‘Our protests will hound Marcos to his grave’—Bayan

Militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Tuesday said it cannot accept the decision of the Supreme Court giving the green light to a hero’s burial for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said the high tribunal’s decision “whitewashes the crime of the dictator,” referring to human rights abuses that characterized the martial law period.

“This is not just a sad day. It is a day of outrage; for the victims of the dictatorship, for the survivors of martial law, and for the generations that experienced fascism at its worst,” Reyes said in a statement.

“Our protests will hound Marcos all the way to his grave. We will tirelessly campaign so that future generations will never forget. And we will continue to cry for justice for all Marcos victims,” he added.

Bayan is one of the petitioners against President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to bury the remains of the late dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

But voting 9-5 with one inhibition, the Supreme Court junked all petitions against the planned hero’s burial for Marcos, saying that no law prohibits such and Duterte exercised his mandate without grave abuse of discretion.

READ: SC OKs Marcos burial at Libingan

Duterte, who has been very vocal about his alliance with the Marcos family, pushed for the hero’s burial as part of his campaign promise despite strong opposition from martial law victims and the general public. The Marcos dictatorship was marred by human rights abuses, curtailed press freedom, corruption, forced disappearances, and unlawful arrest and killings of opposition forces. RAM/rga

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