The majority decision penned by Associate Justice Disodado Peralta starts with a blind exhortation for closure “in law, as much as in life”.

The error in the said call for closure is the failure to realize that closure is a happy and welcome ending to a tragedy or misfortune.

It is not closure if the eventuality will open anew the deep wounds of atrocities, would relive the haunting memories of torture and mayhem and would exacerbate gross injustice and wanton impunity, all at the expense of the victims of Marcos’ martial law regime.

The burial of Marcos, the condemned dictator, confirmed plunderer and censured violator of human rights, in the Libingan ng mga Bayani will not lead to closure because it sanctifies evil and installs a despot and tormentor in the venerable memorial for good men.

No less than the Supreme Court itself, as well as international judicial tribunals, in several decisions have acknowledged and documented the plunder committed by Marcos and his commission of brutalities against human rights victims.

The absence of closure is highlighted by the escalating protest rallies nationwide and cogent commentaries against the majority decision of the Supreme Court which allows the interment of Marcos in the Cemetery of Heroes simply because he was a former President and soldier, statuses which were overridingly negated by his mortal sins against the Filipino people.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN