5 PHILIPPINE PRESIDENTS ALLOWED FOR MARCOS BURIAL AT LIBINGAN TO HAPPEN

Five Presidents had the chance to pass a law or an executive order banning the burial of the late dictator and plunderer at the Libingan ng mga Bayani – but none did. All five presidents are guilty of political accommodation to the so-called “solid north” either for a chance at a political truce or votes or something else. No one wanted to bite the bullet by risking to alienate the (obviously) powerful Ilocano vote but now that Pres. Duterte is fulfilling his campaign promise, they’re blaming him.

This is a campaign promise that Pres. Rodrigo Duterte made and now that he has been elected president probably partly because of it, how can he not fulfill it? We shouldn’t blame Pres. Duterte because his predecessors chose to deliberately sit
on their laurels because they wanted to avoid a political backlash from the powerful Marcos loyalists by enacting a law that will ban his burial at the LNMB. We can understand Pres. Cory’s position because of her reconciliation efforts after the EDSA revolution, but what are the others’ excuse?

The late, great PM Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore had this to say about Philippine society – “It is a soft, forgiving culture. Only in the Philippines could a leader like Ferdinand Marcos, who pillaged his country for over 20 years, still be considered for a national burial. Insignificant amounts of the loot have been recovered, yet his wife and children were allowed to return and engage in politics.”

We don’t want the Marcoses back because they might pillage the Philippine coppers even more. But blame this insanity to five Philippine Presidents after Marcos because it has always been a matter of political accommodation to the Marcos loyalists by the past five administrations.