Sooner a saint than national hero

We just observed ‘Ninoy Aquino’ day. Or did we?

It is a tragedy and somewhat evidence of an ungrateful nation, how hardly anything was said or written or done to commemorate the cold blooded murder of a man whose last hope or dream was to convince a dictator to preserve the republic through democratic means lest we fall into civil war. August 21 came and went and nothing, not even on social media, was said about the supreme sacrifice of Ninoy Aquino and the supreme sense of impunity of the Marcos dictatorship that had no misgivings about killing one man in order to drive fear into the hearts of Filipinos.

It reminded me of the time of Jesus Christ when the Jewish authorities feared the growing popularity of Jesus after he raised his friend Lazarus from the dead. The Jewish priests feared that they would become irrelevant; that the public would shift their loyalty and support to Jesus and the Romans would then take away any and all vestige of Jewish culture and religion. At that exact moment, Caiaphas the High Priest speaks out and says: “you don’t know what you are talking about. It is better that one man dies than the whole nation perish”. From there they plotted the death of Jesus Christ. Go figure. These are priests, temple authorities, and guardians of both religious and legal laws of the Jews, servants of God. Yet all of them conspire to kill the competition who in today’s terms would be the “opposition”.

In all honesty, secularism and individualism has caused for me to take for granted or be less pious or grateful for the men and women behind heroic deeds and sacrifices that resulted in our modern day holidays. “Why do we commemorate murders, falls and defeats?” That is a question asked so many times and often the stupid answer is because we are stupid or only have deaths and defeats to celebrate. I disagree. First we commemorate those events not celebrate them. We remember them together as a community or commit them to memory and memories need to be refreshed. We don’t celebrate them unless you are part of the counter-culture or people in denial and can’t let go so they throw parties at funerals or birthdays of the dead. We need to be reminded of what happens when we let our guards down, take things for granted or allow abuse, indifference or negligence to take place.

If you watch some of the history films particularly about the Japanese occupation and attacks before and during World War 2, an often-repeated mistake of nations and leaders was to ignore acts of aggressions done to smaller nations. The United States thought that they were far from the European theater and they ignored Japan as a small fry that was too far out at sea. Then the attack on Pearl Harbor happened. For the longest time people and nations ignored the “Arabs” and Muslims, did nothing when these were subjected to cruel colonialism, genocide etc. Then 9/11 took place and the “Arabs” were no longer just camel riding nomads in the desert. Now they “Remember”, some countries actually have “Day of Remembrance” lest we forget the atrocities that our fellow human beings are wickedly capable of inflicting on us.

Filipinos and government simply have to learn to make distinctions between Commemorating events versus Celebrating events. But whether in sadness or in celebration, we cannot afford to forget. Ninoy Aquino was shot in cold blood. That is not the focus of August 21. The focus is on the culture of impunity and the cold-blooded murder committed by the state and its masters. When we commemorate the Maguindanao Massacre it is not just about 58 people being shot dead in cold blood, dumped into vehicles and ditches and buried using a backhoe. All that was “News” but the focus should be about the extent of murderous intent. The focus should be the depth and darkness of political and family rivalries for power, it should be about the blatant if not willful intent of national government officials to play political families against each other and the degree of moral and political corruption of national leaders who supported violent men with violent means.

George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Here in the Philippines, We witness a sensational or controversial cold -blooded political murder in almost every other administration. Some administration kills more than others but they have blood in their hands either through omission or commission. It happens because we do not remember the past; we do not commemorate the past. We simply go on a long weekend or go on a “holiday”. That is why I’ve titled today’s column: “Sooner a saint than a national hero”. I of course refer to Ninoy Aquino. It seems that the government and the agencies who we think should be in-charge, are officially not in the business of officially recognizing people as national heroes. In what I perceive as an attempt at absurd political correctness, they leave the decision or perception to the public. How very magnanimous of them to pass such a burden and responsibility. But that is not all they do. By their act of Omission, these bureaucrats essentially confirm what we are: an ungrateful nation much like the Israelites of the Old Testament who perpetually suffered God’s judgment because they too were ungrateful towards God and man. God forbid that someone declares getting a miracle because they prayed to Ninoy Aquino! Maybe Rome will manage to make him a saint before Filipinos officially make him a hero!

*      *      *

E-mail: [email protected]