At the End of the Day

IS IT MAKING judgment over the late president Ferdinand Marcos to not grant his burial with state honor? Is it arrogance to see him as a dictator when no court of law ruled on him as such? A Catholic Church worker even ventured to quote the Gospel of Saint Luke (6:41): “Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?  First, it must be made clear that no judgment is needed of the late strongman because history, and the Filipino people, has already judged him. The fall of his regime is a proof in history that the people has passed judgment on the evils he spawned, and no single person of today can claim better judgment on Marcos than those who put him out of power. Second, in a perfect judicial system, anyone judged by law is presumed guilty; while anyone not judged by it is presumed innocent. Unfortunately, the Philippine judicial system is very far from perfect. In fact, no judicial system in the world can claim such p

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 ne