Burying Yorac, burying Marcos

Ilocos Norte Governor Ferdinand " Bongbong " Marcos Jr. resents the burial of former Presidential Commission on Good Government chairwoman Haydee Yorac at the Libingan ng mga Bayani while his own father continues to be refused the same.

To be sure, the burial of Yorac at the Libingan ng mga Bayani can be subject to valid questioning. What should be beyond dispute, however, is that the former dictator does not deserve even the thought.

But Bongbong thinks otherwise, clearly still not seeing the picture despite the passage of the years. " It's the same old political issue. If you are a Marcos, you do not have the same rights as every other Filipino citizen, " he declared, presumably without batting an eyelash.

Someone ought to remind Bongbong that it is precisely because he and the other surviving Marcoses continue to enjoy the same rights as every other Filipino citizen that they remain out of jail up to now.

Bongbong also needs to be told that burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is not a matter of right but of recognition and honor. That final resting place is hallowed ground because of the heroism of those interred there, not because they are, by right, Filipino citizens.

And that is precisely why it was said at the outset that there may be some question as to whether Yorac deserved to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. She may have been an exemplary public servant and a fine private citizen but it is unclear if that makes her a heroine.

The threshold for heroism should be many, many cuts above the rest, its acknowledgement more sparing. If Yorac seems to so easily hurdle the measure, we are certain the Libingan ng mga Bayani will run out of burial plots in a week.

Despite the increasingly rapid decline in the strength of character of many Filipinos, it is hopefully believed there are still many who, away from the limelight, can easily approximate the standards Yorac set for and lived by herself.

And that much we can heartily applaud, to know that there are still many Filipinos worthy of being considered, if erroneously, as heroes. At least, if err we must, we err on the side of the positive.

But erring on the side of the positive must not be made an excuse to continue proceeding on an erratic path. Despite the nobility of intentions, we cannot cheapen heroism by dispensing recognition arbitrarily and liberally.

To do so runs the risk of eventually allowing the gradual and subtle lowering of standards for heroism that one day, heaven forbid, we may actually see the day that Marcos finally gets to be buried also at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

To be sure, Filipinos, just as any other people, are not about to deprive anyone of a decent burial. Even criminals deserve the sanctity of a final resting place. We cannot stomach throwing bodies into any ditch.

But just as good work and clean living does not necessarily and automatically translate into a measure for heroism, in the way that we seemed to have erred in the case of Yorac, so is decent burial not synonymous with a place at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

It is very difficult to say this, but both Yorac and Marcos, for very different reasons, do not deserve burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Yorac, because we do not believe she made the cut, and Marcos, because we do not believe he should even be considered.

Let's face it. In the case of Yorac, we erred because we got passionate and got carried away by our emotions. Maybe the drought of good men has so parched our spirits we just gulped down everything, even those who have been good but not quite good enough.

In the case of Marcos, though, we must not err, we must never err. Decent burial, yes. Some honors may even be accorded, if only for the offices he once held. But the sanctity of the Libingan ng mga Bayani must never be soiled, even by error, and certainly not by design.