Heroes

The tragic death of Sec. Jesse Robredo has caused a lot of sympathy to the family. The outpouring of grief in his native Naga City where he first made his mark as an excellent local government executive is expectedly more pronounced than in other places where the good things said of him had no palpable impact.

To the Naga people, he is a hero.

Tragedy and a good man always create a sense of great loss and people, struck by the suddenness of death tend to go overboard in their demands for perpetuating the deceased memory. To a certain extent people are carried away with emotions.

The state funeral, reserved usually for heads of state and citizens of great stature, like Mother Teresa of Kolkota by India, was given to Robredo. Flags were raised at half mast. That shows the affection of President Aquino for Robredo, but the full extent of his heroism in public service is yet to be authenticated.

On the other hand, Salvador Escudero of long service in the legislature and the cabinet was not officially given honors. General Angelo Reyes facing investigation for corruption who committed suicide was given full military honors and buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

The Commission on Appointments failed to confirm Robredo for some reason or another. Thus in life, Robredo did not stand that tall.

This is not to belittle his achievements but for us to avoid getting carried away by emotion by such tragedy. Time will make the final judgment.

Last Monday was a national holiday intended to honor our heroes. But except that it is another day of rest, what is there? Is there any significant activity to remind our people of the heroes of our race and what heroism means?

There are a few celebrations here and there, but in Negros, was there any commemorative activity? Considering that the National Heroes Day fell on a Monday and last week, we had also no work but with pay for two days, the holidays are wasted. The holidays are not worth the cost in terms of time and money lost for employers for additional pay for the same work done.

It is really difficult to define a hero. Some people's hero is other people's villain. It is a matter of who wins the race or in case of armed conflict, who won the war.

For the armed rebels who fought the government and had taken a human life or destroyed properties their heroes are villains to the government.

The Revolutionary Proletarian Army, for instance has raised Alex Boncayao into the pantheon of their heroes and named their armed group in his honor. But how many lives had been lost in the hands of Boncayao, of the assassinations?

The New People's Army has its own gallery of heroes but in the roster of the Philippine military, they are communist terrorists. Bin Laden was hunted down as an international terrorist but to thousands of Muslim fundamentalists, he is their hero.

Even Pakistan that tells the world they are against terrorism protected Bin Laden and provided him shelter and let the United States go around in circles until the US got wiser than rely on the Pakistanis.

Thus only time will tell who is the hero. Until after 1991, Joseph Stalin was revered by his sycophants, he was the hero of World War II. The Russian military that carried out his orders of mass murders got medals and decorations and some declared as Hero of the Revolution.

When the tide turned, these heroes ended up inside prisons and the gallows, while Stalin's numerous statues that dotted the multi-country Union of Soviet Socialists Republic were pulled down and spat upon. Some were crushed into pieces.

Had Japan won World War II, the guerrillas of Negros, already declared bandits by the Japanese, would have been executed. Indeed, many of them were executed.

The irony of it all is that after the war, several guerrillas were recognized while others were not. But the most tragic of all is that many Filipinos who collaborated with the Japanese were never punished and many of them reinstated in their high positions in government.

The collaborators were hailed by the Japanese. The emperor decorated Puppet President Jose Laurel for his collaboration.

To rub salt into the wound, Laurel, elected not by the people but by collaborators, is honored as among the Filipino Presidents. In France the collaborators were hanged, the women tarred. Here, President Manuel Roxas granted general amnesty upon assumption of office and wiped out all the crimes of collaborators, murderers and spies. They were rewarded for treason.

Declaration by the government that a person is a hero does not necessarily mean people accept them. This probably is the reason we are not truly celebrating.*

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