University of the Philippines Diliman students protest the sneaky hero’s honor given by the state to former President Ferdinand Marcos. (photo by Efren Ricalde/Manila Today)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — A multisectoral anti-Marcos burial mass action will welcome President Rodrigo Duterte on Nov. 25, Friday upon his return from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Meeting in Peru.
“We need to show our collective force, action, protest and unity against the Marcos burial, against the revision of history and against Duterte’s alliance to the Marcoses,” Renato Reyes, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary-general said in a televised news conference.
Former President Ferdinand Marcos was buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City on Friday, Nov. 18, only 10 days after the Supreme Court voted in favor of the dismissal of the petitions opposing the hero’s burial for the late dictator.
Of the 15 SC justices, nine voted to dismiss the petitions opposing the hero’s burial of Marcos. They were Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Presbitero Velasco Jr, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Jose Perez, Teresita de Castro, Jose Mendoza, and Estela Perlas-Bernabe.
Five judges, including Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Marvic Leonen, Francis Jardeleza, and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa agreed with the petitions, while one Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes inhibited himself from the case.
For Coalition Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang, Friday’s massive protest action is a “national rage against the revision of history and the reversal of the people’s judgement.”
“Let us come together to proclaim that we will never forget and that we will continue the unfinished struggle for genuine freedom, democracy and justice. This peaceful rally invites Filipinos from all walks of life to come together in remembering and in protest,” the group said.
Bonifacio Ilagan, spokesman of the Carmma, emphasized that the event is “not a partisan activity serving vested political interests,” adding that the rally is being organized to provide a venue for a collective indignation, “to show those in power that the fight does not end with the interment of the dictator’s remains.”
Carmma and Bayan Muna are both petitioners in the case opposing the Marcos’ burial at the Heroes’ Cemetery.
Ilagan said joining the protest actions are religious groups, human rights advocates, youth groups and other cause-oriented groups including the Coalition Against Marcos Burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, another anti-Marcos group.
“Let us hold President Rodrigo Duterte accountable for allowing the burial. Let us reject Duterte’s alliance with the Marcoses that is aiding in the rehabilitation of the dictator and the return of his heirs to Malacanang,” he said.
The Communist Party of the Philippines also denounced the hero’s burial for Marcos and warned Duterte of more protests and even isolation if he refuse to listen to the people’s demands.
The CPP advised Duterte to “reverse this historical wrong”.
“If he refuses to heed the people’s outcry over the hero’s burial for Marcos, Duterte risks facing mounting protests and isolation,” it said in a statement on Saturday, Nov.19.
It said Duterte must stop “effusively praising Marcos’ mythic brilliance which makes him sound like a loyalist.”
The CPP said Duterte should hold the Marcos family accountable for the crimes and plunder and violations of the people’s civil and political rights.
“By giving Marcos a hero’s burial, Duterte has succeeded in stoking the anger and rage of the victims of the US-Marcos dictatorship as well as the younger generation of Filipinos who are highly conscious of the lessons of martial law and indignant of the innumerable crimes of the fascist tyrant,” the CPP pointed out.
CPP perceived such move as a great reversal of the historical judgement of the Filipino people against the US-Marcos dictatorship and a completion of the political resurrection of the Marcoses.
“In ordering the AFP to give Marcos hero’s honors, Duterte is proving himself a rotten trapo (traditional politician) who has no qualms working with the worst of the bureaucrat capitalists and gives premium to paying political debt and political loyalties even to the detriment of the people’s aspirations for historical and social justice,” added the CPP.
Earlier, the CPP denounced the Supreme Court for its decision allowing Duterte to proceed with the hero’s burial for Marcos.
(davaotoday.com)
