The grave of former President Ferdinand Marcos has a wreath sent by Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017. (Photo by DEXTER CABALZA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
A year after the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, minority senators rallied the public to “never forget” and “make their voices be heard.”
“But while a false hero was being buried at the Heroes’ Cemetery, true heroes were rising to the challenge and making their voices heard. All across the country, we saw the power of a people who never forgot the truth about this dictator.”
That was part of the statement issued on Saturday by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senators Bam Aquino, Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan and Antonio Trillanes IV.
“Crowds numbering in the thousands gathered to condemn the disrespect and utter shamelessness of the secret funeral,” they said. “Amidst this dark attempt at historical revisionism came the light of thousands of indignant Filipinos who remember their history and cry out: he is not a hero.”
The minority senators also urged people to remember not just the burial but the people who rose to the call and opposed the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
“Much of our news today tells us how far we still have to go, how so much is still to be done,” the said. “So on this day, let us choose to remember not the burial but the people who rose to the call: protesters who showed a strong sense of hope, pride, and solidarity.”
“Never forget. Never again,” they added.
On Nov. 18, 2016, the former dictator was “unexpectedly” buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani 27 years after his death in 1989 due to lung, kidney and complications.
He was previously interred in a mausoleum in Batac, Ilocos Norte.
Last Aug. 8, the Supreme Court upheld with finality its 2016 decision allowing Marcos’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. /atm