Marcos not a hero wherever buried – Bicol activists

In this Nov. 5, 2016 file photo, martial law victims and human rights activists picket the Supreme Court to make a final appeal to the justices to vote against the burial of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.   The Supreme Court voted 9-5 to allow the burial of Marcos at the LNMB on Nov. 8, 2016. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ/ INQUIRER

LEGAZPI CITY— Militant groups expressed their dismay over the Supreme Court’s recent ruling permitting the burial of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani by lighting candles at the Battle of Legazpi Shrine in Legazpi City Tuesday afternoon.

Ferdinand Marcos will never be a hero no matter where he will be buried, according to Angel de Mesa, Bicol coordinator of the National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP).

The protesters lighted candles and burned photographs of the former dictator at around 5 p.m.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Bicol spokersperson Vince Casilihan said that the high court ruling did not heal any wounds of the family of the Martial Law victims.

Casilihan feared that the ruling would clear the dictator’s family of violations in the minds and hearts of the public.

“We are dismayed that there were 72,000 Martial law victims, yet the SC favored a plunderer and human rights abuser,” Alfredo Mansos, a victim of Martial Law and a coordinator of the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) Albay.  SFM