Roy Tang

A friend asked “Would there be as much attention, flak, protests, etc. to/against the Marcos Burial if the Republic Memorial Cemetery was never renamed to Libingan ng mga Bayani?” and I guess you can say I’m kind of preachy, so my reply turned out a bit too long. I thought I’d share it here para mas sulit yung effort sa pagsulat lol

We as a people, we have short memories and we forgive easily, putting us in danger of forgetting the atrocities of that era and hence risking that we are condemned to repeat it. The Marcos family knows this and have taken the time and effort to try to turn back the judgment of history. You need only look at all the propaganda during the last election as evidence.

Many people see these videos and memes praising the Marcos presidency and the martial law era and we see a danger, a danger that is already coming true now. Many of our fellow citizens are already swallowing the Marcos propaganda that somehow the Martial Law era was good for us, that somehow a president who has been tagged as the second-worst plunderer in the world was a hero that needs worshipping. This burial is yet another step, an important step, in the Marcos family attempting to redeem their legacy and revise our national memory.

Yes, it’s just a name. If it were just people like you and me who could easily dismiss the burial by saying “that’s just a name, madami namang andyan na hindi bayani”, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But like all tyrants know, names are symbols and names and symbols have power. People believe in name and symbols, no matter what our rational minds think.

Why do you think they are fighting so hard for this? Marcos has been dead for ages, why not just bury him in Ilocos Norte where they know he will be loved and his grave left unvandalized and not risk all this outcry? Why is the president so insistent on this, when even among his own followers there are many who are against the move? It’s true that we have so many other things to worry about as a country, so why insist on this, when they know it’s a deeply divisive move? They know the stakes. They know they don’t have to insist on declaring him a hero openly, the mere symbolism of him being buried there is enough, for now.