‘Libingan ng mga Basura is perfect place for Marcos’

Justine Balane of the Akbayan Youth (left) and Victor Sumampong Jr., Sanlakas Youth Cebu secretary general, (5th from left) lead other members of anti-Marcos groups in the briefing in Cebu City announcing the holding of the rally to bury the Marcos effigy at the Inayawan landfill today (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON).

Tom O to join rally to bury late dictator’s effigy at Inayawan landfill today

About 1,000 protesters including Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, are expected to join today’s burial of the coffin containing an effigy of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Inayawan landfill, which protesters described as the Libingan ng mga Basura.

“Burying the dictator’s effigy at the Inayawan dumpsite symbolizes how the Filipino people threw him out as basura in 1986. The landfill or the Libingan ng mga Basura is the perfect place for him,” said Emmanuel Mongaya, a member of the Anti-Bongbong Coalition, which is one of the groups making up the Cebu Citizens’ Assembly Against the Burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Mongaya is also a justice and peace advocate who worked with Redemptorist priest, Fr. Rudy Romano. The priest was kidnapped during the Marcos regime and has never been seen since he was abducted allegedly by military men.

Tom to join

Mayor Osmeña said he would join the protest rally today since he was also against the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the burial of the late president Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Osmeña said he agreed with the symbolic representation of the Cebu Citizens Assembly against Marcos Burial that instead of the LNMB, Marcos’ remains should be laid to rest at the landfill.

“I think that’s more deserving. I’ll be there. I’m not going to play the lead, but I will be there,” he told reporters yesterday.

While admitting that he cannot question the legality or the technicalities cited by the SC in their decision to junk the petition of human rights groups and martial law victims, Osmeña said he still found it inappropriate.

He said the decision seems to show that the country’s law and legal system is glorifying a dictator.

“To me, it (SC decision) hurts and something is wrong. I look at it from the standpoint that we’re celebrating a dictatorship. Di ko modawat niana (I can’t accept that),” Osmeña said.

Burial route

The activity, which is called the “Ilubong si Marcos sa Inayawan Landfill,” will start with a long march from the Mambaling flyover along Natalio Bacalso Avenue at 2 p.m.

According to the Cebu Citizens Assembly, the protesters will march from the flyover passing along Natalio Bacalso Avenue to Basak Pardo where they will pass through a road heading to the Inayawan landfill.

The Cebu Citizens Assembly also encouraged those who would join to wear white and avoid wearing red and black shirts.

Cristina Tenchavez of Akbayan said that white had always been the color worn by members of the Cebu Citizens Assembly during their rallies while red had always been associated with the Marcoses and black were worn by Marcos supporters during their vigil at the Supreme Court.

Protesters message

According to the coalition, their message in holding the event is simple — Marcos is no hero, Marcos has no place at the heroes’ cemetery, and Marcos should be buried in trash, albeit symbolically.

“Usa ni ka simbolismo sa pagbabag sa maong desisyon kay para sa amo, dili nimo makita sa usa ka Ferdinand Marcos ang pagka-hero, maski one-fourth sa iyang kinabuhi,” said law student Ron Robert Luzon of Akbayan, another group making up the Cebu Citizens Assembly.

“Maski ibutang ta nga nahimo siyang sundawo, pero kung imo nang i-equate sa tibuok niyang kinabuhi, nakapatay siya og dili lang usa kundi more than 1,000 ka tawo. Di jud nimo makita siya nga usa ka bayani. Usa ka simbolismo ning among pagabuhaton ugma puhon sa pagbabag sa maong desisyon,” he said.

“The SC ruling is “filthy” as it “smacks of subservience to the whims of the incumbent President, who publicly acknowledged the monetary contributions of the Marcoses in the former’s electoral campaign,” the Cebu Citizens Assembly said in a statement.

“We shall also denounce with one big reverberating voice our opposition to the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the wax cadaver of the dictator Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” the statement read.

“Instead, we shall have him buried deep under the heap of filth at the Inayawan dumpsite in Cebu City. That dumpsite, the biggest perhaps in Cebu and comparable to Manila’s smoky mountain, is the most fitting place for the biggest filth in the Philippines – the dictator,” said the Cebu Citizens Assembly in its statement.

Members of the event organizers, Cebu Citizens Assembly, include groups like the Partido Manggagawa, Akbayan, Sanlakas and urban poor groups.