WHILE the remains of Ferdinand Marcos were being laid to rest at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB), anti-Marcos organizers converged in at least two different parts of Cebu City.
A group of students affiliated with party-lists Anakbayan and Akbayan gathered in front of the University of the Philippines College Cebu along Gorordo Avenue, carrying placards with the words “Marcos is not a hero” as they likened the late dictator to Adolf Hitler.
“We applaud the students both those who sacrificed their lives for freedom during Martial Law and now who remain vigilant and will never forget the atrocities he and his administration did,” said Anakbayan chair Niño Olayvar in Cebuano.
UP Cebu Political Science student Nicole Marie Carreon told Cebu Daily News that she began to join anti-Marcos rallies during her freshman year after learning about the horrors and human rights violations committed during the Marcos regime.
She vowed to stand resolutely in “making sure that history will not see Marcos as a hero.”
Carreon narrated that when she was younger, several of her teachers intentionally framed events in their history classes to give students a more positive impression of the late dictator.
“Even though we’re millennials, we should not remain apathetic to what really happened in the Martial Law era. We must not let the prevailing issue of historical revisionism win over,” said Carreon.
Around 50 protesters gathered at the UP Cebu campus called on the exhumation of the Marcos’ remains out of the LNMB.
Meanwhile, in downtown Cebu, an estimated 100 people converged hours after the Marcos’ burial to hold a noise barrage in Colon Street amid the drizzle.
Calling the burial an “insult to all Martial Law victims,” participants urged passing vehicles to honk their horns.
Teody Navea, Sanlakas – Cebu secretary general, also announced plans to place markers of the nine SC Justices at Cebu City’s Plaza Independencia on Nov. 25 to remind people who voted to allow Marcos to be buried a hero.
The marker will bear the names of Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Mariano del Castillo, Jose Perez, Teresita de Castro, Jose Mendoza and Estela Perlas-Bernabe.
Another sign will be placed beside the human rights marker at the plaza which will read “Marcos is not a hero,” Navea said.
Meanwhile, Justine Balane, coordinator of Akbayan Youth, blamed President Rodrigo Duterte for allowing the use of government resources for the burial which was done in coordination with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP).
“This will open the wounds. We will have more protests in the coming days. We are not going to be silent on this matter. This insulted us,” said Jaime Paglinawan, coordinator for Bayan Muna – Central Visayas