MANILA —
Philippine protesters vowed
Wednesday to “never forget” the human rights abuses under former dictator
Ferdinand Marcos as they held rallies to mark 50 years since his imposition of
martial law.
اضافة اعلان
Amnesty International estimates thousands of people
were killed and tens of thousands tortured and imprisoned after Marcos imposed
martial law on September 21, 1972, unleashing security forces on rivals,
critics and dissidents.
Marcos’s son is now the president of the
Philippines, and campaigners have urged him to recognize his family’s role in
the violence.
“The Marcoses need to at least acknowledge their
role in those dark days,” said Carlos Conde, a researcher for Human Rights
Watch, as activists and victims marked the 50th anniversary.
“Without truth-telling, without the space for
Filipinos to understand and accept what happened during martial law, we can
never find closure, we can never move forward.”
Hundreds of protesters, including human rights
activists and Christian groups, held peaceful demonstrations across the capital
Manila, carrying placards with slogans such as “never again” and images of
martial law victims.
“A nation that doesn’t remember its history is
doomed to repeat it as they say,” said John Magtibay, a 22-year-old film
student protesting at the University of the Philippines.
“We are beginning to see that now.”
Half a century after martial law began, 11,103
people have been officially recognized as victims of torture, killings,
enforced disappearances, and other abuses.
They have been compensated with some of the wealth —
estimated to be in the billions of dollars — stolen by Marcos and his wife
Imelda.
But human rights groups say there has never been a true
reckoning of the abuses — or those responsible held to account.
Marcos was toppled from power by a bloodless “people
power” revolt in 1986 and the family was chased into exile.
After the patriarch’s death in 1989, they returned
to the Philippines and began a remarkable political comeback that culminated
with Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s victory in the May 9 presidential election.
“The fact that we allowed the Marcoses to reenter
Malacanang is really messed up,” said Patricia Pobre, a 24-year-old protester,
referring to the presidential palace.
His landslide win was helped by a massive online
misinformation campaign that whitewashed abuses and corruption during the
dictatorship.
Martial law victims and activists have described the
Marcos regime as “one of the darkest periods” in the country’s history.
They accuse Marcos Jr and his supporters of
distorting the facts about martial law and falsely portraying it as a “golden
age” for the Philippines.
“There are young Filipinos who are interested in
learning what really happened in spite of many others who were really blinded,”
said former political prisoner Bonnie Ilagan, who spent two years in jail where
he was repeatedly tortured.
“The fight continues. We must never forget.”
Ilagan and others accused Marcos’s allies in
Congress of slashing budgets and weakening the government agencies responsible
for preserving the nation’s past.
In the run-up to Wednesday’s anniversary,
documentary screenings and exhibitions have been held to educate the public
about the horrors of martial law.
But a left-wing political party said they were
forced to scrap a film screening in suburban Manila on Tuesday after five
members of the local police intelligence unit showed up and “harassed” them and
“shot video”.
Marcos Jr, who has repeatedly praised his father’s
rule, last week defended martial law as “necessary” to protect the country
against communist and Muslim insurgencies.
“We do recognize the problems that happened, the
abuses that occurred like in any war,” Marcos Jr said.
But he said critics were “wrong” to call his father
a “dictator”.
“There’s no reason to revise history,” he said,
while suggesting school textbooks need to be rewritten “only if they’re wrong”.
Cristina Palabay of the Karapatan human rights
alliance accused Marcos Jr and his administration of peddling “one lie after
another”.
“There needs to be institutionalized acknowledgement
and great reckoning on the crimes committed by Marcos and his ilk,” she said.
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