THE CATHOLIC Education Association of the Philippines (CEAP) has appealed to congressmen to withdraw their support from the resolution calling for a hero’s burial for the late president Ferdinand Marcos, saying the late dictator was a “fake war hero” who “undermined democracy” during his regime.
A statement by CEAP, the largest association of Catholic schools in the country, said the “exaggerated claims” of the resolution were not valid to allow Marcos to be buried in the “hallowed ground meant for true heroes.”
House Resolution (HR) 1135, authored by Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero III, stated that the former president should be given a hero’s burial because “he was a well-decorated soldier, a veteran of the World War II, and a survivor of Bataan Death March.”
The resolution was contested last April 8 by CEAP, arguing that a hero’s burial for Marcos would be a “mockery” of true war veterans.
“[L]et us not make a mockery of the service and sacrifice of Filipino war veterans by giving a hero’s burial to someone who was not only a fake war hero, but was also undermining democracy and development during his long tenure as [an] authoritarian ruler,” CEAP said in the statement.
Sought for comment, Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, O.P., Rector of the University, said the name of the cemetery would no longer be appropriate if “corpses of people who were neither heroes, nor outstanding public servants” were buried there.
“I suggest the name: ‘Libingan ng mga Lingkod-Bayan.’ Then, perhaps president Marcos will be qualified to be buried there—together with others whose characters and morals are questionable, but had served the country, nonetheless,” De la Rosa said.
CEAP further said that Marcos lasted over two decades in his office simply because he used Martial Law, Military repression, and destruction of democracy under an “authoritarian constitution that was never legitimately ratified.”
The group blamed Marcos, his family, and cronies for the “country’s near economic collapse under the burden of behest loans and corrupt practices,” which the country has yet to recover from.
“[Giving a hero’s burial to Marcos] will be nothing less than a desecration and nullification of the Filipino people’s long struggle and victory for democracy, which we are proud to have gifted the world as an example of non-violent political change,” CEAP said.
Escudero, who was Marcos’ minister of agriculture, however, said the burial would “not only be an acknowledgment of the way he led a life as a Filipino patriot,” but also a magnanimous act of reconciliation, which will strengthen the bonds and solidarity among the Filipino people.
But CEAP said: “Let us remember the words of St. Augustine: ‘Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.’ Let justice be the tie that binds us as a nation.”
The association asked its member schools to be “ever vigilant against those who seek to revise and reinterpret history to suit their selfish interests and agenda,” and to teach the people to distinguish what is real and not.
