It sure seems like it’s going to be all Marcos, all the time, from hereon. Yesterday, for instance, was about Quirino —but it was still about Marcos.
President Noynoy Aquino made a big show about attending the re-interment of the remains of Elpidio Quirino, the Philippines’ sixth chief executive, at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Of course, everybody and his Ilocano friend knows by now whose family wants what former president buried at the heroes’ cemetery and still hasn’t gotten that honor to this day.
Quirino died 60 years ago yesterday in his home in Novaliches, Quezon City, soon after losing his bid for reelection to his former defense secretary, Ramon Magsaysay. His family, through the Quirino Foundation, had long requested the transfer of the former president’s remains from Manila’s South Cemetery in Makati City to the Libingan in Taguig.
Of course, none of this was a spur-of-the-moment decision. But what did appear sudden was the presence of Aquino himself at the re-interment rites, which made the event suddenly political, given the current president’s new policy to attack Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and all members of his family.
The message was clear: Aquino will allow the burial of anyone at the Libingan ng mga Bayani except for the late President Ferdinand Marcos. And while he’s president, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop him.
The words of General Douglas MacArthur at the entrance of the Libingan that greet visitors reads: “I do not know the dignity of his birth, but I know the glory of his death.”
Aquino has apparently decided that the small glory of a burial at the heroes’ cemetery (where only three presidents have been interred) will be denied Marcos under his watch—and, if he can manage it, forever. To quote Aquino’s spokesman, any succeeding president who allows Marcos’ burial at the Libingan “will have to justify that decision to the people.”
Quirino, as a former president, deserves the honor of a Libingan burial, of course. It’s just sad that his memory is being used as a political weapon by the vengeful incumbent to spite the Marcos family.
The only good thing I can see from this sad, purely partisan gesture is that, like the sight of the divisive yellow ribbon that Aquino wears 24/7 on his chest in lieu of the inclusive Philippine flag, we will not have to suffer this administration much longer. And maybe, just maybe, we will have a new president who will realize that his job is to unite the country instead of dividing it.
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I keep getting asked what Aquino has against the Marcoses in general and Bongbong Marcos in particular. I confess I don’t really know, except that maybe Aquino fears that the rise of the old strongman’s son is a ringing indictment of all that he and his family stand for.
Because the Aquinos have arrogated unto themselves the role of being the polar opposite of the Marcoses in every way, the rise of Bongbong must keep the President awake at night. Perhaps Aquino feels he is able to talk his way out of every apparent failing of his as president—but he simply can’t countenance the idea that his particular brand of “ineptocracy” has made the people seriously consider the younger Marcos as a viable alternative 30 years after the people power revolt.
It doesn’t help Aquino that the 35-and-under segment of the population that makes up nearly half of all Filipino voters seem to have become Marcos’ core constituency, apart from the always-formidable “solid north” base that has never accepted the Aquinos. If Bongbong becomes vice president—and there’s an excellent chance that he will be by May—the entire Yellow narrative is in danger of collapsing.
As the designated keeper of the Aquino flame, Noynoy simply cannot accept this. And this is why, even if Bongbong is not even running for president (yet), Aquino feels the need to act preemptively, especially at indoctrinating the youth who do not carry the people power baggage that some of their elders have been lugging around for three decades.
But Aquino ultimately has only himself to blame, if the people repudiate the carefully created myth of the political and moral superiority of his family compared to the Marcoses. After all, if the youth—who have no direct memory of the supposed epic Marcos-Aquino battle between good and evil—gravitate towards Bongbong, it must be because they see in the former dictator’s son someone who will do a better job than the incompetent, feckless incumbent.
How long can Filipinos be fed a diet of the restoration of democracy anyway, before they start looking for actual services and the betterment of their lives because they have a government that works for them? Even the people who lived through the Marcos years are now reminiscing about how much better things were back then, simply because their plight is so much harder now.
Noynoy dropped the ball and let the Yellow side down during his term, this much is clear. And no matter how many horror stories he tells about the Marcoses, that’s not going to change.