21 gunshots for a dictator

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BY RHICK LARS VLADIMERALBAY
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Saturday, September 9, 2017
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ON THURSDAY President Rodrigo Duterte declared Sept. 11a Special Non-Working Day in Ilocos Norte to mark the birth anniversary of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

It seems Duterte is bent on supporting the Marcos clan’s efforts to wipe our history of the atrocities of their patriarch’s brutal regime. This, of course, is barely a week after Duterte quipped that the Marcoses could potentially return a portion of their ill-gotten wealth to the Philippine government in exchange for immunity.

I wrote the prose below after the dictator was given a “hero’s burial” at the Libingan ng mga Bayani last year – but its message still is important to impart especially in these trying times.

Entitle the tyrant a 21-gun-salute for a bloody 21-year regime of oppression and corruption.

Fire the artillery to drown out the cries of student activist (1) Liliosa Hilao, molested in Camp Crame, her body mangled and littered with cigarette burns, her genitals sawed off, (2) 16-year-old Boyet Mijares, misled out of hiding, told his disappeared father was still alive and waiting to meet him, his tortured remains dumped a few days later outside Manila, and (3) Archimedes Trajano, snatched, beaten and thrown out of a high window by henchmen for daring to question the authority of a dictator’s daughter.

Cry and a grieve for a tyrant who died of illness and old age, not for the young struck down in their prime, brutally slaughtered for criticizing Martial Law. Don’t mourn for (4) Juan Escandor a doctor who served at the Philippine General Hospital while organizing protests and movements, his skull emptied and filled with rags and garbage.

Hold back your tears for 24-year-old seminarian William Vincent Begg (5) his body found with “seventeen stab wounds, eleven gunshot wounds, a broken rib cage and smashed hands.” Forget the memory of (6) Tonyhill Hillario, forced to dig graves for his slain comrades by the local constabulary then buried alive along with them.

Lay your wreaths of pure white, unblemished by the blood of warrior-poet (7) Eman Lacaba, ardent feminist and revolutionary (8) Lorena Barros and vigilant student activists (9) Noel Tierra, (10) Edgar Jopson, and (11) Ditto Sarmiento.

Bury your wax idol while the families of (12) Primitivo Mijares, whistleblower against the “conjugal dictatorship”, and (13)human rights lawyer Hermon Lagman, have waited four decades for them to come home, desaparecidos, without even a body to bury and say farewell to.

Let the names of the Dela Fuente brothers fade away. Young Ilonggo activists (14) John Dela Fuente and (15) Edward Dela Fuente slain just a year apart, the former shot dead while sleeping in their home, the former tortured and found with “bloody nails and fingers, bruises and scars, the mark of a boot print on his back” as recounted by their mother who outlived them both.

Make for naught the sacrifice of (16) Fr. Zacarias Agatep who helped poor farmers’ families in Northern Luzon, shot and killed by military men while defending the lands of his parishioners, and tribal chieftain (17) Macli-ing Dulag, officers opening fire on his hut for leading the indigenous peoples of the Cordilleras in protesting the construction of a dam that threatened to drown their ancestral domain.

Rewrite history to erase the bloodshed at (18) Las Navas, where children saw the cruelty of Marcos’ soldiers, witnessing helpless the inhumane killing of their parents and families. Remove from the history books the (19) Escalante Massacre when government troopers opened fire on the peaceful protest of 7,000 people in Negros.

Wipe the dictator’s slate clean of the (20) 3,240 Filipinos killed and (21) the 34,000 tortured while unlawfully detained. Absolve him of the billions their family and cronies looted from the Philippines. Forgive him for his crimes against humanity.

Bestow upon his grave the highest of honors and pave the way for his remorseless and unapologetic family’s rise to power. #NeverForget #MarcosNoHero /PN
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