The Original Sin

When we learn that 43 doctors, nurses and other health care professionals were arrested, detained and abused for taking part in a seminar where a grenade was allegedly found tucked under a pillow, we are momentarily disturbed and then we go on with our business.

Just as nobody cares that 100 Filipinos will die today from tuberculosis and the furor over the massacre of 57 women and journalists in Maguindanao has almost completely died down; only a handful remember the murder of Evelio Javier 24 years ago.

Javier had been on a study grant in Harvard when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated. He returned to the Philippines shortly and ran for a seat in Parliament against Arturo Pacificador, a close ally of Marcos. Eventually, the Supreme Court would rule that Javier won the election but only after he was brazenly gunned down in front of the Provincial Capitol.

Arturo Pacificador went into hiding for 9 years, his son fled to Canada and is still seeking asylum. Pacificador’s lawyer and 7 of his security detail were meted life sentences.

Lest we forget, the culture of impunity and death which continues to prevail today was established during the Marcos Dictatorship reaching its apogee with the murder of Senator Benigno Aquino. Let us never forget that thousands of Filipinos resisted and died during those dark days, and while we remember a few: Leandro Alejandro, Lorena Barros, William Begg, Cesar Climaco, Dr Bobby de la Paz, Demosthenes Dingcong, Dr Johnny Escandor, Edgar Jopson, Emmanuel Lacaba, Jose Lingad, Abraham Sarmiento, we also need to honor the countless, nameless martyrs who after giving their lives now only cast their perpetual silence to remind us of the steep price of freedom.

For as long as the Marcoses remain unpunished and unrepentant, for as long as we try to forget that evil period of tyranny, for as long as we accommodate the principal characters of that reprehensible regime, we will never be rid of the original sin.

That evil chapter will continue to teach a shameful lesson: murder and plunder pay.

And we will never get rid of this culture of impunity, we will never tame corruption, and our politicians will keep repeating this successful, traditional manner of holding on to power.

The Marcoses must not be allowed to use their ill-gotten wealth to finance their campaigns for public office. They should instead return whatever they stole and finally, after all these years, apologize to the Filipino people for the pestilential harm they visited upon our ruined land.