My exclusive
By Raïssa Robles
It was a short mobile text message consisting of only nine letters that convinced President Benigno Aquino III NOT to bury the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani, two sources confirmed to me separately.
The text message was sent to PNoy’s mobile phone so you can see how close he was to that person. Not very many can reach the president via SMS.
But this was a friend and the content of the message was one that PNoy never ever knew despite their years of knowing each other.
It was the kind of text message that needed trust from both sides and the courage of the sender to expose a long-hidden shame.
The text message came from Human Rights Commission chair Loretta Ann-Rosales who had belatedly and publicly voiced her protest against Marcos’ burial as a hero because of the countless human rights violations that occurred during his regime.
Rosales texted PNoy – “I was raped”
Let me tell you, it is one of the the hardest things in the world for a woman to reveal that, especially to a man. Even if the crime is against her person, there is still a lot of shame in telling others that such a beastly thing was done to her.
That day, Rosales took her courage in her own hands and told the highest leader of the land why it was very important NOT to bury Marcos as a hero.
“I was raped,” she told a public official for the first time.
Later, that also gave her the courage to confide to ABS-CBN News reporter Lynda Jumilla:
“Iyung kuryente ang pinaka-ayoko. Naku Lynda, wag kang makuryente-kuryente,” she told ABS-CBN News. “That was the worst eh, and then yung sexual molestation. “
You know, that word “molestation” is a euphemism that disguises a world of pain.
Let me say this. Rosales was not the only one raped. The entire Filipino people – minus the Marcoses, their cronies and lackeys and officials and relatives – everyone else was raped of their self-worth, their dignity, their humanity, their sense of right and wrong, their dreams and their future.
I find it quite interesting that it was Rosales, and not anyone else, who received the first batch of declassified Martial Law documents from the Department of National Defense, whose former head Juan Ponce Enrile was once the Martial Law administrator.
I’ve heard that Enrile is now writing his memoirs. I’m keen to see how he will dance around the issue of human rights violations.
To me, the turning over of the documents is the first tacit admission by the military establishment that awful, unspeakable things happened during the dictatorship.
And if Marcos’ children can’t see that, then they are as much a part of the crime because of their continuing cover-up of such evil deeds.
It will also be Human Rights Commission chair Rosales and the officers of the military who can greatly help in the healing.
In this connection, I would like to share what Mindanao peace advocate Fr. Eliseo “Jun” Mercado e-mailed me recently. It talks about healing.
He said:
All healers are wounded healers, as Henri Nouwen said so well. There is no other kind. In fact, you are often most gifted to heal others precisely where you yourself were wounded or wounded others.
You learn to salve the wounds of others by knowing and remembering how much it hurts to hurt. Often this memory comes from the realization of your past smallness and immaturity, your selfishness, your false victimhood, and your cruel victimization of others. It is often painful to recall or admit, yet this is also the grace of lamenting and grieving over how we have hurt others.
To read Human Rights Commission chair Loretta-Ann Rosales’ personal story, click on the link below:
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Other Related Stories:
Marcoses broke promise to bury FM’s body at once in Ilocos – Fidel Ramos
M GUZMAN says
Ms. Raissa, you are good. I am now beginning to read your blogs. I had wanted to be a journalist, but my father said that it is not a good profession. He wanted me to work overseas so I undertook a health care career. Well, this is why I am here in Canada as a health care worker.
Please ignore those stupid Marcos loyalists, they don’t know anything better. Let us pray that no Marcos family member would rule our country again.
raissa says
Dear Merle,
Your father is right. Journalism is not a good profession if you want to get wealthy.
Even if you are in the health care career, nothing prevents you from writing, you know.
Good luck.
And thank you for reading.
Raissa
P.S. Don’t just pray. Do something. Make the hell of a lot of noise to make sure no Marcos ever sits as President again or even VP.
