Rights group to Imee: Millennials remember dictator’s abuses

Gov. Imee Marcos attends the ceremony of the celebration of 122nd Anniversary of Cry of Pugad Lawin at Dambana ng Pugad Lawin, Brgy. Bahay Toro in Quezon City. INQUIRER PHOTO/ JAM STA ROSA

Human rights group Karapatan on Thursday denounced Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos for saying that adults should learn to forget about the ills of martial law and to take it from millennials who have learned to “move on.”

“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 firsthand,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

‘Feud an old issue’

Marcos on Tuesday called on Filipinos to move on as the nation marked the 35th anniversary of the killing of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.

“The millennials have moved on, and I think people at my age should also move on as well,” she said, adding that the “feud” between the Marcoses and Aquinos was an “old issue.”

But Karapatan said millennials had not forgotten the years of atrocities during her father’s 21-year rule.

“On Sept. 21 last year, it was the millennials who filled the streets with calls for accountability and justice … [T]he younger generation from all over the country registered their protest against the political rehabilitation of the Marcoses and the burial of the [late] dictator at the Heroes’ Cemetery,” Palabay said.—MELVIN GASCON