I’ve been given a copy of House Resolution 1135, filed by the late Sorsogon Rep. Salvador Escudero III during the 15th Congress on March 23, 2011 and co-authored, signed and adopted by a clear majority of 214 other lawmakers. The document is entitled “A resolution urging the administration of President Benigno C. Aquino III to allow the burial of the remains of former President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.”
I’m told that more than 150 of the congressmen who signed the 2011 resolution remain in the House of Representatives today as members of the 17th Congress. They still constitute a majority in the current House, even if some of them are now opposed to the burial of Marcos at the military’s cemetery.
One of these is new Deputy Speaker Romero “Miro” Quimbo of Marikina City. Quimbo is a known ally of Aquino even if he also served in the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as president of Pag-IBIG Fund.
While Quimbo signed the Escudero resolution, which praised Marcos as a “well-decorated soldier” who “built the modern foundations of the Philippines” and was “a patriot to the end of his life,” he now sings a different tune. Quimbo, reacting to the current plan to bury Marcos at the cemetery, protested the attempt to “wash away the sins” of the Marcos family.
“We need to resolve what happened during Martial Law and recover stolen wealth,” the deputy speaker said. What happened, Miro?
* * *
First it was the human rights of the suspected drug pushers and users that were being violated. Then the feelings and sacrifices of the victims of the Marcos regime were being grossly disrespected.
Now, it’s the supposed imminent return of martial law, to be imposed by the new president, the same one who is no respecter of the rights of drug suspect and Marcos victim alike. Never mind if bringing back military rule was not really the intention of the president, who was just highlighting his frustration with the national drug problem by citing an extreme but totally rhetorical example.
If you’re starting to see a pattern or a disturbing historical throwback here, you’re not alone. In the past couple of weeks, for some people, President Rodrigo Duterte can’t seem to do anything right anymore.
I am well aware of the irony: it was just six years ago, a colleague and acquaintance wrote recently, when his friends asked him to not be so “nega” and to just contribute what he can to improve the nation. Now the shoe is on the other foot and the same people watch another new president like a hawk, ready to pounce on every perceived error or misguided pronouncement from Malacañan Palace with withering criticism.
“I had so many friends criticize me for my comments about the previous administration’s major f—ups,” Mike Besa wrote. “They all told me to contribute and not just criticize.”
“Now the same people are waiting on every statement the president makes and criticizing [him] no end. They could all do with a healthy helping of their own advice.”
I can sympathize. If I had a peso for every time that I was accused of undermining the nation by writing a newspaper column critical of the government, I’d be well on my way to joining the ranks of the oligarchs by now.
The remnants of the old Yellow regime are no longer engaged in their old pastime of critic-shaming. No, they have become, in just a couple of months, the staunchest advocates of the rule of law, human rights, democracy and every other liberty that they think the new government is trampling upon.
Whatever happened to not being so negative and contributing to the country by not being a critic? If you don’t know, well, there’s this election that happened some months back.
The candidate of the current critics didn’t make it. So they’ve decided to take on the cloak of defender of all things sacred and patriotic against the human rights violators and flouters of all the other laws now ensconced in the presidential palace.
These people derive consolation and hope from the presence of a vice president more after their heart, convinced as they are that the current Chief Executive will self-destruct. Of course, they also see it as their patriotic duty to speed up the process of Duterte’s political suicide and eventual ouster.
The gloves have come off now, barely a month after Duterte has been sworn into office. And if you’re also starting to have Joseph Estrada flashbacks right about now, I really can’t blame you.
After all, even the Americans have gotten into the act, after taking offense at Duterte’s derogatory remarks about the sexual preference of the current US ambassador. No wonder Leni Robredo, who is now in the Land of the Free, sees no problem with attacking Duterte about the drug killings and the Marcos burial, even while she remains in Duterte’s Cabinet; perhaps her audience really isn’t the Fil-Ams that she’s speaking to, but the White House and the State Department.
The anti-Duterte campaign has started in earnest, I believe. And the people behind it are the same ones who advised us not to criticize their clueless, do-nothing puppet six years ago.
