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[av_heading heading=’Dogged refrain: ‘Marcos no hero’ ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA
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ILOILO City – Not even heavy rains brought by tropical storm “Marce” can stop the protest against the burial of the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery).
“Marcos is Not a Hero,” placards and banners stated as protesters joined the nationwide simultaneous movement. A dictator should not have been afforded a hero’s burial, they chanted.
Aside from condemning the Supreme Court decision allowing the burial, the protesters — mostly young people — also called for unity to block the Marcoses from returning to Malacañang.
“Burying Marcos at [the Libingan] was a big slap to all Filipinos who were oppressed during his administration,” stressed Siegfred Deduro, vice president for Visayas of the Makabayan Coalition.
Protesters clad in black gathered in front of the Iloilo provincial capitol on Friday amid heavy downpour. They numbered around 700, according to Karapatan-Panay secretary-general Reyland Vergara.
During the Black Friday protest, the state weather bureau Pagasa placed Iloilo and the rest of Panay Island under storm signal No. 2 due to “Marce.” A 5 p.m. Pagasa bulletin showed the storm signal had been lifted.
“Ang ginakulbaan namon nga daw nagasugod ang restoration sang mga Marcos. Si (former senator Ferdinand) Bongbong (Marcos Jr.) dyutikan na lang makabalik,” Deduro said, referring to the neck-and-neck vice presidential race between Marcos Jr. and the eventual winner, Leni Robredo, in the May elections.
It is not easy to just move on from the atrocities during martial law, he stressed. “Paano ka makasiling nga kalimtan kon ang natungdan wala gani naga-ako sang ila sala (How would you forget if the Marcoses keep denying what happened then)?”
“There are certain things that are better left for history — not this court — to adjudge,” part of the contentious Supreme Court decision read. “The court could only do so much in accordance with clearly established rules and principles.”
“Beyond that, it is ultimately for the people themselves, as the sovereign, to decide, a task that may require the better perspective that the passage of time provides,” the decision read. “In the meantime, the country must move on and let this issue rest.”
Other groups that joined were Bayan-Panay, Marcos No Hero Movement, Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang – Panay, League of Filipino Students, Kadamay, Pamanggas, Promotion of Church People’s Response Panay-Guimaras, Anakbayan, and the transport group PISTON.
Students and staff from the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) Iloilo City and Miag-ao campuses joined the protest, too.
Chanting “Marcos, diktador, tutâ,” they marched from UPV Iloilo City campus on General Luna Street to the provincial capitol on Bonifacio Drive.
“Rain or shine, nag-march gid kami,” said John Marlou Salido, chairman of the UPV College of Management Student Council. “Ang paglubong kay Marcos sa Libingan indi gid insakto,” he stressed.
Salido claimed the Marcos presidency’s “neoliberal” approach led to a “very expensive” education system, even in state universities like UP.
UPV vice chairperson for external affairs Edward Marlou Estolas chided those who criticize UP students for joining protests.
Being “Iskolar ng Bayan” does not require them to support all the decisions of the government, particularly affording Marcos a hero’s burial, he said.
“The students should stand up for something,” Estolas stressed. “They should show and tell the people that the government did wrong. Being here is a way to show others that we fight the wrongs of government.”
Prior to the Black Friday protest, Gabriela held another protest on the same venue in connection with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on Friday, Nov. 25.
“We are showing the government that women are still being subjected to violence,” said Roxanne Javellana, chair of Gabriella-Iloilo City.
Holding the anti-VAW protest on the same day as the Black Friday protest was timely, considering that many violent acts against women were committed during martial law, Javellana said.
“Damò ang ginpang-lugos, torture kag pamatay during martial law amo ina nga wala kita nagapasugot sa desisyon sang Korte Suprema,” she said./PN
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