DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Despite the heavy downpour of rain expected today, thousands of activists and Martial Law victims are expected to join the “Black Friday” protest action to denounce the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Heroes’ Cemetery.
Led by the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, the protest is also meant to block what they called the restoration of Marcoses into power.
“Our protests are aimed at the Marcos burial and the Duterte-Marcos alliance. The people are demanding the reversal of the burial and for Duterte to once and for all abandon his alliance with the Marcoses,” Renato M. Reyes, Jr. Bayan secretary general said in a statement Friday.
Reyes said the people should hold Duterte accountable for the burial. “The people demand an end to a system of political accommodation and compromise among the elite which have allowed the Marcoses to worm their way back to power.”
The militant leader has urged the people to continue opposing “Marcosian measures the continuing militarization of communities and incarceration of political prisoners.”
A similar protest rally would be simulatenoustly held today in Mindanao’s nine key cities, namely: Davao, Cagadayan de Oro, Iligan, Gingoog, Valencia, General Santos, Zamboanga, Surigao and Butuan Cities, respectively.
In Davao, the anti-Marcos protest will be held at the city’s Freedom Park on Friday afternoon. The protest is expected to draw Martial Law victims and their kins, peace advocates, human rights group and other sectoral groups from the academe, laborers, religious and lawyers, cultural artists, among others.
Joining also is youth group League of the Filipino Students, Bayan-SMR, Anakbayan, labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno and other militant groups in Davao region.
“We are outraged by President Duterte’s way of shrugging off the message put up by the series of protests nationwide. The AFP requirements for a hero’s burial at the LNMB directly under the jurisdiction of the Presidential office,” Anakbayan said in a statement.
Mags Maglana, spokesperson of Konsyensya Dabaw, one of the anti-Marcos groups here will be joining the “National Day of Unity and Rage Against the Hero’s Burial for Marcos.”
Maglana vowed that they would continue their fight and struggle to oppose Marcos’ return to power until such time justice is served to all the victims of the Marcosian rule.
For her part, Malou Tiangco, a Martial Law victim, has scored pro-Marcos groups for its call to “move on” with the issue.
“Forgiveness can happen only when there is confession of the sins committed and atonement for it Peace is elusive and cannot and never can be sustained if it is not anchored on justice that caused the unpeace!,” she wrote in a Facebook post.
Bayan, for its part, has assured that “the widespread political awakening resulting from the burial will be the wellspring of people’s opposition to the return of the Marcoses to power.” (davaotoday.com)
