Ex-CHR chair: Marcos is not a hero

FORMER Commission on Human Rights chair Loretta “Etta” Rosales on Wednesday called on the government and the public to stop plans to give late dictator Ferdinand Marcos a hero’s burial.
Reacting to the remarks of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has said he is a close friend of the Marcos family, Rosales said the late strongman could not be buried at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani because he was not a hero.

“Ang panawagan ko hindi pwedeng ilibing si Marcos sa Libingan ng mga Bayani, sapagkat ang pangalan noon, Libingan ng mga Bayani. So para sa mga bayani ‘yun. Eh si Marcos mahirap siyang tawaging bayani sapagkat hindi lang naman siya sundalo. Peke nga ‘yung kanyang mga medals sabi ng American government,” Rosales told reporters at the sidelines of the “True Philippine Heroes Stories” activity at UP Diliman.

“Paano siya magiging bayani kung siya ay responsable sa pagpapatay ng libu-libong mga estudyante, mga guro, mga taong simbahan, manggagawa, magsasaka, mga Pinoy. Responsable siya sa pag-utos niya nito. Responsable siya sa enforced disappearances. Responsable siya sa torture at mga karahasan,” she added.

The two-decade Marcos regime was marked by imprisonment, killings and disappearances of activists and human rights defenders. It was ended by a people power revolution in 1986, which sent the dictator’s family into exile in Hawaii, where Marcos also died. The Marcos family was allowed to return to the country years later, bringing in the patriarch’s remains.

Duterte had said before he would allow a hero’s burial for Marcos, whose cadaver is currently embalmed and enclosed in a glass casket in his hometown, to end decades of divisions that hounded the country.

But Rosales said human rights groups were poised to counter a future decision to bury Marcos at the heroes’ cemetery through a temporary restraining order.

“We’re having a petition for a TRO by the way. We’re going to file it but we are still working on it,” she said.

Citing the need for human rights education amid “whitewashing” of history, Rosales also reiterated her call to establish local museums that will remind Filipinos of what really transpired during martial law.

“Let’s make a mass movement upang sa ganon we will liberate society from being entrenched by fascistic, repressive ideas and make sure that the values of justice, freedom and democracy prevail,” Rosales said.

Amid allegations of plundering $10 billion in public coffers, Marcos’ wife and children have returned to power over the past years. Imelda is a representative of Ilocos Norte, while his eldest daughter Imee is governor of the province.

His son Marcos Jr. was elected senator in 2010, and almost won the vice presidential race in the May elections. Duterte has been vocal about his friendship with the late dictator’s son and namesake, citing it as reason as to why he was noncommittal about giving Vice President Leni Robredo a Cabinet post.