PARADOXICAL

All Riled Up

I have a slightly different take on Enrile, compared with those I have read so far -- that is, the anti- or con side.

'JPE', as he lay dying at 101 years old, ceased to be young people's butt of jokes, or in today's parlance, an Internet meme for "old," as in ancient, dinosaur-age old. Even Enrile proved to be no immortal, after all. His demise a day after the announcement of his ICU confinement was immediately greeted with a flood of posts from people with sharp memory detailing his great misdeeds from a distant past: chiefly as the architect of martial law, with human rights violations galore, and the massive plundering of the country's rainforests together with Pres. Marcos Sr., not to mention direct involvement in the coco levy funds scam and the PDAF scam -- his heroism at EDSA I all but forgotten. There were even allegations of his involvement with coup d'etats against Cory Aquino -- a precarious time I lived through as a young person which failed to make me develop good feelings for and good memories of him. These recollections of great unrepented -- and very public -- sins ran laughably contrapuntal to the high hosannas issued by those at the top echelons in government and elsewhere.

Statements of condemnation from the persecuted left are only to be expected. Which make you think: If Marcos Sr. and Enrile didn't do what they did (clamp down on communist forces), would RP have become a communist state? I shudder at the thought, as the horrors of the Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese experience come to mind: the pogroms, the gulags, the bloodiness of it all, all doomed for failure.

But what do we make of roughly the same statements coming from centrist forces? Which also makes you think: How much exactly was the abuse of power committed? Where exactly did he cross the line? How many innocent people, how many brave youthful protesters of that generation who were not necessarily espousing communist belief were dragged into the 'witch hunt' needlessly?

No one seems to be discussing this when it is the biggest bone of contention and partly the reason why there are Marcos loyalists across different socioeconomic classes up to this day, even among the ruling classes, even among respected academics. In their view, dictatorship and martial rule are justified if the target are communists. I am not saying I agree 100% but if you were the president at the time, how would you have handled it? Indeed, if you see the Marcos regime as having saved the country from communism (with US's backing, of course), no negative commentary will ever convince you to reconsider your view. You would even stick to the notion that they were 'heroes' in that regard.)

(The same is true with diehard supporters of the Dutertes. In their view, Duterte introduced a style of leadership they prefer in the light of the drug menace and -- let's face it -- a set of accomplishments that had been unheard of and impossible within the limited (i.e., elitist) viewpoints of past leaders. Indeed, if you see 'Dutertismo' as a logical reaction to Pres. Noynoy's failings and his essentially Manila-centric, rich-kid view of life and governance, nothing will ever convince you to change your mind.)

What I am NOT happy about, however, is when people make blanket condemnation, with the certainty that Enrile is 100% evil and going to hell. (Enrile being a religious man suddenly comes to mind, with him seeking God's counsel in a prayer room with a gigantic Virgin Mary statue and all. This tells me that he did not exactly worship the devil but in fact believed in his heart that what he was doing was the right one.) I'd like to remind people that only God has the right to say that (assign souls to their proper placement), because only He has full knowledge of a man's heart. Besides, as others have pointed out, last-minute repentance is always possible. (That's how counter-intuitive the Christian concept of 'grace' is.)

But in a culture where it is taboo to say bad things about the recently departed, making that rare exception (from both sides of the sociopolitical fence too) says a lot about the kind of public figure he was.

I'd be happy to be rebutted, proven wrong, disproved, challenged, and refuted with this second and separate opinion.

posted by Resty Odon  # 11:35 PM