HARD CORE FOLLOWERS Supporters of Vice President Sara Duterte gather at the EDSA Shrine in Ortigas, Pasig City on November 26, 2024. —Inquirer photo/Grig C. Montegrande
MANILA, Philippines — A grandson of the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. on Saturday asked Vice President Sara Duterte to keep the Aquino name out of her feud with President Marcos, noting that values of the two most powerful political families do not align with those espoused by his grandfather.
The son of one of Aquino’s daughters, Viel Aquino-Dee, who is also a co-convenor of the Buhay ang Edsa Campaign Network, did not mince words when asked about the Vice President’s remarks referring to the Aquino assassination as one of the roots of the February 1986 uprising that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
“If you don’t believe in human rights, if you don’t believe in treating people with respect … I would rather that you don’t use the name of my grandfather,” Kiko Aquino Dee said in an interview with the Inquirer on the sidelines of the annual honoring of heroes of the antidictatorship struggle at Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City.
READ: VP Duterte explains withdrawal of Edsa anniversary message
The Marcoses and the Dutertes have been linked by their critics to violence and draconian policies, including suppression of press freedom.
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In an interview with reporters at the House of Representatives last week, Duterte clapped back at the statement of the President about “how easy” it was for the Vice President to plan and contract the killing of people.
Marcos was reacting to a statement by the Vice President that she had arranged the assassination of the President, the first lady and Speaker Martin Romualdez if an alleged plot to kill her succeeds. Marcos vowed: “’Yan ay aking papalagan. (I will fight back against this.)”
Crowd gathers at Shrine
Speaking to reporters, the Vice President retorted: “’Di ba pumalag nga ’yung buong bayan nung pinatay ng pamilya nila si Benigno Aquino Jr.? (Didn’t the entire nation fight back when their family killed Benigno Aquino Jr.),” referring to the 1983 assassination of the dictator’s arch rival.
A day later, a pro-Duterte crowd gathered on the grounds of the Archdiocesan Shrine of Mary, Queen of Peace, popularly known as Edsa Shrine, one of the historic sites where hundreds of thousands had peacefully assembled against the dictator during the Feb. 22-Feb. 25, 1986, People Power Revolution.
Shrine rector Fr. Jerome Secillano appealed to the rally organizers not to make the people “your hapless pawns,” adding that they had supposedly been exploiting the crowd “for too long.”
Harry Roque, the former spokesperson for former President Rodrigo Duterte, has been actively calling Duterte supporters to rally at Edsa, saying that the “country needs us.”
Roque himself, however, has not been seen at Edsa. He has been in hiding since the House quad committee issued an arrest warrant against him following a contempt citation for noncooperation with its inquiry into overseas gaming operations.
The Philippine National Police reported that around 100 people had gathered at the shrine on the second day of the anti-Marcos protest. The report said the participants were “promised food and cash,” but this could not be independently confirmed by the Inquirer and some of them denied this in various media interviews.
‘Enduring narrative’
Beyond the “irony” in supporters of the Duterte family coming to the Edsa Shrine in a show of force, Dee said that this bolstered the “enduring narrative” of the Edsa revolt.
“Edsa is meant to be a space for free expression. So, I can’t blame people for seeing the value of Edsa,” he said. “In the end, I can’t say that I support [their] causes.”
For Historian Xiao Chua, the call for support for the Dutertes at Edsa should serve as a “learning opportunity” about the importance of peaceful dissent and free expression.
He pointed out that the critics of the Dutertes had been attacked, mostly on social media, by pro-Duterte groups and personalities.
“I hope they are now realizing how important it is for a functioning society to have dissent because it is lawful and that should not [result in] Red-tag[ging],” Chua said in an Inquirer interview.
“Protesting without the threat of violence – that’s the spirit of Edsa. And I hope they realize that,” he said.
Rody’s view of Edsa
Former President Duterte never attended any of the Edsa revolution commemoration activities during his presidency, choosing to only issue a statement to mark the event.
For the 31st commemoration in 2017, he said that no single party, religion or individual could claim credit for the revolution as it belonged to the Filipino people.
“It was a movement of, by, and for the Filipino people brought about by their profound love of country,” he said.
Duterte stressed that the Edsa commemoration should be a “perfect time for all of us to reflect and objectively assess what we have lost and what we have gained as a nation since that historic event.”
During the 32nd anniversary in 2018, he hailed the Edsa Revolution as a symbol of the country’s unwavering resolve to stand up for what is right “during our country’s most crucial and trying times.”
In his final Edsa anniversary statement as president in 2022 in the middle of the pandemic, he cited public servants, volunteers and medical front-liners for embodying “the true essence of People Power in our daily lives.” —with a report from Inquirer Research