M GUZMAN says
I am, and will continue to. NOT AGAIN to another Marcos in the government.
leona says
Including Mr. Binay as PRP!
nelson ongpauco says
raissa hindim ko alam kung ilang taon kana ,magaling kang journalis pero alam mo ba kung sino ang nagpasabog ng bomba sa plaza MIRANDA NOON ewan ko kung ipinanganak kana ,itanong mo ke salonga,alam mo ba kung sino si kumader dante ng npa..itanong mo sa mga tiga tarlac,..noong college kami ang kaibigan ko ay nagbakasyon sa tarlac ng magising siya ng madaling araw walang tao kundi sya lang ng lumabas sya ng bahay nakita niya kung sino ang nagbibigay ng mga baril sa mga tao…ng makitra sya ng pinsan noong oras din nayon pinauwi sya sa maynila baka daw papatay sya pag maynakakita sa kanya…
raissa says
and your point is –
M GUZMAN says
I am now 65 years old, and yes I had seen and experienced the darkest hours of Marcos’ martial rule. My family was indirectly affected by the Marcos’ cruel greedy dictatorship. My father lost his job when crony Manda Elizalde had to run and hide; the USIPhil where my sister used to work was given to one crony; my cousin who used to work with Dynetics lost his job after the company was gifted to another crony. The year 1972 was a scary year, and I feared for my two children’s lives and future. Marcos ruled with an iron hand, TERROR was the rule — some of my father’s friends disappeared and were unheard of. It was the saddest part of the country, only next to the Japanese occupation. Marcos? Not again. Just like Hitler, Khadafy, Idi Amin, Milosevic, and scores of other evil rulers of modern history.
My father who was a war veteran was buried at the Libingan ng Bayani; and so was my brother in law. My family pledged they would dig up my father’s remains from the LNB if ex-dictator Marcos would be buried there. Sounds ridiculous? No, but burying Marcos’ remains would desecrate this hallowed grounds. Another Marcos in the government? NOT AGAIN.
For the blinded Marcos loyalist, forgiveness is not the issue here. Marcos’ misdeeds and dark memory need to be immortalized to avoid a repeat of the hateful dictator’s rule.
ciacia78 says
Yes, i’m a Marcos loyalist, you don’t know what ur talking about. Marcos was a good men and was good president. He gave us schools, good roads and open others mind to discipline. Maybe ur sister wasn’t doing a very good job, that’s she lost her job. Yes, go ahead and dig your fathers grave and bury him in your backyard. I’m sorry but your too much. Marcos is already dead, and if you are a christian leave him alone.
alfred says
Fuck you! You don’t know what Marcos had done to this country during his time.
alfred says
Sorry for the harsh word. Yah we are Christians we will have to leave the Devil alone.
amante_rador says
@ciacia78
you ignoramus..
bury marcos in the LNB. then uproot all remains of our deserving true heroes, then change the name to LIBINGAN ng mga MAGNANAKAW. as one was already there…
nelson ongpauco says
galit na galit ka kay marcos marami rin nanagawang mabuti si marcos.ano ngayon ng nawala si marcos .sabi nila magnanakaw si marcos sino ,bang politiko ang hindi magnanakaw ,lahat sila magnanakaw ,,pati mga pulis military, mga head ng departamento ng gobyerno..kung noon may nawalan ng trabaho ngayon marami ang nawalan ng trabaho at mga bahay ,,ang muslim nasa maynila na noon nasa mindanaw lang at nagtatago sa bundok ngay0n magpunta ka sa quiapo sa eskuater aeria pagdumaan ka ng walang eskot na pulis mapapatay ka..ano ba ang magandang buhay ng tao noon o ngayon masgrabe ang sama ng mag politoko ngayon.noon araw ang mga trabahor ay permate sa trabaho ngayon six month contract nalang ,gaya ng koryentye kaya kinuha ni marcos dahil tumatas ang singil ,,ngayon nabalik na sa mga lopez sOBRA na ang mahal ng koryente pati gasolina pa at ang daminang tax ang binabayaran ng tao kaya ng vat..diba nagbabayad na ng income tax at property tax ang mga tao para saan ba ang vat…????
amante_rador says
@n.ongpauco
ang akasya bago naging isang dambuhalang puno ay mula sa ga-holeng buto.
ang utang ng bansa noong pumalit si FM kay DM ay wala pang $1B, o mas maliit pa.
tama ka maraming nagawang imprustruktura si FM, dapat lang. mas higit pa sana kung hindi nya ninakaw ang sinasabing $10B na ibinulsa niya at kanyang cronies.
Juanito Linsao says
The Dictator’s body may be frozen forever but his soul burns in hell forever.
M GUZMAN says
We may not know if Marcos’ soul is indeed in hell. He could have repented for all his sins before he expired. Only God can judge.
ciacia78 says
You r right thank you.
Juanito Linsao says
The Dictator is as dead as a doorknob,yet the Marcos Family is still using him(the dead doorknob) as a political tool.
