Makati Business Club: No to Hero's Burial for Marcos

Manila, Philippines (June 3 2011) - Debunking claims of heroism that supporters bestow on the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the influential Makati Business Club (MBC) announced yesterday its collective opposition to the proposed hero's burial for the late strongman at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Cemetery of the Heroes).

Marcos' record as president is profoundly tainted, the MBC said in a statement.

“In the end, titles and medals – especially those of dubious provenance – do not a hero make. No hero would deliberately bring suffering upon his people and ruin to his country. For these reasons, the Makati Business Club believes that, by virtue of his profoundly tainted record as the leader of our country, Mr. Marcos forfeited whatever rights he had to being buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” the MBC said.

Supporters of the Marcos family at the House of Representatives filed a resolution to make the heroes’ cemetery his final resting place.

MBC would have none of it saying that HR No. 1135 “exemplifies historical revisionism at its deceitful worst in an attempt to recast the image of a disgraced leader.”

Part of the resolution states: “As the longest serving president of the republic, Ferdinand Marcos built the modern foundations of the Philippines” and he “remained a Filipino patriot to the end of his life and in death deserves to be honored as such.”

But MBC does not buy this argument.

“The claim that he built ‘the modern foundations of the Philippines’ is a gross distortion of the late dictator’s true legacy of autocracy, ruined democratic institutions, violent political repression, unprecedented wholesale corruption, shameless nepotism, crony capitalism, a crushing debt burden, and widespread social inequity and marginalization,” MBC said.

The group said the Marcos administration burdened the country with “onerous loans” that took a long time to be paid.

MBC also noted that Marcos became the longest-serving president of the country only because he imposed martial law in 1972, less than a year before he would have been mandated by the Constitution to relinquish power.

“He (Marcos) did not call for a presidential election until 1981 – a sham political exercise meant to bolster his democratic pretensions,” MBC said.

“It was only due to the intense political pressure that had built up after the assassination of Senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr. in 1983 that he was forced to call another presidential election in 1986. He tried to steal that vote as well, but the true will of the people could no longer be suppressed and he was driven out of power by a peaceful popular uprising,” it added.

Labor group Migrante Middle East also opposes the proposal to bury Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

“President Aquino should, without further ado, announce his decision on the issue of hero’s burial to former president Marcos who ruled the country for more than two decades under dictatorial rule,” said Migrante Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona.

“We are hoping that P-Noy is now enlightened on the pros and cons of the issue, and will not commit a wrong decision – a decision that could cause damage to his leadership and credibility,” Monterona added.