something he did not commit.
To begin with, nobody in his right mind would admit that President Marcos committed “atrocities,” as this administration would brazenly accuse him. Second, even if Bongbong would give in to their demand for an apology, there is nothing for him to apologize for because his father, Ferdinand Marcos, was never convicted of any crime, which logically, should serve as basis for an apology. In fact, an apology amounts to admitting an offense which the father did not commit, and worse, could no longer defend himself.
More than anything else, Ferdinand, during his lifetime, was not convicted of any crime. For one to insist an apology is to expose oneself as a psychopath. While nobody is denying that martial law was imposed, neither can anybody say its imposition was illegal and the resultant consequence for every act to contain the rebellion was a crime. It was upheld by the Supreme Court as constitutional and legal, and that the justices who were subsequently appointed by the holier-than-thou government of Cory Aquino did nothing to reverse that decision.
On the contrary, it is this current President that violated the Constitution for signing into law R.A. No. 10368 granting reparation to the alleged human rights victims during the period of martial law. Many are wondering on what legal basis made PNoy and his confederates in Congress to decide in giving reparations when there was no conviction against Marcos, or any of the members of the Armed Forces and law-enforcing authorities for committing human rights violation during that period to logically impute command responsibility. It would be gratuitous for one to assume that President Marcos maltreated and manhandled them as what that psychopath judge in Hawaii did to grant reparation to the so-called anti-imperialists for their failed rebellion.
Besides, even if Bongbong makes an apology, that will not result in the closure of the issue. They will continue to rant on the black propaganda for which they have become notorious. Rather, as head of state, it is the duty of PNoy to take the precedent in correcting mistakes, especially if it results to an injustice. As lawyers would demand, PNoy should provide a bill of particulars of what he wants to imply, much that it would be difficult to determine whether there is even logic to what he is saying.
Moreover, even if the funds to be paid to these so-called progressive mendicants come from the confiscated assets of the Marcoses, they forgot that private funds, once turned over to the government, automatically become a public fund that cannot be appropriated to pay for imaginary damages. Such is an abuse of power and authority. Everybody knows that the law is meant to bribe those mendicants to vote for their candidate in anticipation that Bongbong might gun for the presidency.
Many soldiers and policemen are grumbling because they too suffered in carrying out their duty to defend the Republic against the violent rebellion waged by those ideological misguided rebels-now-turned-mendicants. Many of them were killed, assassinated, maimed, captured and tortured, and PNoy did not even bother to recall their heroism. On the contrary, these mendicants, aside from being materially rewarded, were also allowed to build their own monument in honor for their alleged “fallen heroes.” A former rebel, who insists calling herself a human rights victim, has been appointed chairman of the Commission on Human Rights and is now using said commission to distort our history, malign our soldiers, and justify the payment of compensation. The giving of reparations is the highest insult this ungrateful administration can do to our soldiers and policemen.
We must not forget that the Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front, its military arm, the New People’s Army, and various front organizations created the revolutionary situation to force Marcos to impose martial law. They even taunted his government to fight them. They committed serious crimes like their attempted arms landing in Isabela, the bombing of Plaza Miranda, the ambushes and assassinations of public officials and maliciously imputing those crimes to Marcos, and staged riots on the streets and universities to emphasize a breakdown of law and order. That Sison and his co-conspirators should answer, if only to put that stormy chapter in our history in the right perspective. As the Bible says, “Whoever is without a sin among you should cast the first stone x x x.”
These hypocrites are, in fact, contradicting themselves. For instance, PNoy used the word “atrocities” to denote that Marcos was very cruel and brutal, but refused to answer the simple question about the identity of the mastermind of the 1983 assassination of his father, Ninoy Aquino and that fall guy identified as Rolando Galman. He should have answered that, much that it is not only his duty to know the mastermind, being the son and now President, but most importantly in finding out whether it was Marcos who did it to resolve the issue once and for all against him as a human rights violator. Bongbong need not make any apology because the facts would speak for themselves. As an old adage would put it, “nobody argues with facts,” or in Latin, “Contra factum non valet argumentum.”
Marcos himself, while still in power, initiated an inquiry about the assassination, but they refused to cooperate, branding it as a sham. After his ouster, Mrs. Aquino, instead of using all the resources of the government, did not pursue the investigation fearing that once resolved, they could no longer capitalize on it to elicit funerary sympathy. Most dangerous is it might cause them embarrassment, knowing that the mastermind is probably whom they would not want to be identified at all costs.
Thus, by evading to answer the question, it becomes clear that PNoy is the main cause of the problem, and is never a part of the solution.
rpkapunan@gmail.com
