(We yield this space to the statement of CARMMA or the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law due to its timeliness. – Ed.}
FERDINAND Marcos Jr.’s defense of martial law and his father’s dictatorship is the biggest travesty that we have heard, as we commemorate the 50th year of martial law this Sept. 21.
By saying that martial law atrocities are those that occurred “like in any war,” he mocks at all the victims’ experiences and efforts to pursue justice and exact accountability.
His deliberate denial of the judgment of US courts and the existence of a domestic law pertaining to his dictator-father’s crimes is a shameless act at furthering his family’s political rehabilitation and historical distortion.
Without blinking an eye, Marcos Jr. uses his stint now as president to absolve his father’s name. After 50 years, his family continues to parade the biggest lie that his father needed to declare martial law due to the threats of insurgency.
The most stark truth is that his father and their family, the military and their cronies planned the imposition of martial law to prolong their rule, to enable their big-time heist of people’s money, and to quell political dissent and opposition.
We say again: staying in absolute power for 21 years is not defending democracy. Systematic violation of people’s rights can never be considered as something that benefits the nation. The theft of billions from the nation’s coffers is not a legacy that should be celebrated.
We choose not to accept this mockery of truth and history, a full swing of deception shoved down the throats of the Filipino people.
Never again. Never forget.
