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Black Friday: A fiesta of furious and funny placards

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Thousands of youth and students who grew up with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram stamped their mark on the Black Friday protest at Rizal Park with both enraged and funny placards that became one of the focal points of the event.

Tirelessly holding the placards aloft, the young protesters tried to outdo each other with the funniest and angriest quips they hoped would be read aloud by the emcees during the program.

The placards did not spare President Rodrigo Duterte, calling him the Marcoses’ puppet for ordering a hero’s burial for the late dictator.

Veteran activists who fought Martial Law expressed elation at the huge turnout of anti-Marcos youth at the Black Friday protest at Rizal Park last November 25. (Photos by Raymund B. Villanueva) Read more

Black Friday protests rage throughout the Philippines

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FOR THE thousands of participants at the “Black Friday” protest at Rizal Park last November 25, Ferdinand Marcos’s heroes burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is part of a plan to fully reinstate his family as the country’s most powerful political clan.

Braving rains brought by Typhoon Marce, the massive rally participated by thousands of activists, university and high school students, government employees and regular citizens went on until well into the night.

The rally also turned into the biggest protest action so far against President Rodrigo Duterte who the protesters said is acting as a puppet of the Marcos clan.

“Marcos’ burial was never the endgame for his clan. Their endgame has always been to return to Malacañang and they have been trying to twist and compromise history and politics to that end,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

“Duterte must choose between his declarations to work for genuine change for the Philippines or his alliance with the Marcoses,” Makabayan stalwart Satur Ocampo for his part said.

Rage throughout

Thirty-three other cities and provinces throughout the country also held protest actions marking the Left’s first nationally-coordinated mass action against a Duterte government policy.

“We declare this day a day of unity and rage,” Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (CARMMA) lead convenor Bonifacio Ilagan said in his opening speech at the main Quirino Grandstand rally.

“The return of Marcosian thought – that our country needs a strongman rule, whose ruler cannot be doubted or questioned because he has the best interests for the country – has become real. We who believe in democracy must fight that,” Ilagan said.

Neri Colmenares, one of the youngest torture victims under Marcos’ Martial Law, criticized the burial’s purported objective goal of from the division wrought on the people by the latter’s strongman rule.

“There can be no reconciliation when the Marcos clan does not even acknowledge the existence of human rights violations during their patriarch’s rule. There will be no reconciliation if the Marcoses refuse to return the billions of dollars they stole from the Filipino people,” Colmenares said.

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‘The future is secure’

Elderly protesters such as Mo. Mary John Mananzan, OSB and Edita Burgos expressed elation at the huge turnout of youth and students at Rizal Park.

“We are old—who knows we could be gone in a year or two—but we can go happy with the thought that you (the youth) would carry on the fight we have started,” Mananzan said.

For their part, various youths spoke on the importance of their generation joining the struggle.

“We feel Martial Law never really ended. We still suffer the effects – in our expensive education and social services, the fascism against activists. Our generation and the next generations will suffer as well if we do not act now,” League of Filipino Students (LFS) secretary-general JP Rosos said.

“We, the youth, accept the challenge to arouse, organize and mobilize, and explain the need for the struggle against fascist and oppressive leaders,” Anakbayan – De La Salle University Vince Simon said.

“It would be a sin for us to sit quietly and accept defeat as Marcos is buried as a hero,” Philippine Normal University’s The Torch editor in chief Timothy Romero said.

Just getting started

The Black Friday protest is the start of the series of activities against the restoration of Marcoses to the peak of power, the organizers said.

“This protest is the second Black Friday. It will be followed by a third, a fourth, and so on. We will ensure that the official rehabilitation of the Marcos and reversal of history never happen,” Ilagan said.

“That is what my generation had sworn to do that this current generation of youth will carry on. We shall never allow our youth to live in a society where history is reversed and dead tyrants’s reputations are rehabilitated,” Ilagan added.

Reyes challenged the participants at yesterday’s protest action to take to the streets to fight against revision of history.

