Here We Go Again: AFP Hall of Heroes Includes Marcos

Here we go again! Headline…AFP Hall of Heroes Includes Marcos (philstar Apr 7, 2011).

The controversy on “Libingan ng mga Bayani” regarding the internment of Angelo Reyes and the Marcoses’ bid to have the Apo given a similar honor has not yet died down and another one comes along. Marcos is included in the Hall of Heroes of the AFP. Brig. Gen. Restituto Aguilar, historical consultant of the AFP Museum, said Marcos can be included in the Hall of Heroes despite the controversies surrounding his war medals.

“Those who contest the authenticity of his medals should substantiate their allegations. It shall undergo investigations and should follow a process,” Aguilar told The STAR.

Just a little back tracking in the news archives would have told Gen. Aguilar that the US never officially gave Marcos medals for heroism. That is an incontrovertible fact and all the documented evidence you need could be found in the National Archives in Washington DC and easily accessible Internet sources. What needs substantiation is Marcos claim to heroics which his family and sycophants are trying so hard to prove.

Kiddingly, the recent quakes we have been experiencing must have been caused by the remains of real heroes in the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani turning in their graves simultaneously.

It took a Mccoy to expose the fraud of Macoy’s “Maharlika”

Alfred Mccoy, professor of history at Australia's University of New South Wales, heard about a cache of missing documents detailing guerilla activities in the Philippines in World War II. Mccoy was a Yale doctoral candidate doing research on the anti-Japanese resistance efforts. What started him off was the tip given to him by the late General Macario Peralta who was dying of cancer at that time. In his death bed the general told him to recover the missing war records that would reveal everything that there was to know about the guerilla movement in the Philippines.

Mccoy’s research took him to the National Archives in Washington DC where he was able to unearth records which debunked the claimed war exploits of Ferdinand Marcos.

McCoy's account of his discovery was at first rejected by several major newspapers, but after seeing the documents, the New York Times finally published the news.

Earlier on a Major Harry McKenzie initiated the investigation into Maharlika in 1945. Captain Elbert Curtis, upon review said that there was no mention of Maharlika as an intelligence source and concluded that the unit roster was a fabrication and. “a malicious criminal act.” The Army issued a final ruling against Maharlika in 1948.

The US Veterans’ administration together with the Philippine Army conducted a separate investigation in 1950. They found out was that “Maharlika” was engaged in all sorts disreputable activities including contraband trade with the enemy.

The AFP could have picked a better time to enshrine the portrait of Ferdinand Marcos in the Heroes Hall. They are still smarting from the wounds of the big time corruption charges that have stayed in the headlines for months now. Heroes are honored and edified so that they can be emulated. With Marcos’ inclusion in the Hall of Heroes I can't help but get the impression that the Armed Forces still look up to the Apo as someone worthy of emulation; contributing to the image that they are nothing but a band of robber barons. This event further exacerbates the tarnished image that the AFP is trying to correct. It's either utter brazenness or just plain shoddy piece of PR work.

These historical facts would have faded in time but because of recent efforts to perpetuate an historical aberration the dirty past is exhumed and people are again reminded of the misdeeds of a nefarious regime.