On the surface, it may seem like the funeral of Ferdinand Marcos at the Heroes’ Cemetery recently was nothing more than a sorry effort to make a hero out of a disgraced dictator.

Certainly, a funeral done in secret behind locked gates in fear of Filipino public outrage, limited only to family members and the closest loyalists, was not a hero’s funeral but one for a despised tyrant.

What were the Marcoses thinking?

Was it a miscalculation that triggered more outrage than they anticipated?

Or might this be another piece in the family’s grand strategy of restoring themselves in power?

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Encouraged perhaps by Ferdinand’s son Bongbong’s strong performance in the May 2016 elections and the election of a very friendly and collaborative president, the family might have decided that now is the time to make some bold moves.

Might they be thinking burying Marcos among soldiers and heroes empowers them to rewrite history and recast him, not as a corrupt dictator and enemy of the Filipino people, but as the best president the Philippines ever had?

Viewed in this light, the funeral could well be a clarion call to their followers, a signal that they have begun their determined march back to Malacanang (the presidential palace).

And the next logical step in this grand strategy?

Bongbong must be installed as vice-president through whatever means it will take.

Just as his father tried to steal the 1986 presidential election from Cory Aquino, Bongbong will leave no stone unturned to snatch the vice-presidency.

And the family is encouraged no end by a presidential pronouncement that the nation may have a new vice president in 2017.

With succession firmly in place, thus will be set the Marcoses’ path back to power, framed in a partnership with neither regard for human rights nor patience for the constraints of democratic government.

As we watch this unfolding scenario, do we sit silently in impotent rage or muster the courage and conviction to do something?

There is, fortunately, a very bright aspect to these unfolding events.

And that is the outrage that the surreptitious funeral has triggered, especially among the students and millennials who had, until now, seemed oblivious to political developments.

It may well be on this rekindled rage that we can base our hopes that this anticipated Marcos onslaught on our democracy can be effectively challenged and defeated.