The late poet-philosopher George Santayana said, “He who does not heed the lessons of
history is condemned to repeat them.”
Condemned is a very strong word but it is apt, especially in the experience of our nation where people seem to easily forget.
History keeps repeating itself but few heed its lessons. Many Filipinos refuse to listen to them as they find it more convenient to forgive, forget and just move on.
Reading the late Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr.’s book Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story is like hearing the call of a prophet to heed the lessons of martial law.
The book should be required reading for students because many of the younger generation of Filipinos seem clueless about the dark days of martial rule in the Philippines.
Our country should make it a tradition to remember and pass on formative events in our history in the same manner that the Jews maintain and transmit the memory of the Holocaust to future generations.
Contrary to the “move on” refrain some politicians are always singing, we should help each other remember and never forget.
There are very few things that aggravate more than the repetitive call to simply move on, which ranks pretty close to giving corrupt leaders a mandate to do whatever they want with the country because our people would always “forgive and forget” anyway.
Nene Pimentel tells us through his book that we should not dump history like unwanted baggage when there are valuable lessons we can and need to learn from it.
As a victim of martial law and one of its most ardent opponents, he provides a one-of-a-kind testimonial. He tells a good story, full of emotional resonance, and tries to impart the lessons of the martial law experience without being preachy. He doesn’t merely give you an account of what happened but attempts to involve the reader into reliving the repression of the Marcos regime.
It is said half-jokingly that every senator wants to be president.
Nene Pimentel never voiced out any presidential ambitions despite serving multiple terms in the Senate, but he certainly could have been the first president to come from Mindanao if he had pursued it.
But, perhaps, jaded enough by the experience of martial law, having seen what a politician could and would do to become president—and to stay being president—Nene Pimentel did not want it so bad he was willing to change his character or compromise his principles for it. He didn’t really covet the presidency as much as others did.
Perhaps, he was never much of a politician, at least not in the way that has become the norm. To him, politics and morality are inseparable, not antithetical. He didn’t project how he wanted to be perceived. He did not make friends based on vested interests. He was what he was: good-intentioned and transparent to a fault.
Unlike most self-serving leaders we have today, he provided genuine people-serving leadership; a leadership without self-importance, quite a contrast to many politicians we have today, who all want to be treated like VIPs by the people they should be serving.
He went into politics because he really wanted to be of service. But he also quietly helped many people outside of politics and government, and he wanted to help more. It was as simple, noble and innocent as that.
He was a quiet, honest and decent man, and remained such until he died. This is the truth, as we’ve come to hear from the many testimonies after his death. He was ethically unimpeachable, and as such better than most politicians, indeed, better than most of us.
In a political culture increasingly dominated by lack of memory, we need to remember and heed the lessons not only of Nene Pimentel’s book but his very life.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano