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A Unity that Can Withstand the Wind

SENATOR FERDINAND Marcos, Jr. seethed when he learned that President Benigno Aquino III made up his mind to not grant any state honor for the burial of his father and late strongman Ferdinand Marcos. In his mind, the decision foregoes a chance to unify the divided nation.

This is a classic case of turning the table that lawyers know very well when trying to twist the facts of a case in favor of their clients when the truth would have been unfavorable. The Philippines has a long history of convicted criminals who insisted into their graves that they were innocent of their crime.

If only the truth is more powerful than those who refused to accept it for defensive reasons, especially when admission can open floodgates for restitution. If only...

But there will never be true unity when reconciliation remain famined from the withholding of the truth. Those who suffered the injustices of the Marcos regime will never be fully reconciled to the memory of those injustices, and neither to those personalities who made possible such violation not just of their basic human rights but even in the destruction of the lives of those they love.

And without genuine reconciliation between the victim and the oppressor, there will never be true unity even if the dead dictator be given the highest honor this country can ever give.

The true key to the unity of Filipinos is not, and will never be, the honorable burial of Marcos. It is the honest and frank admission of sins that had been committed in the past, which provides the chance for the victims to forgive. Without that forgiveness, there will be no reconciliation, and consequently, no true unity.

If Senator Marcos is sincere in making concrete efforts to bring unity to the Filipino people, there is only one thing he needs to do: admit the horrifendous sins of his father's administration and seek the forgiveness of the victims of that administration while they are still alive to give that forgiveness. Otherwise, the evil that the Marcos regime brought to the country will remain festering in our midst.

The beautiful lessons of repentance came to the fore when the late Pope John Paul II humbly sought forgiveness in behalf of the Catholic involvements in the horrinfous sins committed in the name of the Church throughout history; and such an effort towards reconciliation healed so much of wounds that evil had caused in the victims' lives. 

If Senator Marcos can do that, so much grace will come upon the country simply from that act of reconciliation. And our motherland will be a more beautiful and a happier place to live.

At the end of the day, sincere desire for unity and reconciliation must not be dependent on according honor to anyone else, be it a long-gone dictator. It must be based on love and truth. Without these cementing the nation, the so-called 'unity' will be a farse, and even a weak gust of wind can bring that union down to where it used to be. And such effort at 'unity' will be as good as none.
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