Talks about the Supreme Court decision allowing the interment of the 27-year-old frozen corpse of President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Fort Bonifacio continue to stoke anger among many Dumaguetenos.
Close to 300 people, mostly the millennials (those born from 1981 to 2002), slammed the recent Supreme Court decision allowing the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
In an indignation assembly Wednesday, the protesters gathered around the flagpole at Silliman University to express their outrage that a dictator would be buried in a cemetery that was set up to perpetuate the memory of national heroes.
“Marcos not a hero!” chanted the students, faculty, alumni and Dumaguete residents donning black shirts, after taking turns expounding on why it is important to express outrage.
Civil Law professor Golda Benjamin said the Supreme Court is not the last frontier in the fight against the oppression and suffering that the Marcos regime caused the country.
“The greatest revolutions started from anger. But in order to see victory, we have to rise above our anger, and begin a revolution using the skills that we have.” She noted how the young are especially loud and vocal on social media, specifically on Facebook.
A retired legal expert, however said, that even with a motion for reconsideration, nobody has the amount that could equal what the Marcoses have at their disposal.
Another Dumaguete resident, Melanie Laurena-Macias, who lived the first 22 years of her life in Manila with Marcos as president, said the show of indignation was an opportunity for Dumaguete residents to express disgust. “You just couldn’t do something like this without disappearing in the night, and being tortured to death under the Marcos regime,” she recalled.
Part of the activity held Wednesday was the singing, this time led by the Millennials, of the activists’ protest anthem Bayan Ko, with clenched fists reminiscent of the Martial Law years.
“My mom said Marcos made people kill each other. He was a bad man so how come they will bury him in the cemetery for superheroes? It doesn’t make sense!” exclaimed six-year-old Ilan Ekong, like he knew of the 3,000 victims of salvaging under Marcos in the 70s and 80s. Little Ilan came with his siblings, mom Maru, and other relatives.
One of the organizers, Palanca awardee Ian Rosales Casocot, said the late afternoon activity was a good start to “openly mark voices of dissent”.
By nightfall, it culminated with a prayer by Weekly Sillimanian former editor-in-chief Maya Angelique Jajalla, begging for genuine justice and healing for the nation. (IFBP)