When that picture of Ferdinand Marcos’ grave at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani ciculated, I was struck by what they put on the tombstone. It just said “Filipino.” It didn’t have anything long or fancy, or anything like “Marcos was the greatest president.” It just said that: “Filipino.” A fitting epitaph.
Of course, I see why people would be insulted by this epitaph. Some Filipinos are bound to say “I’m proud to be Filipino! So someone I see as evil should not be considered as Filipino!” It is basically saying, the Filipino is only capable of good, and can never be evil. But that is wrong. As a fellow blogger mentioned, it is basically handwashing oneself of responsibility.
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When Rolando Mendoza took Chinese tourists hostage and killed some of them, I said that he represented us all in that event. Some people will be mad and say, “He is a murderer and does not deserve to be called Filipino!” No. Mendoza was a Filipino by birth. He stayed a Filipino and died a Filipino, even if he became a murderer at the end.
There are people who are Filipinos that we see doing bad things. Filipinos being undisciplined and defying rules. Filipinos killing people in road rage incidents, crimes and even just personal squabbles. Corrupt politicians, thieves, dugo-dugo gang and similar, scammers, gossipers, and more. Filipinos do these things… and are still Filipinos. We cannot disown them.
That is the attitude problem we need to have a good look at. Filipinos don’t want to accept negative things about them, even if these are true. They are oversensitive to criticism. All they want is good words and flowery descriptions about them… even if they do wrong. This has been a common observation for a long time. Yet, Filipinos don’t want to do anything about it or accept it.
But we must accept it. Filipinos are capable of evil and wrong. We are not special beings who are so good and great as to be exempted from accountability. We are people, and people do wrong.
Again, I’ll use Hannah Arendt’s Banality of Evil idea. It doesn’t take special, unusual, unique, mutated or otherwise super-different people to do evil. Everyone, even the most saintly-looking or initially angelically-behaved of people, is capable of evil. All they need is one moment where they decide to do wrong, and it all falls apart.
Also, Marcos has been seen as a symbol of evil in the country, and some people believe that by cleansing the country of the Marcoses, it will be free of evil. That is still wrong. As I said in my Martial Law article, there are other evils aside from the Marcoses. Even if the Marcoses are gone, there will still be other evils to deal with, and they also keep the country from improving. Unwillingness to accept this is unwillingness to move forward.
Character is not permanent or predetermined. It is malleable and changeable. It can be brought upon by internal or external factors. It can be changed by our decisions. As I said in my article about it, it gives us hope. However, we must accept that we are fallible. Pretending to be infallible is what keeps us backward.
I believe, as my cohorts here do, that what Filipinos embrace as their culture is what actually pulls the country down. And those who seem to be anti-dictators, who may also believe themselves to be “heroes,” are the real dictators.
We are humans, so we are fallible. Marcos Sr. is gone; yet the evils within our political system, became worse.
The Aquinos and the YellowTards took over. They made this country a NARCO Republic, with NARCO politics used to win elections. There were widespread cheating in elections, thru : SMARTMAGIC and HOCUS PCOS. Corruption was a normal way by : DAP, PDAF, and PORK BARREL Bribery. The Typhoon Yolanda Funds disappeared like magic ! Donated Typhoon Yolanda goods, were rotting (spoiling), in warehouses; while the Typhoon victims starved …
These are worse than during the Marcos Sr time. We may have corruption during that time…but these are worse !
Being a Filipino is now shameful…because foreigners think our leaders are all Thieves !
Our government is a KLEPTOCRACY !
You mean it was shameful to be a Filipino in the days of BS Aquino. Those anomalies you mentioned happened during his term.
Very well said Sir Hayden. The problem is these Yellows has a lot of Funds to Demonize the Marcoses and make the Aquino/Cojuangco clan like Saints. They thrive on Massive Propaganda to dupe the Gullible Filipinos.
I hope somebody can expose where these money coming from.
The money came from the Mexican gold coins stolen by Ysidra Cojuangco, the mistress of Hen. Antonio Luna. The money came from the sweat, tears and blood of their suffering serfs/tenants of their Hacienda Luisita.
