Responding to President Marcos Jr.’s Call for Reconciliation
“I want to be respected, but maybe fear is better.”
— President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in conversation with Anthony Taberna
It was an offhand remark—but it landed like an echo. For many Filipinos, it stirred memories not just of a leader’s personal preference, but of a system built on fear.
Because we’ve been here before.
During Martial Law under President Marcos Sr., fear wasn’t accidental—it was the tool. It kept people compliant. It silenced opposition. It built an empire not on truth, but terror. And today, when the son of that regime casually floats the idea that fear might be more effective than respect, it demands more than analysis. It demands a response.
The Lingering Legacy of Fear
Fear-based governance doesn’t just shape policy. It shapes people.
It teaches citizens to stay silent rather than speak. It fosters a culture where journalists self-censor, activists vanish, and the poor absorb the consequences of elite games. It fractures trust in institutions and replaces civic engagement with resignation.
And the psychological toll is just as real. A society that internalizes fear becomes anxious, passive, cynical. It loses its moral clarity—and with it, its imagination for something better.
But what if leadership didn’t depend on fear? What if power was accountable, transparent, and just?
Reconciliation Without Truth?
President Marcos Jr. has also expressed a desire for reconciliation with the Duterte family, stating:
“I don’t want enemies. I want friends.”
But this isn’t national reconciliation—it’s a political realignment. It’s about elite stability, not public healing.
Critics have challenged him: If you’re sincere, bring Duterte home from the ICC. But even this call frames reconciliation as a negotiation between the powerful, not a restoration for the people.
Reconciliation without truth is no reconciliation at all.
It’s a performance, not a process. It protects reputations but leaves victims behind. It skips repentance. It avoids justice. It “heals” without listening, and it calls for unity without remembering.
“They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”
— Jeremiah 6:14
Walking the Tightrope: Between Sincerity and Survival
Marcos Jr. now walks a tightrope.
On one side, the demand for peace with his rivals. On the other, the expectation to uphold law, truth, and justice—including international pressure on the Duterte administration’s human rights record.
Balancing these tensions might work in the short term. But tightrope politics cannot carry the weight of national trauma or collective memory. It avoids the hard ground of accountability. It performs unity without substance. And eventually, it falters.
Justice is not a balancing act. It is a foundation.
A Different Kind of Reconciliation
The Church—and civil society—must offer a better model.
Not one built on handshakes and headlines, but on truth-telling, repentance, and restoration. Not reconciliation between dynasties, but between the wounded and the systems that failed them.
The Church must:
- Create space for public memory, not political amnesia.
- Stand with victims, not simply pray for peace.
- Teach that real forgiveness requires repentance.
- Embody the Gospel by speaking truth to power.
Civil society must:
- Defend press freedom.
- Preserve historical truth in classrooms and culture.
- Resist fear through organized, compassionate action.
- Refuse to normalize impunity in exchange for political quiet.
Stepping Off the Tightrope
The way of Christ does not walk the line of self-preservation—it walks the road of the cross.
The Church is not called to balance power. It is called to speak truth, seek justice, and model hope. And the Filipino people are not bound to repeat the past. We are capable of imagining something better—and building it.
“Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.”
— Amos 5:24
So step off the tightrope.
Stand on something solid: truth, justice, compassion.
Because the story isn’t finished.
And the next chapter of the Philippines deserves to be written not with fear, but with faith.
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
— Micah 6:8
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