A Hero's Burial

THROUGH A GLASS HARDLY Imelda kissing Ferdie to death

FERDINAND MARCOS IS LONG GONE. He had succumbed to a lingering illness three years after he was booted out of the Palace. He was placed in a casket that could defy the intricate cogs of life and death. And he rested on the ground as long as he had ruled it. He was, and is, worshiped by his loyalists just inches away from Christ’s head, Ilocos Norte Region I (INRI). For years, his shadow had cast a looming storm on a country still harboring the extensiveness of his reign, still raining on their parade post-Edsa style. And now even in death, he again made sure that he would not be denied a decent burial in no less than the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Yes, you heard me, Marcos is still holding on to dear life like it is the natural thing for him to do. How amazing, isn’t it? After more than two decades of Marcos no-show following his demise in 1989, we still couldn’t get past his game and we seemed to be on the losing end. Although it seems anthropomorphic to even mention his name in the papers today, Marcos, whether we admit him or not, is still a hot copy among the stands, too significant not to be included in the list. And the remaining Marcoses, more than anybody else, know how significant this would be not only to their former strongman, but in the light of what Ferdinand did to the country prior to his descent. Somehow the mere act of being buried in the Libingan is the confirmation that they have been waiting for what they believed was stolen from them. Many of us though are not convinced that Marcos should be buried in there and be called a hero, but to some, and especially to his immediate friends and relatives, he was more than that.

In fact, he was a hero unlike anything the world has ever seen. When he started out in politics at the prime of his life, many people thought he had all the answers to their problems. At that time the country was in a brink of uncertainty after numerous policies have failed almost the entire populace and poverty started to cripple the majority of the working class. The poor boy from Lubao, President Macapagal (Gloria’s pride), the chief executive at that time, seemed like an old hump trying to contain the enormous pressure of saving the country as compared to that mounting boulder from Ilocos Norte, Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, whose defense in that infamous Nalundasan murder case enabled him to capitalize on himself as an intellectual maverick capable of putting the country back to its course. The 1965 election was a given matter. Marcos won convincingly and it paved the way for what could be an eternity of misdemeanors and misappropriations. As it turned out, he was a hero of a different kind, failing once again his constituents after promising them a place in Camelot. It was all trickery from then on. Even books, written by con artists, started to come out praising him to high heavens as the hero of all heroes, probably putting to rest Odysseus’ exploits as the man of war. He almost single-handedly eliminated all political rivals to remain in power, while maintaining a dumb stance that the country is moving forward. Low intensity conflicts became his staple for him to get even with those whom he considered a threat, and finally culminating into some histrionics involving his Defense Minister in order for him to cast the die. He was a hero, yes, just that type of hero we sometimes love to hate.

"There are many things we do not want about the world. Let us not just mourn them. Let us change them." ---Ferdinand Marcos

Now he wants a piece of that golden calf. And we need to take heed of that not because he's not deserving, but because he was our last great president. All the other ones after him are just mere replicas, if not copycats, of the original prototype. Cranky this may seem to some, but Cory has some Marcosian diplomacy stipulating in her policies, both of them exuding a delicate restraint when the going got tough: Marcos during the tense hours of his last days in Malacañang and Cory during the shaky moments of those coups. It was in the reign of Ramos that Imelda went back to circulation. A known supporter of the Marcos myth won a presidential election in Erap. And Gloria almost extended her stay in the Palace like that of her father’s nemesis. All these years Marcos is in our midst, working relentlessly in the background, and now trying to secure a spot on that hollowed ground.

Maybe we should at least give him a try. Marcos was both an idealist and a deviant, two qualities that have made these heroes so endearing and disconcerting at the same time. And besides, heroes are not born; most of them are actually made. We made Marcos. We made him the kind of person he probably envisioned himself to be long before he stepped into that podium to take his oath. No matter how serious we could get while listening to Nora Aunor’s version of “We Don’t Need Another Hero”, it simply can’t cover the whole multitude nonetheless. No president in our political history, even if we cuddle the idea that Magsaysay was a cool guy or that Aguinaldo sold us to those Caucasians, has affected us more than Marcos did. He simply altered our way of life by attaching corruption as its necessary reaction. Most heroes have their own contribution to society, but Marcos’ imprint certainly tops them all.

