Bicol militants join Martial Law anniversary protest in Manila

LEGAZPI CITY –– Hundreds of activists, farmers, students and women in Bicol will join the protest action in Luneta Park commemorating the 47th Anniversary of the Declaration of Martial Law.

Vince Casilihan, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Bicol spokesperson, said over 400 members of affiliated with Bayan Bicol converged at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) on Friday morning to join other militant groups in staging their protest at Luneta Park in Manila.

Casilihan, in a phone interview, said the Bicol group would join other militant groups in marching from UST España to Mendiola, ending at Luneta Park, where a whole day protest rally would take place in observance of the day when the country was placed under Martial Law by former president Ferdinand Marcos on September 21, 1972.

Among the issues to be raised by Bayan Bicol are the militarization of Bicol communities under President Duterte’s Memorandum Order number 32, and the recent Executive Order 70 institutionalizing the whole-of-nation approach to end insurgency, unabated human rights violations, and the current economic crisis.

“MO32 and EO70 are placing the country, specifically Bicol, under a de facto Martial Law,” Casilihan said.

“We Bicolanos strongly express our firm unity with the struggle of our oppressed basic masses against the tyranny and repression of the Duterte government to silence critics and legitimate dissent by resorting to all means to reimpose martial law,” he said./lzb