I was born a month after President Corazon Aquino issued Proclamation No.3 that revoked many of the provisions of the 1973 Constitution, paving the way to creation and ratification of the 1987 constitution – the same year the world applaud the heroism of the Filipino people by demonstrating the true power of democracy through ‘People Power Revolution’. It has been said, or at least what the school has thought me, that the 1986 people power revolution was the result of long oppression, abuse of power, extrajudicial killings, and human rights violation orchestrated by the Marcos administration through Proclamation 1081 or popularly known as the declaration of Martial Law.

Fortunate enough not born on the year of Martial Law, I was led to believe that it was the year of great turmoil, lawlessness, inconceivable violence, and death of freedom that rightfully brand President Marcos as dictator, corrupt, thief, traitor, greed of those in power, and worst (in every imaginable way) president the country has ever had. This belief has been the public outcry of many over the burial of President Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB). 

But few of those who are born before the year of Martial Law believes that President Marcos should virtuously be buried at the LNMB because he is a war veteran, he has done good deeds to the country that far outweighs the effect of Martial Law, he was a president of the Philippines, and for others he was simply a hero.

I do believe that he is not a hero (a word that has been loosely used for decades), nor do I agree that Martial Law was solely imposed to feed the greed for power. I always wanted to believe on the good side, but who am I to judge? I did not personally experience it. When it comes to Martial Law, I am just a bystander hearing two sides of the story. But this does not give me less of a right to decide whether President Marcos should be buried at the LNMB.

So let me cast my decision grounded on the interment policy and the rule of law. I firmly believe that President Marcos should be buried at the LNMB, simply because he is a Former President of the Republic of the Philippines (period). If we strictly follow the interment policy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) regulation on the allocation of cemetery plots at the LNMB, the following persons are entitled to be interred at heroes’ cemetery:

1. Medal of Valor awardees

2. Presidents or Commanders-in-Chief

3. Secretaries of National Defense

4. War Veterans

5. Government dignitaries, statesman and national artist

6. Former Presidents and widows of former Presidents

It is undeniably clear that grounds 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 entitled former President Marcos’ remains to be laid down to rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Others might argue that because of the wrong doings of President Marcos, this right has been stripped off in him. But I would counter argue that committing suicide is equally worst than violating the human rights, corruption, greed of power, being a dictator, and yet we openly allow Angelo Reyes to be buried at the LNMB.

The point I am trying to make here, as much as I cry with you for justice of Martial Law, is that we should not be held back by the cries of our past; instead, we must learn to forgive. Forgiveness of ourselves and of others releases us from the past. We can’t have a better tomorrow if we are still thinking about yesterday. So for the sake of our new generation and for the generations to come, let us unite, give forgiveness, and bury the cries of our past together with President Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Let us now forget what hurt us in the past, but we should never forget what the past has thought us – we where once applauded for our dignity, heroism and love for our country!

- Law Abiding Citizen: Rexter Retana