An anti-Martial Law group on Monday, November 8, said that the burial of the late deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani five years ago was a treachery to the country’s fight for freedom and democracy. 

“The hero’s burial of the dictator Marcos is a treachery to our nation’s arduous fight for freedom and democracy. It is a betrayal of the hundreds and thousands who were killed, illegally arrested and detained, tortured, sexually violated, and forcibly disappeared,” Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (Carmma) said in a statement on Monday. 

November 8, 2021 marks the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision allowing Marcos burial at the cemetery intended for “gallant Filipino men and women who brought honor to the country and fought for the sake of freedom and democracy during World War II.” Only 10 days after the highest court’s decision, the late tyrant was buried “secretly” at the request of the dictator’s heirs.  

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According to Carmma, Marcos’ burial sealed the alliance between the Dutertes and the Marcoses. The highly contested hero’s burial of Marcos happened under the watch of President Rodrigo Duterte, a known ally of the Marcoses. (TIMELINE: The Marcos burial controversy)

“Five years on, this alliance has paved the way for massive historical distortions, the rehabilitation of the Marcoses and the whitewashing of their decades of human rights violations, plunder and pillaging of the nation’s coffers,” the group said. 

The group added that the restoration of the Marcoses in power or an extension of Duterte is a threat to the Filipinos’ rights. 

“We at the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law hold Duterte accountable for this blatant insult to our nation’s history — and with the alliance between Duterte and the Marcoses looming over the 2022 national elections, we can only expect more of these lies,” Carmma said.

“A Marcos restoration or a Duterte extension is a threat to our rights and the gains painstakingly won by the people in the struggle for justice and democracy,” the group added.

For the 2022 elections, the dictator’s son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., is running for the country’s highest post and his family’s return to Malacañang. The Marcoses’ bid to return to power was aided by a massive disinformation network, which worked rebrand the image of the Marcoses and bury the atrocities committed during the late dictator’s tyranny. 

Historians and rights groups considered the Marcos regime as one of the darkest chapters in Philippine history. From 1972 up to 1981, rights group Amnesty International recorded a total of 3,340 people killed, 70,000 imprisoned, and 34,000 tortured at the hands of Marcoses. – Rappler.com