Heroism

Heroism

What makes a hero? Who is hero? How is a hero defined? Who makes one a hero?

Randy David only partially answers these questions. The opposition never thought that the Marcos’ would be able to get back power. Not after their ignominious departure in 1986.

But times change. Perceptions also change. It is what happens because change is one of the constants in our environment. It used to be that the Great White Father brought all the good to uncivilized parts of the world. Not anymore.

The hegemons of past and present, are being made accountable for their actions in the past. Even Churchill hasn’t been spared. But there is always context. Churchill was born at a time when the British empire was at its peak. He lived through it and witnessed its decline even before his death.

The Spaniards made a hero out of Jose Rizal but it was the Americans who made him one as part of their pacification effort in their new colony. We Filipinos, didn’t make Rizal a hero. Certainly not Aguinaldo and his cohorts. You wonder what would’ve been the fate of Rizal if he didn’t incur the Spaniards ire? What if he sided with Antonio Luna and Andres Bonifacio? Would he have met the same fate as the two who were murdered by Aguinaldo?

Rizal inspired a revolution but he wanted no part of it. There is nothing in history that proves Rizal gave his imprimatur to the revolution. He was on the fence, but more inclined to fight it out in the Spanish parliament than in the battlefield.

If Ninoy Aquino didn’t have a heart attack and Marcos didn’t allow him to seek treatment in the US, would he be in the position to repackage his image while under detention at Fort Bonifacio? Not likely.

About the only reason why the Marcos’ were able to get back power was because the Yellowidiots did nothing when they were in power. Just look at the mess we’re in now. An objective reading of history shows that among the post-war President’s, it was only Marcos who had a vision and tried to implement it.

Eventually Marcos was consumed by his hubris and that of Imelda’s. It was a two-pronged effort, at home and abroad, to put the Philippines on the map. What did Marcos in really was his going against the wishes of the Americans when it came to parity rights and the bases. He was a marked man after that. A dead man walking.

As far as leaders go, what Filipinos need is a strongman who is decisive and a man of action. Duterte understood the Filipino psyche which is why he’s the only President who completed his term with the highest popularity and trust ratings.

Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is nowhere near like his father or Duterte. This is why this early, there are some Filipinos who are openly “missing” Duterte. Despite his advanced age, Duterte was always on the go, visiting parts of the country where no President had set foot before.

This comparison begs the question, other than dying at the airport tarmac, what leadership qualities did Ninoy possess to qualify him as a hero? His record as a Senator wasn’t extraordinary except for his oratory. He used the Senate as a platform to lambast Marcos, with his revelations about the plan to invade Sabah and the declaration of martial law.

History has revealed that he was complicit in organizing the CPP/NPA and the MNLF. His overarching ambition was to succeed Marcos and seeing that he wouldn’t have the opportunity, he proceeded to plan the overthrow of the government.

Some of our regional neighbors have gone through more violent periods in their history’s but have been able to move on. In our case, the Aquino-Marcos saga has been going on for more than half a century and the opposition still isn’t over it even if the Filipino people have made their judgment.

It won’t happen that the opposition will ever admit to a failure of leadership when they were in power. Truth be told there’s not much difference between them and the Marcos’. The difference that counts is while the Marcos’ may have stolen public funds, it wasn’t to the extent that the public didn’t benefit from the same.

In the case of the opposition, the theft of public funds left nothing for the benefit of the people. What made it worse was there was virtually no patriotism during the time of the Yellowidiots because the flag was substituted by that stupid Yellow Ribbon.

For the so-called defenders of freedom and democracy, it’s about time that they recognize the fact that the Filipino people have spoken. For as long as they continue to exist in their own ecosystem, the opposition will never be in touch with the realities on the ground.

Like everything in society, values change. Therefore, our conception of heroism and who our real heroes are is also bound to change. In 1981, writes historian Alfred W. McCoy, Marcos Sr. requested Pope John Paul II to ride a helicopter to bless the giant steel cross atop Mt. Samat in Bataan. By doing so, the visiting pope made Mt. Samat a shrine, “and by analogy honored Marcos as a hero, just as he would soon beatify (Lorenzo) Ruiz as a martyr.”

But only two years later, McCoy continues, Ninoy Aquino came home “to die a martyr before military executioners, stealing the Rizal-like heroism that Marcos so assiduously cultivated and subverting the ideological foundations of his authoritarian regime.”

David doesn’t even realize that he has given himself the answer to his question. He is that short-sighted and too focused on his alternative version of reality.

The truth is neither Ninoy nor Marcos are heroes.