“The courts and politicians have failed us. We the people are the only thing standing in the way of their undeserved return to power. Our fight is no longer in the courts. The fight is in the streets, classrooms, communities, churches, social media and mainstream media,” Reyes said. # (Abril Layad B. Ayroso)

Massive ‘Black Friday’ protest fight against revision of history, organizers say

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ACTIVISTS are asking the Filipino people to join the fight against the revision of history and the total political rehabilitation of the Marcos clan.

In a press conference last November 23, members of Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang (CARMMA) and other progressive organizations called on Filipinos to participate in the planned massive #BlackFriday protest at the Rizal Park grandstand on November 25.

“We shall not let this gross insult and historical distortion pass unchallenged,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) chairperson Dr. Carol Araullo said.

“This is the Filipinos’ fight now. Let us raise our voice and make our stand. Marcos was a thief, fascist and dictator. Marcos was no hero,” Araullo said.

The progressives said it is the most opportune time to prevent the Marcos’s plan to return to power and twist history in their favor.

“When we say ‘never again’, we say it with a greater sense of urgency because the restoration of the Marcoses has just become very real,” Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr. said.

“Like a thief in the night”

The progressives condemned Marcos’ rushed and secret burial as “cowardly” as they expressed frustration that the burial took place before they had the chance to file a motion for reconsideration (MR) to the Supreme Court decision favouring President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to have the late dictator interned at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery).

Petitioner Neri Colmenares said they will file a motion to have the Marcos family, the military and the police as well as others involved in the burial cited for contempt.

“The decision was not yet final and executory. What happened was disrespectful to our rights as petitioners and to due process,” Colmenares said.

“We still intend to file and MR even if the burial has already rendered it moot and unacademic. It may not win, but it is still important that we put it on the record that we do not accept the decision,” he said.

“The Marcoses have practically foreclosed the legal battle already, which is why we must struggle in one arena they cannot control: the streets,” Colmenares added.

Beyond Friday

The progressives emphasized that the fight does not end with the #BlackFriday protest.

“My hope is that this will not only awaken a desire to participate but make the people constantly aware that there is a threat over our heads,” press freedom hero Edith Burgos for her part said.

“If we do not act, the Marcos and their kind will return again and again.  After all, those motivated by greed will always try to find a way to power,” Burgos said.

Burgos also appealed to Filipinos who are unable to join mass protests.

“We call on those who cannot join the protests to go beyond prayers and act to educate the children on the importance of stopping another tyrant from happening to us,” Burgos said. (Abril Layad B. Ayroso)

 

Activists vow to continue fight against the Marcoses

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In a forum at the College of Law of the University of the Philippines-Diliman a day after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was sneakily buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, activists vow to fight efforts to what they say are obvious moves to revive “Marcosian ideology.”

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang (CARMMA) also announced a giant anti-Marcos rally on November 25, Friday, with the following themes: “National Day of Unity and Rage against the Marcos Burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” “National Day of Unity and Rage against the Revision of History” and “National Day of Unity and Rage against Duterte’s Alliance with the Marcoses.” Read more

Scholasticans learn about Martial Law from victim

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St. Scholastica’s College-Manila students learned about the atrocities of Ferdinand Marcos’s Martial Law from former political detainee and torture victim Bonifacio Ilagan in a forum last October 26.

Organized by Bulatlat.com as part of its education series, the forum was aimed at informing younger generations of the dangers of romanticizing the late strongman’s rule.

Watch parts of Ilagan’s testimonial in this video. Read more

Martial Law activists call on youth to remember horrors of dictatorship

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PROGRESSIVE groups marched to Mendiola last Wednesday, September 21, to mark the 44th year since dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law and to press their opposition to talk of another military rule in the country.

Martial Law survivors and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultants narrated their torture under Martial Law and called for the release of current political prisoners numbering more than 500.

First Quarter Storm Movement chairperson Bonifacio Ilagan said that tyranny has not been completely eliminated by the ouster of Marcos in 1986. Read more

‘Never again to Martial Law’ survivors say

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SURVIVORS of Martial Law marched to Mendiola last September 21 to press their demand for justice on the 44th anniversary of its declaration.

