In the fifth year since the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was granted a hero’s burial despite the people’s opposition, the Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women reiterated the call to “never forget” the dark period in history that is martial law and to continuously resist deceitful attempts to restore the Marcoses and their league to power.
“Given the brutal atrocities he committed and the sufferings he put the people through during his regime, Marcos is definitely not a hero. That the sneaky burial happened in Duterte’s watch only shows how much of that move is payback for what the Marcoses contributed to his presidential bid in 2016,” said Amihan National Chairperson Zenaida Soriano.
Political connections between the Marcos and Duterte families go way back in the 1960s as Duterte’s father, Vicente had served in Marcos’ cabinet. It is also no secret that Duterte admires Marcos as a president, once calling the latter’s declaration of martial law to be “very good”. Such praise sums up the kind of warped memory the Marcos propaganda machine would want the present generation to have about that period in history, given the amount of disinformation they have spread since their renewed bid for power.
“It remains important, especially with the upcoming elections, to remember not only the past horrors of martial law but the persisting problems in our country. Landlessness for our farmers, militarization, a neoliberal economy – all of these intensified during martial law and we will continue to suffer if fascist tyrants like Marcos and Duterte rule again,” Soriano added.
The danger is all too real in the wake of the announcement of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte’s tandem run for President and Vice President in the 2022 national elections. Rodrigo Duterte, meanwhile, will run for Senator. Sara Duterte is running under former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s party, Lakas CMD. In 2016, again under Duterte’s watch, Arroyo was acquitted of plunder. As a Congresswoman, she was among those who pushed for Marcos’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Soriano warned: “Who knows what the Marcoses, the Dutertes, and their backers have in mind if they succeed in their scheme to return to power? Looking at their track record, these questions come to mind: Will they finally exhaust our country’s natural resources, or worse, sell our territory to China? Will they further mire the government in foreign debt and corruption at the expense of the people? Or decimate the population with extrajudicial killings and neglect during natural disasters and global crises? Will they clear their allies of wrongdoing to return favors and use the executive, legislative, and judicial systems to advance their own agendas and interests with impunity?”
“History tries to repeat itself with the Marcos-Duterte tandem. But, like in history, the people will continue to remember, and to resist. No to another Marcos in Malacañang! No to Marcos-Duterte in 2022! Never again!” Soriano ended. ###
