OPINION :  August 1, 2006

 

    

POLICY PEEK

by:  Ernestor F. Herrera

 

THE LESSONS OF HISTORY

 

THE late poet-philosopher, George Santayana, said, “He who does not heed the lessons of history is condemned to repeat them.” Condemned is a very strong word but it is apt especially in the experience of our nation, a nation so young and yet so easy to forget.

 

History keeps repeating itself, but few heed its warnings. If our people did, they would know that today’s all-out attempt by the GMA administration to change the Constitution and transform our political system into a parliamentary-federal setup will bring more unchecked repression and not the unimpeded economic progress that GMA promises.

 

In spite of the martial-law experience, Filipinos have yet to hear the message. Or maybe we have but refuse to listen to it because it is more convenient to forgive, forget and just move on. Perhaps the quest for justice is just too tiring and disappointing. Hence, as Santayana said, we are condemned to repeat the lessons of history.

 

Reading the book of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story, is like hearing the call of a prophet to heed the lessons of martial law. The book should be required reading for students because the younger generation of Filipinos seems to be clueless about the dark days of martial rule in the Philippines.

 

We should make it a tradition to remember and pass on the message of formative events in our history in the same manner that the Jews maintain and transmit the memory of the Holocaust to future generations. Contrary to the “moving on” refrain which the GMA administration has been singing, we should actually help our people remember and never forget. 

 

Really, there are very few things that aggravate more than the repetitive call to “move on.” In my opinion, the “move on” call ranks pretty close to giving corrupt leaders a mandate to do whatever they want with the country because our people would always “forgive and forget” anyway. Why should we dump history like unwanted baggage when there are valuable lessons we need to learn from it?

 

As a victim of martial law and one of its most ardent opponents, Nene Pimentel provides a one-of-a kind testimonial. He tells a good story and tries to impart the lessons without being preachy. I thought this is one book well worth translating into film because of its emotional resonance. It doesn’t merely give you an account of what happened but attempts to involve the reader into reliving the repression of the Marcos regime.

 

The book, as I said, is prophetic. Winston Churchill said, “The further backwards you look, the further forward you can see.” Looking back at martial law in the Philippines gives one a solid perspective of what the current Charter change hullabaloo is all about.

 

Marcos was nearing the end of his second term as President when he called for Charter change. He pushed for the revision of the 1935 Constitution to lift term limits and was able to stay in power by buying off delegates to the 1971 Constitutional Convention. The unicameral legislature that was brought about by Charter change rubber-stamped everything Marcos wanted. The dictator ruled under a farcical democracy, and political opposition was marginalized for two decades by the might of the military and the police.

 

Thirty-five years after the declaration of martial law, it’s all happening again. GMA is doing a Marcos. She wants to change the Constitution to stay in power. She wants a unicameral legislature that would do away with the pesky, “obstructionist” Senate that has always been the thorn on the side of Malacañang.

 

In the transition to a parliamentary-federal setup, the President gets to stay on as president and would have powers over the interim prime minister. The future members of parliament though would have no term limits. 

  

As I’ve been saying in the past columns, anyone who thinks GMA will quietly step down in 2010 is in for a rude awakening. GMA has a more compelling motive than Marcos to stay in Malacañang. She has yet to answer the many criminal allegations against her and her administration and would surely face prosecution if she is no longer in power. House arrest and plunder charges, practically the same fate that befell her predecessor Erap, is not a remote possibility.

 

Are we so dense not to see history repeating itself? In a political culture increasingly dominated by Historical Attention Span Deficit Disorder, we need to heed the lesson of Nene Pimentel’s book.

 

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