Juanito Linsao says
Miss Raissa, Huwag mo nang patulan ang mga tumutuligsa sa iyo.We can see how uninformed they are sa mga posting nila.
raissa says
Sigue, hayaan ko na lang sa inyo. :)
Juanito Linsao says
I think you are the right person to write a book about “The Marcos Clan” to set the record straight.
enrique bustos says
The sins of the father
Teddy Locsin Jr. / Free Fire
MALACAÑANG just can’t leave well enough alone. It had to answer the young Marcos on the question of his father’s state honors as former president, to which he is clearly entitled and for which there can be no case for disqualification.
Why not let the Marcoses speak their peace, get things off their chest, and get over their disappointment at being misled by the President into thinking he was seriously reconsidering the no-burial policy of the late president? Say nothing back. Doesn’t Malacañang have enough to wipe off its face from the first round of this issue?
Let them have the last word, since anyway, the last word that counts was already spoken by the President. No burial, in any case.
Or so we thought, for now there may be a precondition: that an apology be made.
Now Malacañang says that before considering the funeral honors requested by his children, the father must first say he is sorry.
Sorry for what?
Declaring martial law?
But that was constitutional, according to the Supreme Court.
Canceling democracy?
That was done to effect reforms that the landlord-dominated Congress kept blocking, such as agrarian reform. We are canceling democracy in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to effect political reforms.
Canceling elections?
Noynoy just did that, too, to effect political reforms in ARMM. And Marcos never canceled elections. It was the ratification of the 1973 Constitution, widely acclaimed and ratified by the Filipino people that canceled the forthcoming elections for president. I recall photos of monkeys jumping their acclamation.
Changing the Constitution?
We were about to change the 1935 Constitution with an elected convention of delegates for sale. The Free Press published Quintero’s exposé.
The only independent initiative of that Convention of Fools was the “unconstitutional” proposal to disqualify by constitutional amendment the wife of the sitting president from seeking election to his place—an inalienable right to run for public office that no Constitution, however drafted, crafted and ratified, can deny. That was really shit, for which the proponents were rightly jailed by a smart lawyer-dictator for their ignorance of constitutional law.
The disqualification of the first lady partook of the nature of a bill of attainder, like the attempt to disqualify the Catholic brother of Charles II from succeeding to the throne in violation of the monarchic principle that succession is by blood and not by whimsy, that dethronement must be by impeachment but never by disqualification as the Earl of Rochester so tersely and elegantly argued as he rotted with syphilis. “A king is born to be king, not chosen,” the Parliament shouted down the proposition, “one cannot pick and choose.”
Should he apologize for getting an authoritarian Constitution passed around with fried chicken and Chinese noodles? We still do that in every election.
Should he apologize for rigging elections? He never did that. He won the presidency twice, fair and square, and by landslides. He won re-election in 1969 as a war hero against a collaborator jailed by his own father, the last Commonwealth and first postwar president and the most fiscally and intellectually honest man ever in public and private life, bar none.
Under martial law, Marcos never paid for a vote he could get by fear, if not enthusiasm. People really liked martial law, as was frequently shoved by ordinary Filipinos, not to mention foreigners, in the faces of its victims like my father and myself.
Should Marcos apologize for stealing in public office? Puhleese, post-Edsa presidents have made Marcos an amateur by comparison.
Pray then, for what must Marcos apologize?
For the many extrajudicial murders committed during martial law? But there have been many more murders since.
But I do not buy the Mendiola massacre that Jimmy Tadeo invited from the not-yet-retooled police with a lingering martial-law mentality.
And pray tell, how shall a dead man apologize?
Death erases crime, not that any crime or offense or misdeed imputed to Marcos was ever proved, aside from repeated Supreme Court validations of everything he did and the repeatedly popular ratification of all his acts, including the assassination of Ninoy Aquino when the vast majority of the Filipino electorate returned two-thirds of the Batasan to Marcos in an election cleaner than any we have held since.
And, finally, do we now visit the sins of the father on the children, and smear the blood on his hands on their faces? The Marcoses are Ilocanos, not Jews.
By what principle of law or notion of decency do we demand an apology from a dead man we dared not call to account when he lived, until a widow did it on our behalf.
And, finally, are we demanding the unnatural act of demanding that children denounce their father to assuage their grief? What is this, a Greek tragedy? And what are we, communists?
If we cannot have intelligence in the government, let us have good taste