Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/Ma. Ceres P. Doyo
Because of the outcry of tens of
thousands of victims of the Marcos dictatorship over Pres. Duterte’s plan to
bury in the Libingan ng mga Bayani the corpse of president-dictator Ferdinand
Marcos, Sr. who died in Hawaii in 1989, I serialized here, in four parts, “The
Other Version of FM’s War Exploits” by Bonifacio Gillego published in WE Forum in November 1982. The piece had caused the raid and closure of
WE Forum and the arrest of editor Jose Burgos Jr. and staff. (Read footnote
below.)
It was on the recommendation of
Lino Patajo, Marcos' law classmate, that Marcos joined the 14th Infantry, not
the 212st of Major Barnett, some of whose members were out to avenge the
pre-war killing of Nalundasan who defeated Marcos’ father in the congressional
election.
Marcos left Natividad, Pangasinan
on December 7, 1944 and arrived at regimental headquarters of the 14th Infantry
on December 20, 1944. He was accompanied by an aide and bodyguard by the name
of Isidro Ventura.
At this point, Rivera confirmed
Manriquez's statement that Marcos was confined to staff work as S-5 in charge
of civil affairs. At no time was he ever given any patrol or combat assignment
during his service with the 14th Infantry. Marcos sought transfer to USAFIP NL
headquarters on April 28, 1945, he left for Camp Spencer on a Piper Cub with
Helen McQuade, an American missionary who was ill at the time. Marcos took the
seat of Mrs. Romulo A. Manriquez.
To the best of his knowledge,
Rivera concluded, the 14th Infantry never cited Marcos for any award or
decoration. He suspected that Marcos obtained those awards under false
pretenses by affidavits executed after the war or forged statements. He would
not at all be surprised, he said, because sometime in March 1947, Marcos
approached him to sign an affidavit claiming that the 14th Infantry
commandeered carabaos and cattle from the Marcos ranch, if ever there was one
in Nueva Vizcaya. He turned down the request.
Even Col. R. W. Volckmann, in his
“After Battle Report, USAFIP NIL” dated November 10, 1945, made no mention of
Marcos at all.
Almost two
years after the government shut down WE Forum, sequestered its printing plant and equipment and confiscated three
new vehicles on Dec. 10, 1982, publisher Jose Burgos, Jr. was technically still
under house arrest, along with columnists Armando Malay, Francisco Rodrigo,
Salvador Roxas Gonzales, Ernesto Rodriguez, Jr., and staffers Crispin Martinez,
Teddy Cecilio, Edward Burgos, Angel Tronqued and Teodoro Burgos. Still pending were
the subversion case against Burgos and the WE Forum and a P4-million libel suit against Burgos filed by Jose Salindong,
Venancio Duque and Brig. Gen. Sinforoso L. Duque in behalf of other war
veterans who felt maligned by the newspaper's series questioning the
authenticity of Pres. Marcos' war medals.
The
subversion case was filed with the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City; the
libel case with the Manila City Fiscal's office.
For the
series on Marcos’ war medals, Burgos et al. were charged with plotting to
overthrow the government. The charge stated:
“That on or
about November 1982 and for sometime prior thereto, in Quezon City and
elsewhere in the Philippines, and within the jurisdiction of the Honorable
Court, the above-named accused, conspiring together, confederating with and
mutually helping each other, being then officers and/or ranking leaders of
subversive organizations, did, then and there, knowingly wilfully and
feloniously, and by overt acts and/or covert acts, continue and remain officers
and/or ranking leaders of the Movement for a Free Philippines (MFP), April 6
Liberation Movement (U.S.-based), April 6 Movement (locally based), Light a
Fire Movement (LFM) and the Communist Party of the Philippines until their
arrest on December 7, 1982, save those who were newly included in this third
Amended Information for the purpose
of overthrowing the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and/or
removing from the allegiance to said Government or its laws, the territory of
the Philippines or any part thereof, with the open or covert assistance or
support of a foreign power or the open or covert assistance or support from a
foreign source of any association, organization, political party, group or
person, public and private by force violence, terrorism, arson, assassination,
deceit or any other illegal means as in fact the above-named accused, together
with the other officers and leaders of said subversive organizations have taken
up arms against the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and in
furtherance thereof, did, then and there, feloniously, unlawfully and knowingly
have in their possession voluminous subversive materials and publications which
incite people to publicly rise up in arms in order to pave the way, for the
destabilization and the eventual overthrow of the government by means of force,
violence, deceit, arson and other illegal means through the WE Forum, a local publication stationed in Quezon
City, print, publish and circulate false derogatory and libelous stories and
articles designed to subvert and undermine the people's confidence in duly
constituted authorities; and possess printing machines and other printing
parapharnelia for the printing of subversive and the Communist Party of the
Philippines’ propaganda materials.”
Included
among the accused was Sen. Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., as shown in the Third
Amended Information dated July 6, 1983, and former Manila Times publisher Joaquin “Chino” Roces.
The libel
suit never prospered beyond the preliminary investigations, prompting lawyers
to comment that the prosecution never seriously meant to pursue the defendants
to a jail sentence. Instead, the lawyers opined, “This was a case of stopping
the WE Forum from publishing,
period.” The prescribed one-year period for a libel suit expired.
Posts
