ANTI-MARTIAL LAW advocates exposed the atrocities committed during the rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and appealed to Thomasians to revisit the “darkest era since World War II.”
Human rights lawyer and activist Neri Colmenares claimed that the government has not been providing the “right” information to the people, especially the millennials, for the past 30 years.
“The government refused the younger generation [the real stories] of Martial Law,” Colmenares said in a forum titled Honor Thy President? held at the Benavides Auditorium.
The former Bayan Muna party-list representative stressed that many of the Marcoses are still in the government and are gaining back the trust of the people years after the regime ended because of the historical revisionism in the textbooks being used in schools nowadays.
Augusto de Viana, chairman of the University’s History Department, likewise showed his concern over the lack of historical awareness of Filipinos.
“To bury Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) is a disservice to the people,” de Viana said, noting that Marcos is not a hero.
Martial Law victim Zenaida Mique also expressed her dismay over the idea of hero’s burial for Marcos. “Hindi lamang ito insulto, parang ‘yung sugat mo ay binudburan pa ng asin. Ganun kahapdi ang sakit.”
Mique called on the millennials to learn the true events that transpired during the dictatorship of Marcos.
“Kapag nalibing si Marcos sa Libingan ng mga Bayani, walang saysay ang kasaysayan,” Colmenares noted.
Various anti-Marcos groups had opposed the burial of the late dictator following its declaration by President Rodrigo Duterte citing the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) regulations.
In an AFP memorandum dated Aug. 9, the late dictator will be honored as a former soldier and head of state at the LNMB. However, it was met with a Supreme Court petition dated Aug. 15, where Colmenares and other human rights lawyers and advocates demanded the Aug. 23 burial be stopped.
The high court granted the petition and issued a status quo ante order barring the remains of Marcos to be buried in LNMB until the extended Oct. 18 suspension.
Marcos was supposed to be buried in the cemetery’s “presidential section” where former presidents Carlos P. Garcia, Elpidio Quirino and Diosdado Macapagal are also buried.
The forum and the exhibit at the Tan Yan Kee Lobby that will run until Sept. 23 is organized by the Simbahayan Community Development Office ahead the 44th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law. F ANGELIQUE ANNE F. TORRES and KRYSTAL GAYLE R. DIGAY
