NEVER AGAIN: ON THE MARCOS BURIAL AT THE HEROES’ CEMETERY
History cannot be buried. Migrante Canada will never forget Ferdinand Marcos’ reign of terror. Five years ago, Rodrigo Duterte proved to the Filipino people his loyalty to the late dictator when he pushed for his burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery).
On November 8, 2016, a Supreme Court majority vote permitted the burial despite petitions against it by Martial Law survivors and strong public condemnation and protests. Ten days later, Duterte’s minions from the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines stealthily transported and guarded the dictator’s remains until he was given a hero’s burial. It was an absolute mockery of those who had been imprisoned, tortured, disappeared, and killed during Martial Law.
The tandem of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte is no different from their parents. They are also driven by insatiable greed for power and wealth. Like their fathers, these dynastic offsprings are of the same tyrannical ilk: dictatorial, corrupt, and imperialist puppets.
The Marcos-Duterte tandem is a disaster for Filipino migrants and their families. Without a doubt, the dynastic duo will continue the Labour Export policy that Ferdinand Marcos institutionalized in 1974. Under this tandem, the demands and needs of Filipino migrants will still be relegated to the wayside.
Based on their track record and pronouncements, Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte are bent on advancing the brutal campaign of red tagging and the suppression of political dissent, continuing the unconstitutional Anti-Terror Law, and funding the rabid National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC). Without a scientific, comprehensive and pro-people strategy to tackle the pandemic, they will only amass more national debt while enriching themselves without providing crucial aid and social services to Filipino migrants and their families.
Migrante Canada holds the tyrant Duterte accountable for the restoration of the Marcoses to government office. Migrante Canada remains steadfast in opposing any attempt at historical revisionism. No amount of lies can make the fascist Ferdinand Marcos a hero. We see through the predictable theatrics and outright campaign lies of the Marcos-Duterte tandem. Without genuine land reform and national industrialization, and as long as bureaucrat capitalists run amok in the government, the social, political and economic crises will only worsen.
On November 18, we call on our member organizations, friends, and allies to join us in protest and resistance against Marcos-Duterte’s tyranny. We are committed to arousing, organizing and mobilizing our kababayan in Canada to ensure the immediate ouster of Rodrigo Duterte and the failure of the Marcos-Duterte tandem in the upcoming 2022 election.