DENTED EDSA SPIRIT. Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan president Fr Roberto C Yap SJ slammed the Supreme Court’s Marcos burial decision, saying that it has “dented, minimized, and diminished” the spirit of the first EDSA People Power Revolution that ousted the former dictator. Screencapped from The Crusader Publication's video interview.
By Stephen J Pedroza
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines — For Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan president Fr Roberto C Yap SJ, the Supreme Court’s Marcos burial decision has “dented, minimized, and diminished” the spirit of the first EDSA People Power Revolution that ousted the former Philippine strongman and kleptocrat.
"I am very sad and very disappointed at the Supreme Court’s decision. I was in high school when Martial Law was declared and I spent my college years during the Martial Law era. President Marcos stole from our country, tortured a lot of people, and committed a lot of human rights violations. This is really a sad decision for our country," Yap said.
By a vote of 9-5-1, the High Court on Tuesday, November 8, rejected the petitions seeking to stop the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Cemetery of Heroes).
"It is Christian to forgive, but you forgive somebody who is sorry for what he has done. And we have not heard that apology at all. The [Marcoses] claim they have done nothing wrong. So, while it is Christian to forgive, it is also Christian to be contrite for what has been done and there has been no acknowledgment of [those atrocities]," the Jesuit university president told The Crusader Publication in a video interview.
(VIDEO: CrusaderTV Ep18 - Vox Pop: Marcos Burial)
Based on the figures of Amnesty International, there were over 3,200 killed, 70,000 imprisoned, and 34,000 tortured under the 21 long years of the Marcos regime. According to historians and government estimates, Marcos and his allies have embezzled more than US$10 billion from state coffers.
PRAYERFUL SILENCE. On Wednesday, November 9, members of the Xavier University community gathered at the entrance of the University Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to offer prayers as silent protest on the decision of the Supreme Court to allow a hero's burial for the late dictator, President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Photo by Rico Magallona.
Challenge for educators
Yap also posed a challenge to the academic community following the SC decision.
“The challenge for us, for me as an educator, is that we should really work hard so that people do not forget the peaceful revolution that we did,” he said.
“The real task is that there’s a whole new generation that we need to remind. We need to do our history better. We have to make people understand so that [Martial Law] won't happen again,” Yap added.
Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan is run by the Society of Jesus or commonly known as the Jesuits, the largest male religious order in the world.
Similarly, XU’s former president and current Ateneo de Manila University president Fr Jose Ramon T Villarin SJ slammed the High Court’s verdict to allow the burial of "Dictator Ferdinand Marcos" at the Cemetery of Heroes.
"With no hesitation, the Ateneo de Manila University expresses its indignation over this decision, calling this an act of convenient equivocation and injustice on the part of the Supreme Court," Villarin said in a statement on Wednesday, November 9.
Members of the Ateneo de Davao University community also staged a picket along Roxas Avenue, fronting the university on the night of November 8.
MARCOS IS NO HERO. Kagay-anons opposing the SC decision flocked to Cagayan de Oro’s Magsaysay Park to express their dismay and disgust over the High Court's decision to grant of a hero's burial to Marcos. Photo by Rico Magallona.
XU groups condemn SC verdict
After the SC announced the verdict, the XU Central Student Government (CSG) released a statement on the issue, calling Marcos undeserving of a hero’s burial.
“XU Central Student Government is deeply saddened and disturbed by the decision of the Supreme Court to allow the burial of the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Our conviction is clear — Marcos was no hero, and he does not deserve a hero's burial. We have not forgotten,” the statement reads.
CSG’s stand garnered mixed reactions from XU students on Facebook. Other students asked the student government to "respect the law" and "forgive and move on."
However, the CSG remains firm in its position, reiterating: “His atrocities include extrajudicial killings, unresolved disappearances, plunder of the nation’s wealth, and torture of heinous sorts to the tens of thousands. His projects of progress could not compensate the pillage he has done to our country. His achievements do not justify the moral violations he wrought upon the Filipino people,” the CSG wrote in its statement, dated September 21, 2016 in commemoration of the 44th anniversary of the imposition of Martial Law in the Philippines.
The Crusader Publication, XU’s student paper, also changed the color of its logo in protest of the decision of the High Court, saying “the atrocities committed by the Marcos administration greatly outweigh the late dictator's legal entitlement to a burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.”
People opposing the SC decision also flocked to Cagayan de Oro’s Magsaysay Park and Kiosko Kagawasan to express their dismay over the granting of a hero's burial to the former dictator.
At the age of 72, Marcos died on September 28, 1989 in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he succumbed to lupus erythematosus while in exile, after being ousted through the 1986 People Power Revolution. ∎