Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman (INQUIRER FILES)
MANILA, Philippines — Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman has called out the government for not appropriating funds for the Martial law museum.
Lagman raised his concerns on Wednesday, after the plenary debates on the proposed 2024 budget of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) — highlighting the need to remember the incidents of the past especially a day before the anniversary of the declaration of martial law.
Lagman said that it is ironic that the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Museum, Library and Compendium — which is mandated by Republic Act No. 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013 — has no funds in the 2024 National Expenditures Program (NEP) when it is meant to remind people of the excessive money spent during the said period.
“While there was surfeit of funds, including the proceeds from behest loans, for the prosecution of the martial law regime’s repressive and plunderous programs and policies, there is now no appropriation in the 2024 budget as proposed in the NEP for the construction and completion of the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Museum, Library and Compendium,” Lagman said in a statement.
“This memorial museum will constantly remind Filipinos of the atrocities of the Marcos Sr. martial law regime and the heroism of its victims and survivors. Its objective is also to remind Filipinos that they should not allow national amnesia to thrive lest we forget the oppression and avarice during the darkest era in Philippine history,” he added.
Then President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. declared martial law on September 21, 1972 to supposedly quell lawlessness in the country.
The Marcos patriarch was accused of using his power to amass ill-gotten wealth and persecute political enemies.
His son, incumbent President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., maintained that it is wrong to paint his father as a dictator.