They were joined by recently-released National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultants who themselves were victims of the Marcos dictatorship.

The activists also reiterated their opposition to the burial of the late dictator at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. Read more

Ang Libing, a skit on the planned burial of Marcos at the ‘heroes’ cemetery

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Karatula, originally the cultural group of Kabataang Makabayan (KM), performs the short skit “Ang Libing” by Bonifacio P. Ilagan at forums and protest actions.

A celebrated playwright, Ilagan was one of the earliest members of KM. He was arrested and tortured during Marcos’s Martial Law. His sister Rizalina was abducted by Marcos’s troops in the 1970s and remains missing to this day.

Ilagan is a convener of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses in Malacanang (CARMMA). Read more

Martial Law victims press call vs Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani

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HUMAN RIGHTS groups held another rally in front of the Supreme Court (SC) last September 7 during the second round of oral arguments on the petition against the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

The rally was in support of the petitioners and their lawyers who said that instead of healing, the Rodrigo Duterte government’s plan to bury the late dictator at the so-called cemetery of heroes would open old wounds.

Bonifacio Ilagan, Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang (CARMMA) convenor, questioned the use of the term “healing” on the issue of Marcos’ burial at the LNMB.

“Whose wounds are going to be healed? The victims are scarred. Will their scars be healed through Marcos’ burial? I don’t think so,” he said.

“If we want healing, then give Martial Law victims justice,” Ilagan said.

“Even if they say that a burial is a simple thing, it means a lot to us, because it would mean the rehabilitation of the Marcoses and the reversal of our history,” he added.

The group Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) also said it is important not to allow Marcos, his heirs and cronies to escape punishment.

“As long as the Marcoses remain unpunished for their crimes, the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the LNMB will only add to our pain, as it allows for the warping of the truth and the recognition of Marcos as a hero,” the group said.

More than a hundred Marcos “loyalists” held their own rally farther down Padre Faura Street.

Rally at the Supreme Court protesting Marcos' burial at the LNMB revives old slogans against the former president.

Rally at the Supreme Court protesting Marcos’ burial at the LNMB revives old slogans against the former president.

No burial yet

Before the Supreme Court en banc, Solicitor General Jose Calida and Marcos family lawyer Hyacinth Rafael-Antonio defended Marcos’ ‘right’ to burial at the LNMB.

Calida said that the government does not see any law violated by Duterte’s plan and, in turn, cited Armed Forces of the Philippines Regulation No. 161-375 allowing soldiers, commanders in chief and war veterans burial at the LNMB.

Calida and Rafael-Antonio said the burial would not affect the issue of compensation of the victims of Marcos’ Martial Law.

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, however, found fault with Calida and Rafael-Antonio’s argument that Marcos would be buried only because he was a president and a soldier.

Leonon also questioned their treatment of Marcos the President and Marcos the soldier as two different people.

“Which part of Marcos is President?  Which part is being accused by the victims of human rights violations? Why is it that government wishes to take only (a) part of Marcos’ life and use it as a justification to bury him in the LNMB?” Leonen asked.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, for her part, spoke against the potential use of public funds for the burial, saying that public funds should only be used for public purposes.

Calida denied that public funds would be used and said that Marcos would receive “simple graveyard military honors.”

Calida added that the public purpose would be Duterte’s policy of healing and reconciliation.

But Sereno countered Calida, saying, “There is a campaign promise.  That is a political purpose. That is not a defined public purpose.  And public money cannot be used to fulfil a political promise.”

At the end of the hearing, the SC announced a status quo ante order to October 18, preventing Marcos’ planned burial in the LNMB on September 18.# (By Abril Layad B. Ayroso)

CARMMA holds own sortie vs Marcos

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Volunteers of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (CARMMA) held a caravan around Quezon City today to convince voters against voting for Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr as vice president in Monday’s national elections.

The campaigners gathered at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, the place dedicated to those who fought against the dictatorship of the Senator’s father Ferdinand Sr., early this morning and then motored to Barangay Commonwealth to distribute leaflets and post stickers.

Here is a video of CARMMA’s activity this morning.