These people are crooks to the highest degree. And, they are parading as “Angels of Light” !
Macoy was deemed evil and a murderer not because he was but because they portrayed him to be. Macoy deserves to be interred at the LNMB and called a Filipino because he served the country and the people well. These self-adoring Filipinos who hate Macoy better be told that they are hating the man falsely and that their action is nothing short of malicious and hypocritical, as they believe themselves to be what they are not: honorable and respectable (and I suppose they will feel no shame even admitting that publicly as long as they can demonize Macoy for as long as they live.) They spit on Macoy’s grave and feel proud, while not realizing that they are pointing one finger at him while pointing three back at them.
It may help to understand human affairs to be clear that most of the great triumphs and tragedies of history are caused, not by people being fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, but by people being fundamentally people.
Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos. That is the way we all see each other in life. When one accepts fallibility within themselves they become more perfect.
Remember: that giants sleep too soundly; that witches are often betrayed by their appetites; dragons have one soft spot, somewhere, always; hearts can be well-hidden, and one can betray them with their own tongue.
I’m a fallible human being – but if I were to react to that knowledge with fear/defensiveness then how would I move forward?
Indeed, Former President Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. is just a man, after all.
Maybe it is something FEM would have wanted written as his epitaph. Simply because it meant much to him, more than we will ever know.
Filipino is a heritage for all the citizens of this nation but it can be marred by DECEPTION.
Take a look at the wordings inscribed on the 500 peso bill “The Filipino is worth dying for.” It has been quoted for three decades but in truth Ninoy never said that, not even in verbatim.
All politicians involved in corruption whether they are pro-Marcos or pro-Aquino have a personal motto “The FILIPINO is WORTH DECEIVING for.”
Incidentally, Ninoy technically died not as a Filipino but as a Malaysian as indicated in his passport! How ironic!
POOR, RELIGIOUS, OR SELF PITY people are the failures of every group. The problem with these people is that they always want to blame someone else for problems they started. Example, America does business with China and Russia. These countries are military enemies. Why does this happen, because doing business with your enemy is good for the country and it’s people. This is why there is also why there is no successful religious country in the world. a country cannot be successful as long is everything is based in the absolute thinking, all sin is bad, all these people are bad, or the worst one yet we need people to take care of us and help us. These people will never be successful and countries based on these stupid thoughts will always be failure. Final example it is not a choice to become trade partners with the USA or China or Russia, the answer should be to be trade partners with as many countries as possible; because after all money feeds the people of an country and helps run it.
Then “Filipinos” can become:
1. heroes
2. crooks
3. murderers
4. drug pushers
5. rapists
6. terrorists
7. Christians
8. Muslims
9. etc., etc., etc…
Wow, its nice to be a “Filipino” alright doing both the right & stupid way.
Ha! That’s just awesome. It’s comforting to know there is at least one person at the top of the pile with some wisdom and a sense of humor.
It is indeed fitting. Marcos was everything Filipinos are infamous for: self-centered, egotistical, a hypocrite, an incorrigible scammer, and not nearly as smart as he thought he was (if he had been, he wouldn’t have been laid low by American power games).
To be fair, it’s a pity they didn’t write ‘Pinoy’. There’s a website called ‘the anti-Pinoy’, where the blogger draws a distinction between Filipinos – who we presume are ordinary decent people – and Pinoys, who are … well, we all know who they are. They’re the ones you’ll find pissing on the wall of your house, driving their beat-up scooter around with no muffler, sending their six kids out to beg for beer money from the neighbours, bragging about how Ate has gone off to Japan to work as a prostitute – sorry, OFW – and cranking up their KTV to 11 while their five fighting cocks and mangy dog tied a six-inch piece of string join in with the cacophony.
If this alien Marius will be finally laid to rest what epitaph do you guys think will be appropriate for such a Mr. Nobody?!
“AMOY SIBUYAS”?
Ah, the butthurt brigade are back, right on cue.
If you’re not a “Pinoy”, why are you defending those who are?