Reds assail Duterte on Marcos burial plan

DAVAO DIE-IN Sprawling herself on the pavement, a woman dramatizes her protest against the planned burial of President FerdinandMarcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani during a rally in Davao City on Sunday. GERMELINA LACORTE/INQUIRER MINDANAO

LUCENA CITY—The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has assailed President Duterte for his “bullheadedness” in allowing the burial of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani.

“[Mr. Duterte] is determined to squander the historical lessons treasured by the Filipino people. They are being politically disarmed from preventing the rise to power of future dictators,” the CPP said in a statement issued on Saturday.

Mr. Duterte’s decision to allow the burial of Marcos at the heroes’ cemetery and the killings of hundreds of poor drug users and dealers have soured initially friendly relations between the President and the CPP.

The President, a former student of CPP founder Jose Maria Sison, has appointed leftists to his Cabinet.

Peace talks

He has also ordered a resumption of peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines to end one of the world’s longest-running communist insurgencies and bring peace to the countryside.

But Mr. Duterte, a friend of the Marcos family, has said he will allow the burial of the dictator at Libingan ng mga Bayani, sparking protests from thousands of survivors of martial law abuses, human rights advocates, current and former legislators and ordinary people linked to the opposition to the strongman.

He argues that Marcos deserves to be buried at Libingan because he was a soldier and a President, regardless of any misdeeds.

Plan condemned

The CPP condemned the plan of the Duterte administration to give Marcos a hero’s burial.

“By claiming Marcos deserves to be buried with other former soldiers, [Mr.] Duterte is helping perpetuate the historical lies surrounding Marcos’ bogus medals and phony Maharlika guerrilla unit,” it said.

By ordering that Marcos be accorded military honors befitting a former head of state, Mr. Duterte is “virtually deleting Marcos’ bloody record as a military despot and the fascist violence, human rights violation, corruption and economic hardships he made the Filipino people suffer through 14 years of dictatorship,” the CPP said.

Giving Marcos a hero’s burial “will complete the Marcoses’ political restoration and will complete the whitewash of all the crimes they perpetrated against the people,” it said.

Revising history

Mr. Duterte, by “flaunting” his alliance with the Marcos family, is helping the “Marcosian scheme to revise history and make the younger generations overlook the colossal plunder and sale of the country’s patrimony, his debt-borrowing spree, his legacy of gross cronyism, his family’s ostentatious lifestyle built upon the poverty of the people, and his martial law’s massacre of freedom and democracy,” the CPP said.

The President’s decision to allow Marcos’ burial at Libingan “displays extreme insensitivity to the sensibilities of thousands of victims, families and survivors of martial law,” it said.

“He insults the memory of thousands of patriotic Filipinos from all walks of life who gave up their lives at [their prime] to fight for the dictatorship’s overthrow,” the CPP said.

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