IN PHILIPPINE politics, when corrupt politicians want the people to move on, what they mean is they want their crimes forgotten; they want history revised; they want to forward their political ambitions without accountability.
On Aug. 21, the 35th death anniversary of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., Ilocos Norte governor Imee Marcos, daughter of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, said “the millennials have moved on” and thus, so should people of her generation, referring to the 21 grim years of her father’s martial law.
Imee has the audacity to speak on behalf of the millennials, and the discourtesy to address the generation that experienced the horrors and corruption of martial law first-hand.
Imee and her family should be reminded that on Sept. 21 last year, it was the millennials who filled the streets with calls for accountability and justice. With the hashtag #NeverAgain, the younger generation from all over the country registered their protest against the political rehabilitation of the Marcoses and the burial of dictator Ferdinand at the Heroes’ Cemetery on Nov. 18, 2016.
Contrary to the Marcoses’ delusions that people have not moved on regarding their narratives on the Marcos dictatorship, martial law victims and their relatives have moved forward in their quest for justice. They filed and won a landmark case reaffirming the accountability of the Marcoses for the human rights violations during martial law. They looked at all the possible places where the Marcoses stashed their loot from the nation’s coffers.
They worked for a passage of a law recognizing the atrocities of the Marcos’ martial law and enabled compensation for the victims. And more importantly, they are imparting their stories and narratives to the next generations of Filipinos through their continuing struggles, asserting that the Marcoses should be meted out retribution and that system change is needed amid repressive and exploitative regimes. Their narratives contribute to the current struggles, even as we see the current government’s shameless rehabilitation of the Marcos name and the whitewashing of their crimes.
During the 21-years under the dictator Marcos, estimates point to $10 billion of plundered wealth from the country’s coffers. Moreover, people were deprived of their fundamental rights. At least 70,000 were imprisoned and 34,000 were tortured, while more than 3,000 were killed. The accounts of torture and killings are harrowing, indicative of a regime with no regard for human rights.
There remains no justice and accountability. Where is the dictator? He was clandestinely buried at the Heroes’ Cemetery, a typical move of thieves? Where is the son? The daughter? The wife? They are slowly creeping back into power with the help of wanna-be dictators, ready to pounce on every opportunity.
