Justice of history far greater, NHCP tells Duterte in appealing Marcos burial

The National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) on Friday invoked history in appealing to President Rodrigo Duterte to reconsider his decision to bury former President Ferdinand Marcos' burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

In a letter addressed to the President, NHCP Chairman Maria Serena Diokno argued that the commission's appeal  is "based not on a narrow and short-sighted reading of the law but on historical grounds."

"Historical truth was what Rizal had in mind when he proposed in his Noli that the country’s ills should be 'exposed … on the steps of the temple so that each one who would come to invoke the Divine, should propose a cure for them'," Diokno said in a letter to Duterte.

"The justice of History, anchored on historical truth, is far greater than that which any court, including the highest court of the land, can render (or in this case, fail to render)," she added.

"As President of our Republic, you have the unique opportunity and obligation to heed the demands of the justice of History, and thereby lead the way to true healing," Diokno said.

Diokno said Duterte was aware of the NHCP's study on Marcos's war records and its findings.

The findings of the NHCP include:

1. Mr. Marcos’s claims about his war medals from the US are highly questionable. There is strong reason to doubt that he ever received them, let alone in a foxhole during the war, as Mr. Marcos claimed in one of his authorized biographies.
2. Mr. Marcos lied about his rank.
3. His guerrilla unit, Ang mga Maharlika, was never recognized by the US government.
4. His leadership of the unit was also doubted at official levels and his practice of double listing his name on different guerrilla rosters was called a “malicious criminal act.”
5. Other acts of Mr. Marcos were officially called into question:

    • His command over the Allas Intelligence Unit (described as
    “usurpation”);
    • His commissioning of officers (without authority);
    • His abandonment of USAFIP-NL ostensibly to build an airfield for
    Gen. Manuel Roxas;
    • His “illegal collection” of money for the airfield.

Right after the war, US officials were already aware as one put it, “that Marcos … had enough political prestige to bring pressure to bear where it is needed for his own personal benefit.”

"Our study covers only a fraction of Mr. Marcos’s record as a public official. A broader picture is presented by Republic Act No. 10368, which attributes to the Marcos regime massive and grave violations of human rights," Diokno said.

"The integrity and historical basis of the government’s effort to monetarily compensate the victims of these violations of human rights would be wiped out by the singular act of burying the man at the helm of this dictatorial regime in a national shrine like the Libingan ng mga Bayani. What one hand gives, the other takes away," she added. —NB, GMA News