Philippines: Duterte Enables Sneak Burial of Marcos’ Remains

international | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Sunday November 20, 2016 10:34 by Party of the Laboring Masses (PLM)

The burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB - Heroes Cemetery) was hurriedly and secretively carried out, with military-style logistical support. A military helicopter brought the body from Ilocos Norte, where the former dictator’s body was displayed in the Marcos Museum, to the LNMB. The marines and the police were mobilized to encircle the perimeter of the cemetery. They were placed on ‘red alert’.

The enabler was President Rodrigo Duterte. It was, all along, a state sponsored burial. Duterte ordered it, the Supreme Court authorized it. The burial was accompanied with a 21-gun salute and the pompous ceremony that accompanies an official burial.

Did they actually think they could get away with it? Thousands, predominantly youth and university students, spontaneously walked out of class rooms and immediately took to the streets to protest the burial, sending the President a clear message that this is a miscalculation he will be made to regret.

A new generation took to the streets demonstrating that it would be the guardians of a history that was also proudly made by the generation of the ‘first quarter storm’ – the student radicalization that was the basis for an organized mass movement that led to the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship. The young protestors chanted the slogans of the martial law generation: "Makibaka, Huwag Matakot!", "Marcos, Hitler, Diktador, Tuta!" They sang Bayan Ko. Most of them do not belong to any radical organization. They are students of history. A history that cannot be covered up. A product of the continuing organization and education of the martial law generation.

Significantly, the young people also sense history in the making -- the climate of fear leading to martial law, of more repressions and another dictatorship. A new generation has signaled that it will not stand by and watch this happen. They have sent a warning to the Duterte administration. They have now taken up the cudgel.

With the authority of these mass rallies they have declared that the protests will continue. They have put forward some demands, chanting “hukayin” – “dig up the body” and bury it where it belongs: in the dustbin of history.

PLM will accompany the youth in this struggle and in the coming struggles under an administration that refuses to learn the lessons of history.

Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM)

http://www.masa.ph/

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Workers condemn secret burial for a secret hero created by a secret deal

By Partido ng Manggagawa (PM)

There was a secret deal to make this travesty happen. The Supreme Court decision simply rendered this political deal a legal character.

Today’s secret burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB) is a done deal. It was a shared triumph resulting from a highly coordinated action between the Marcos family and the Duterte government.

We condemn this act as a mockery of justice and an affront to the principles civility. Why bury a ‘hero’, their ‘honorable’ leader, sneakily away from national curiosity? Hence, it rather looks like a burial for a high level terrorist rather than one with state honors.

The secret burial did not only deny the victims of martial law the chance to reverse the verdict against their tormentor. It also reduced the peoples’ genuine quest for justice a trivial chasing game of chance under the present administration.

- Labor Party (Philippines)

http://partidongmanggagawa2001.blogspot.com

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Like a thief in the night, the dictator’s corpse is snuck into the LNB in lightning fashion

By I-Defend

Like a thief in the night, the dictator’s corpse is snuck into the Libingan ng mga Bayani in lightning fashion, to avoid the protests that would surely accompany it to the grave.

Until the end the Marcos family displays their characteristic treachery on the Filipino people with no regard for the victims of Martial Law. This is the family that President Duterte wishes to revise history with, and it is Marcos’ martial law that Duterte wishes to reintroduce in the country. In their desperate efforts to forget the widespread atrocities during the brutal rule of Marcos,

Duterte and the Marcos family also forget the courage of our people in fighting for justice and freedom, a fight they gave their lives for, a fight that we will continue. Thus the real heroes are in the people’s hearts and minds, they are in the true Himlayan ng mga Bayani. Marcos is no hero. We have our whole lives to imprint that into the next generation, and the next and the next.

- I Defend Human Rights and Dignity Movement

https://www.facebook.com/iDEFENDHumanRightsandDignityMo...ment/

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Only Marcos corpse was buried not the truth

By Akbayan

The enemies of freedom who bury Marcos today will be held accountable tomorrow

Marcos is a plunderer, a murderer and a fake hero. No amount of state-sponsored revisionism will erase the fact that he is a dictator who was ousted by popular will, and died in ignominy and infamy as a villain.

The haste with which this burial has been carried drips with the treachery of those who seek to cover their guilt, right under the pubic's nose. The stench of this betrayal is unmistakable.

Those who enabled the Marcos burial are enemies of our freedoms. They must be made accountable.

Contrary to claims of Marcos's heirs such as Imee, moving on must be hinged on the proper acknowledgement of his crimes, an accounting of his debt to the Filipino people, and an apology based on justice and recognition that he is a criminal.

Until then, Akbayan will join all other forces of democracy in our efforts at truth-telling and myth busting through rigorous education for the youth.

Akbayan vows to continue pressing for justice against Marcos's crimes. The campaign to hold the Marcos family and their cronies accountable will continue.

The dictator may be dead and buried but those who benefited from his rule still live and continue to flourish in scandalous lifestyles at the expense of the people.

We will never forget, and we will exact justice until the winds of change truly come to our shores.

On that day, we will not only defeat the lies of Marcos. We will reclaim the dignity of our democracy and our pride as a people.

Muling igigiit ng Akbayan, kasama ng malawak na hanay ng mga mamamayang Pilipino ang pagtutol sa paglilibing kay Marcos bilang isang bayani. Ang pagtutuloy ng planong ito sa illim ng administrasyong Duterte ay isang lapastangang pagyurak sa kasaysayan at panawagan para sa hustisya.

Lahat tayo biktima ni Marcos. Nasa unahan ang mga tinortyur, mga dinukot, naglaho at pinatay. Ngunit tayong lahat ay ninakawan, di lamang ng yaman ng bayan, kundi ng isang lipunang alinsunod sa batas at malaya sa takot, gutom at pahihirap.

Tinakot, ginutom at ninakawan ni Marcos ang bayang PIlipinas sa ilalim ng Martial Law. Ito ang totoo.

- Akbayan (Citizens Action Party)

https://akbayan.org.ph/