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MANILA, Philippines — A progressive coalition said on Wednesday that celebrating the birthday of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. “dishonors” the victims of martial law and so should be scrapped.
Southern Tagalog Movement Against Tyranny (STMAT) voiced its outrage in a statement as it marked the 50th anniversary of the declaration of martial law.
“There should be no special holiday for a dictator, even if it is only for his home province. This dishonors all the victims of Martial Law and goes against the spirit of the martial law victims compensation law,” said STMAT.
“This is another step towards rehabilitation of the dictator, a means to glorify him and erase his crimes from our history books,” STMAT wrote.
The alliance staged a series of protests to underscore the human rights violations and economic plunder during Marcos Sr.’s regime.
These events included a human rights summit, a book exhibit, art gimmicks, and film screenings commemorating Martial Law.
“Ngayon, higit kailanman, sa ilalim ng rehimeng pinamumunuan ng anak ng diktador at anak ng pasista, makiisa at labanan ang tiraniya,” STMAT wrote.
(Now, more than ever, unite and fight tyranny under a regime led by a dictator’s son and a fascist’s son.)
September 21 marks the 50th anniversary of the Martial Law declaration—considered one of the darkest times in Philippine history.
The country’s debt increased from $0.36 billion in 1961 to $28.26 billion in 1986, while 107,200 people, according to Amnesty International, were killed, tortured, and imprisoned by the government under the late dictator Marcos Sr.
When the nation overthrew and deported his father in 1986, Marcos Jr. was 29 years old. — Alyssa Joy Quevedo, Inquirer.net trainee