THE most ridiculous—and hypocritical—statement from Catholic bishops in relation to the 2022 polls that we have thus far read is their “reminder,” nay, “admonition,” for presidential front runner, former senator, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong/BBM’ Marcos, not to use the “corpse” (“bangkay” in our language) of his late father, Pres. Ferdinand Senior, in his election campaign. Their language is coarse that is fitting of course to their equally coarse character but nevertheless we are sure they are referring to BBM father’s late memory.
Coming as it did from the ranks of those who joined in the conspiracy to oust the former president in 1986 and restore back to power the oligarchs and their communist allies and where the country continues to suffer since then, we tell our Catholic bishops, “Look who is talking.”
For the only time people of long memory remember that the Marcoses “used” Pres. Marcos “bangkay” in public was when they pleaded for the government to have him buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Fort Bonifacio, a resting place he fully deserved considering that he was a genuine war hero—a Medal of Valor awardee to boot—and the longest leader of our Republic.
We remember too that the Catholic bishops, their communist fellow-travelers and sections of the oligarchs, for over 50 years now, have been consistent in “using” Pres. Marcos’—when he was still alive and then his memory when he was already dead– to malign him and his family in support of their political agenda of propping elite rule in the country, represented physically and symbolically by the Dilawan Crowd of the Aquinos, the Liberal Party and their CPP allies.
But to be kind, we want to believe that old age is fast catching up to our bishops that they now got things “all mixed up,” as one should say? After all, living a celibate life can be hard to any man’s heart and mind.
For is it not the Dilawans and the Reds who are the most notorious in exploiting, for political and selfish ends, the memory of their dearest but departed?
Corazon ‘Cory’ Cojuangco Aquino became president in 1986 by exploiting the murder 3 years previously of her husband, former senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino—regardless that in the end, his death has been established as a case of a “family affair” of the Cojuangcos and not of the Marcoses but whom they continue to blame for the crime to this day.
And the way Cory became president was not lost on her and Ninoy’s son, Noynoy, who became president in 2010, by exploiting his own mother’s death a year before the presidential election.
And how did Vice President Leni Robredo, ended up in politics?
Was it not by exploiting, in turn, the death of her own husband, interior secretary, Jesse Robredo, in 2012, a year before the midterm elections?
Indeed, had Jesse not died, we can safely assume that Leni would have nothing much to do today but to continue mothering to their three daughters, who, by the way, are “all girls” – her own words, by the way.
And not to be outdone of exploiting the corpses and memories of the dead, of course, are the Reds.
Just look at how the CPP and its front organizations in Congress and the media elevated to the level of “revolutionary martyrs” their dead comrades, regardless of the notoriety of their careers as terrorists.
Indeed, these groups have turned the reverence we have for the mystery of “death and resurrection” in the Bible into an “industry” where they profited a lot over the years.
We now thus find their attempt at historical revisionism during the coming election as yet another exercise in hypocrisy. Again, look who is talking?