Standing ovation

I went on a week-long hiatus from writing and opted to watch the unfolding drama and listen to the din of protests surrounding the burial of the remains of former President Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.

But that is not all what I did. I too watched our 71-year-old President Rodrigo Duterte traveling to distant countries unmindful of how bad the weather, the toll on his health and not to mention the risks. All these on account of his consuming desire to make our country competitive and catch up with the rest of advance economies.

His acid test in foreign engagements was the ASEAN Summit in Laos. Even before leaving Philippine soil, Duterte delivered a stinging rebuke on US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Before his plane touchdown in Wattay International Airport in Vientiane, Duterte's critics had their heyday berating him for his undiplomatic language and behavior.

The denigration took even a higher crescendo when he ventured ahead with his unimagined foreign policy and security agenda that departed from the traditional pro-American convention. President Duterte nevertheless pursued his track and proceeded to engage China President Xi Jinping.

His critics must have been awed by the red carpet and grand reception China accorded Duterte who, not too long ago, was belittled by self-proclaimed gurus of diplomacy back home. And when he came home with a magma of trade and investment package and concessional financial assistance for the country's infrastructure projects, the vociferous and incorrigible Duterte detractors retreated in shame and silence.

Then came the unheralded burial of dictator Marcos. Unsuspecting many described it with double intender: 'Like a thief in the night'. (Not a few of those who said that are themselves thieves). Suddenly, the couchant anti-Marcos came alive from hibernation taking up issues and diatribe against those who believe their Apo Ferdie did better than the lackadaisical performance of the first and 2nd chapters of the Aquino presidency. Their battlecry? That the dictator does not deserve the honor to be buried in the LNMB (Libingan ng mga Bayani).

Of course the political opposition led by the dainty VP and Housing Czar Leni Robredo joined the fray this time denouncing President Duterte for allowing the burial of Marcos in the LNMB. Never mind her usual slur on the President for being discourteous to women.

Come to think of it, I think the Aquinos must have more sensitivities than the Marcoses for neither Ninoy nor Cory were buried in that hallowed ground. And that comes without reasons. Benigno Aquino Sr. was a Japanese collaborator at the time when Marcos was fighting the enemy; Senator Benigno 'Ninoy' Aquino II by some accounts allegedly created the CPP/NPA; and Cory Aquino and her new centurions almost caused the collapse of the economy, revived the moribund secessionist front in Mindanao, and during her watch the massacre of farmers in the gates of Hacienda Luisita and in Plaza Mendiola happened.

I do not think that with Marcos and Cory's dog buried in the cemetery, BSA III, like his parents, would relish being buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The matter of who deserves to be buried where and why and whether one is a hero or heel is dependent on the beholder's perspective.

In the coming days, we will see as to whether the rabid anti-Marcos crowd is a force to reckon with. They have made a clarion call urging those who are against the burial of the real Maccoy to join their protest rally.

I am not against that for after all this is a free country but what is despicable in this movement is that in their desperate attempt to assemble protesters, the religious sisters do not even spare the kindergarten kids from bearing hate placards to add to their dismal number.

This is simply madness. The hate and incendiary campaign against Marcos are in fact happening while President Duterte is out in Peru trying to craft yet another concessions from Russia and President Vladimir Putin whom he looked up to as an inspiring leader. Amidst the sounds of manic protests back home, Duterte was assured by Putin the Russian market is open for Philippine agricultural products.

It, too, is appallingly pathetic that while our President have paved the way for our fishermen to cast their nets in Scarborough unhindered, we quarrel over a cadaver and cemetery and some sneer and find fault in Duterte's failure to have pictures taken along with the rest of the heads of states who attended the Peru APEC summit. It is as if photo ops matters and the canine and man's skeletal remains will hound us back again.

Can we, for a moment, calm ourselves from the madness that seized us? Why cannot we stand together and instead give our President a standing ovation?

(Mr. Jun Ledesma is a community journalist who writes from Davao City comments from the perspective of a Mindanaoan). (PNA)
LAM/JL/sgp