Group demands Marcos exhumation
MANILA — Exactly a year after the controversial funeral, an anti-Marcos group yesterday renewed its strong call for the exhumation of remains of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Heroes' Cemetery.
Marcos was buried with military honors at the Heroes' Cemetery in a surprise ceremony on November 18, 2016, almost 30 years after his death in Hawaii. The interment triggered scattered protests around Manila.
The burial happened after the Supreme Court dismissed objections from human rights groups. President Rodrigo Duterte, in a bid to fulfill an election campaign promise, had given orders in August last year that the burial could proceed.
In a statement, #BlockMarcos group urged anew the government to exhume the body of the late ruler as they remembered the day of Marcos' interment as "a day of outrage" and "a day of resistance."
"We mark this day with a symbolic action to renew our call to unearth the dictator and all the remnants of tyranny that continue to haunt us until today," the group said.
"We relive the indignation we felt at the Marcoses' callous desecration of our history and the memory of those who died fighting Marcos' martial law. We remember their shameless disregard for justice, lest we lose sight of our duty to confront the threat of a complete regress into dictatorship that we are now facing," they added.
Despite the death of the dictator in exile in Hawaii in 1989, his family has been making a political comeback with his widow, Imelda and their children becoming powerful politicians in Ilocos Norte, his home province.
In the same statement on Saturday, the anti-Marcos movement, in an apparent swipe at Duterte, condemned what they said was "the looming return of strongman rule." They said: "We stood together to warn those in power that we would not hesitate to occupy our cities to block any threat of authoritarianism." —