Keeping Faith with our Martyrs and Heroes
By Jovito R. Salonga
After the EDSA event of February 25, 1986, we who survived martial law needed a reminder that there was a danger we might forget those young men and women who had shed their blood and offered their lives without seeing the dawn of freedom. Kundi dahil sa kanilang sakripisyo, marahil walang EDSA-iyan ang paalaala-ala sa atin ni Dr. Ruben Mallari, a medical practitioners from California who had been in the forefront of the movement against the dictatorship in the United States. He came here shortly after the EDSA revolution. He suggested among other things that it would be most appropriate for us to erect a monument in their honor, lest we forget thosvwho fell during the long dark night of martial law.
And so, the friends and relatives of the martyrs organized the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation in 1986, recalling the words of our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal”You who live to see the dawn, remember those who perished in the night.”
We wanted to memorialize the sacrifices of our martyrs but at the same time we wanted to express our determination not to allow a dictatorship to flourish again in this land. We visited President Aquino and through her were able to get a long-term lease on a oneand-a-half hectare lot in Quezon City near the corner of Quezon Avenue and EDSA with the help of the then President Deogracias N. Vistan of Land Bank.
Pero ano ang aming gagawin sa lupttng ito na punong-puno ng damo at talahib?
The officers of the Bantayog, who serve without compensation, began raising funds from their own pockets. But our resources were very meager and limited- we needed contributions from friends and sympathizers. We got a big boost from President Aquino who donated her
one-month’s salary to start the fund-raising campaign.
Then the question came up, apart from the well-known martyrs like Ninoy Aquino, Cesar Climaco, Edgar Jopson,
Manny Yap, Macliing Dulag, Evelio Javier, and others, who else should we honor? Around 50 to 60,000 had been imprisoned during the first few years of martial law, many were tortured and killed, some were salvaged or suddenly disappeared- we could not honor them all. So we created a Research and Documentation Committee for the purpose of documenting, selecting and recommending to the Board of Trustees those who deserve to be called martyrs.
After a lot of planning, groundwork, fund-raising and deliberation, which took around 6 years, we had a monument constructed by noted artist-sculptor Eduardo Castrillo and a temporary Wall of Remembrance containing the names of the first 65 martyrs, whether well-known or not. Their relatives and friends were present during thefirst Unveiling Ceremonies in the morning of Bonifacio Day, November 30, 1992.
In 1993, after a long reflection, the Foundation decided to honor as heroes those distinguished persons who had inspired a number of our young martyrs by giving their all for the sake of freedom, justice and democracy during the Marcos years but died after the EDSA revolution. And so, on November 30, 1993, we honored the first three heroes-in alphabetical order-Jose W. Diokno, Joaquin “Chino” P. Roces, and Lorenzo M. Tanada. Every year since then we have added the names of a few more martyrs and heroes, as a simple token of our deep admiration and of our firm resolve to work and struggle against the emergence of any dictator in the Philippines.
Beyond our memories today, there is a deeper meaning in today’s event. A nation is measured by the quality of the men and women it honors. Were this Administration to honor a scoundrel, we could never lift our heads out of a deep sense of shame. But because of these heroes and martyrs, we can stand up with pride and walk together, with heads unbowed, knowing that we are honoring them. There is nothing we can do to add to their heroism and martyrdom. But there is much we can do to restore the good name and reputation of the nation for which they gave their all.
By today’s act of unveiling and dedication, we shall proclaim our firm resolve to keep faith with our martyrs and heroes and our deepest conviction that this land of the morning, the repository of our hopes and dreams, is worth living for and dying for
