DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The surprise burial of late dictator and former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. on Friday, Nov. 18, has angered anti-Marcos groups, calling such move as an affront to democracy and insult to the victims of Martial Law.
Religious groups, civil society organizations, academic institutions and victims of the Martial Law trooped to the streets Friday to public expressed their outrage.
“This supposed death blow to our nation’s long yearning for justice elicits a deep groan from the Fiiipino people, most especially the victims of Martial Law. However, this is not the burial of the people’s collective spirit in the continuing struggle to obtain what is just and moral,” Nardy Sabino, secretary general of the church-based group Promotion of Church People’s Response said in a statement.
Sabino condemned Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a staunch supporter of the Marcoses, for permitting the hero’s burial of a man who was accused of killing, torturing and abducting thousands of Filipinos during Marcos’ dictatorship.
“For his political accommodation in the highest degree, we denounce President Duterte’s orchestration of this farce as well as the AFP’s criminal connivance in executing such falsehoods. We call on the faithful to act on the lessons of the past to assert the respect of life and dignity, amidst the long-prevailing climate of impunity that we have endured as a people,” he said.
Davao-based Kosyensya Dabaw, for its part, said that Duterte and Philippine National Police Chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa has full knowledge of the burial plans.
“We are severely disappointed to learn that Pres. Duterte has full knowledge of the burial plans according to PNP chief Dir. Gen. Dela Rosa. This makes us ask, do the victims of Martial Law and those who oppose the hero’s burial mean so little to the President that he would condone a hasty burial?” asked Mags Maglana, spokesperson of the group.
Maglana said the burial was done in bad faith and viewed as a breach of the law since the High Tribunal’s decision was not yet final and executory.
“We are alarmed that the burial happened in haste, and preparations were made in secret. If the Marcoses truly believed that they had secured a just ruling from the SC why this dishonorable maneuver?,” the group said.
Meanwhile, ACT Teachers Party-List Representatives Antonio Tinio also condemned the hero’s burial of Marcos at the Heroes’ cemetery, saying that it is “unacceptable to educators.”
“It implies the complete opposite of what we have been teaching our students and what we want them to emulate–that the victims of Marcos’s dark reign are the ones who were wrong, and their kidnappers, torturers, murderers, and oppressors including Marcos himself were right,” said Tinio.
“We protest today an act which directly insults the victims, including the families of the desaparecidos who still wait for their loved ones to come home and the victims of extrajudicial killings who are still seeking for justice,” he added.
For his part, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said the burial was “a dastardly act characteristic of the Marcoses and a slap on the face of the victims of human rights violations during Martial law.”
Zarate added that it is also an “outright insult “ to the Supreme Court as the Marcoses did not even wait for the finality of its decision.
“We will not take this sitting down and more protests would be launched against the Marcoses,” Zarate warned. (davaotoday.com)