We owe a lot to the man, who died even before Michael Jordan could build an empire in Chicago. His departure in Malacañang introduced us to a game of democracy and divisions. By being the ultimate coach in a span of 21 years, he showed us how to play ball so that being an underdog is not something to be ashamed of, and it always worked at our advantage as exemplified in Edsa. Through his mentoring, we learned that politics is always a game of numbers, be that monetary or the final score. Through his cronies, we learned that staying on top of the conference involves team play, that politics is not an individual sport, but that everybody in the team (cronies and symphatizers) should learn to speak the same language, act the same play and think the same thoughts. We cringed at how long he stayed in power, but he showed us that it takes four quarters (1st term, 2nd term, Martial Law, Snap Election) to completely finish the game. He hacked us many times so we can’t score more than a single point, an old Machiavellian lesson, to do everything in our capacity just to secure that much needed win. Simply put, he may have displayed all the possible downside of the game for him to bring out the upside in us.

What happened to that Camelot you promised?

He made us heroes out of Edsa. We can only thank his unraveling because it allowed us to believe in ourselves again. Like most heroes, he became a sacrificial lamb to a wolfish crowd hungry for some bread. Without him, most of those screaming in front of those tanks were probably pulverized by now, with General Ver eager to prove that the situation is under control. But Marcos, over national TV, displayed what could be “grace under pressure” incarnate. He was still in complete control, despite constant pressures around, political and physical. It takes a glorious amount of tolerance to do just that knowing that the country is watching, prying your every move. And yes, he deserves another look because of this and to those countless others not caught on tape, heroes are not only rewarded for the good things that they have done, but the inherent effect of it is weightier, more definite and more transcendent than those typical requisites.

But selling Marcos into the Libingan is a difficult trade to market. His deficits far outweigh his profitability to the Edsa deal for him to be considered in the club. There’s too much pain, too much disappearances, too much casualties to look into before he could pass the test which, most of us would agree, would be quite too tough for him to undergo. The emergence of the Big 3, namely Imelda, Imee and Bong-Bong, somehow created an interest way below that bidding of resting Marcos along with that elite conglomerate six feet below the ground. Their reentry into politics is an indication perhaps that remorse is just a fine glossolalia fit to be spoken only behind closed doors. It is just business as usual, more or less, like reclaiming an old investment or opening up some closed deals, instead of lobbying for some contrition and reinstatement. Certainly the Marcoses are still playing the same old transaction of encroachment the former president was known of, only this time they’re doing it like a legitimate team; everybody has his own position and everybody knows exactly what they need to do.

We do not really know yet how Marcos would fare with the rest of the heroic few, let alone his place among his fellow presidents. His recent bid for the Libingan can only do so much for him to be remembered along with the countless roads he had cemented, the structures he had built, lands he had watered, ideas he had generated, offices he had created, treasures he had stolen, money he had transferred, rebels he had angered and imprisoned, and souls he had salvaged. Like Ozymandias boasting of his colossal find, “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”, Marcos’ place in that cemetery is still waiting for its ultimate unction, in the same way as with that emperor waiting for his fitting conqueror, the recognition that his exploits alone are as much a factor as those who have been given that privilege to be called a hero.

And because Marcos gave us something to struggle about; gave us the courage to petition eventually without fear of infamy immediately after that Comelec walkout; gave us Ninoy so we could see the extent of his insensitiveness in times of extreme sensibility; gave us the Palace, literally, when he fled to Hawaii just so we could see how far those shoes would go and finally gave us the country so we could see how big it should have been, that makes him the unsung hero of Edsa and to those who have never been there, a line that should have been a fitting moniker to a man reviled by so many even in his deathbed. And a full military honor should save Marcos from utter revulsion. The country has to get rid of his dark past, the many iniquities he has inflicted upon us, and because he was so cunning a dictator we couldn’t help but classify him as an incendiary figure enough to inflame a whole generation of heroes turning against him. He made so many of them in Edsa, and he is still making lots of them now that he’s vying for the Libingan. If there’s something messy in the mythical side of this once “great soldier” it is because we have treated him like some dashing hero out of the bunkers of our already damaged politics. For some strange reason, we always remember him for who he was and what he did to us. And come to think of it, we always remember our heroes that way, even when they are long gone.

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