CALIFORNIA, USA - Thirty years ago, Susan Araneta joined fellow former Philippine political prisoners as plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit filed in San Francisco against the Estate of Ferdinand Marcos.
The United States Ninth District Court in Hawaii 5 years later found the Marcos Estate guilty of violation of human rights. Araneta's case – one of 3 that included a class action suit by some 10,000 plaintiffs – received judgment that included monetary compensation.
If the case prospered, Araneta had told this writer then at the offices of powerhouse lawyer Melvin Belli, she would "establish a foundation to assist the children of detainees get psychological counseling and education."
Araneta is still waiting for the Marcos Estate to pay damages.
"Unfortunately we never got any money and those children have grown up with all the scars of that period," Araneta told this writer 3 decades later on Sunday, September 4.
Those children and their children's children are facing a disparate view of the head of the dictatorship that Araneta said "arrested 75,000 political prisoners, summarily executed countless others and massacred Muslims and other indigenous people." The reason: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has allowed the interment of the late strongman at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani, the national memorial for Philippine heroes in Taguig City.
This is why Araneta has returned to the milieu of her student days by aligning with the San Francisco Kontra Libing Coalition Against a Hero’s Burial for Dictator Marcos.
Duterte's stance is "a huge teaching moment in our beloved homeland," said San Francisco Bay Area resident Mila de Guzman, author of Women Against Marcos: Stories of Filipino and Filipino American Women Who Fought a Dictator who is helping coordinate outreach of the Bay Area segment of the coalition.
"Filipinos, especially the youth, are being made aware of the abuses and injustices under martial law by the survivors themselves. And we in the San Francisco-Bay Area will do our share in showing solidarity to our kababayan in their courageous fight for truth and justice," she said.
Araneta, one of those featured in De Guzman's book, will join Filipinos and other freedom fighters on September 7 at the Philippine Consulate General in downtown San Francisco. They will descend simultaneously on Philippine seats of government around the world in a unified voice to change Duterte's mind.
The coalition issued a statement August 29 challenging the move. Marcos deserves condemnation not commendation, it said, citing its accounting of the cost of the 20 years of Marcos rule:
- $10 billion worth of plundered loot
- $28 billion of external debt
- inflation rate of over 50%
- 58.9% incidence of poverty, and
- a negative economic growth rate
It stressed Amnesty International estimates of the cost to human lives:
- 3,240 opponents killed
- 34,009 raped and tortured and
- 70,000 imprisoned.
The San Francisco movement includes former members of the Coalition Against the Marcos Dictatorship and the Katipunan ng mga Demokratikong Pilipino, EDSA People Power@30 Committee, Justice for Filipino American Veterans, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, US Pinoys for Good Governance, and West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center.
USP4GG member Charito Benipayo urged participants to wear white and arrive promptly at 11 am on 447 Sutter Street for the noon rally.
"Marcos has no place among those who saved our country in defense of freedom and democracy," said Benipayo, a resident of Oakland, California who has chaired multiple FilAm organizations. "We don't understand why on earth his family continues to get people's support and are now elected to public offices."
Araneta in 1971 was among students on an arrest list that became known after Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus, precursor to martial law. Then member of the Serve the People Brigade and Makibaka, she went underground after Marcos declared martial law, but was eventually apprehended.
She endured interrogation for 5 days before being jailed one year and two months in Fort Bonifacio.
Like other enemies of the regime, Araneta reluctantly fled her country. She resumed efforts to discredit the repressive government by joining Coalition Against the Marcos Dictatorship here in California.
Time has not diminished her passion for civil rights.
Marcos "plundered the country and sank the economy into a deep depression; should he be lauded for that," she said.
Her incredulity turned to indignation as she noted familiar policies being issued today by Malacañang Palace under President Duterte.
"The new PH president doesn't seem to respect the democratic and legislative process nor [does he honor] the rule of law," Araneta said. "Burying Marcos at Libingan in spite of a previous Supreme Court ruling shows that he doesn't respect the judicial system. He just does what he wants to do, just like Marcos, except Marcos was more sophisticated...hiding behind 'legal procedures.'"
"The message that his (Marcos') burial at Libingan would send is that dictators can in the end also be heroes," said Araneta. "This goes against the democratic principles we are trying to instill in our young people and which we fought so hard for."
The world would perceive Filipinos as "willing to forgo our democratic rights should another dictator emerge," she warned.
"It's like burying Hitler in a Heroes' Cemetery in Europe," she said.
She cited late Representative Bonifacio Gillego and historian Alfred McCoy's conclusion that Marcos' much-touted medals of honor were mostly fake, "so on this point, Marcos not a hero as he claimed to be," therefore unfit for Libingan ng Mga Bayani.
De Guzman sees a silver lining in the controversy. She borrowed from Aida Santos, one of the petitioners who recently appealed the Supreme Court to block Marcos' burial in the hallowed ground .
In her book, De Guzman quotes Santos: "Whatever happens to our petitions in the Supreme Court pleadings that the former dictator Marcos not be buried in the LNMB, we have won a moral victory. We have shown the injustices under the dictatorship. We have made more people aware. We have made friends." – Rappler.com