Tone deaf and ironic: BAYAN slams ‘Run Sara Run’ motorcade

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) scored the motorcade on Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) Thursday morning urging Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio to file her candidacy in next year’s presidential elections.

BAYAN secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said it is “strangely ironic” that the motorcade was held on the 35th anniversary of the 1986 uprising that brought down the 14-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

“While it is their right to hold an event, the timing is tone deaf and seems oblivious to the pandemic and the worsening economic crisis,” Reyes said.

In many ways, the motorcade was inappropriate and tended to insult those who fought against the Marcos dictatorship, Reyes added.

A group calling itself the Alyansa ni Inday Movement (AIM) held a “Run Sara Run” motorcade along EDSA that stopped over at the People Power Monument as various groups and the Quezon City government alternately held commemorative programs.

Some of the group’s placards claimed the Davao City mayor is the “NEW FACE of People Power.”

Reyes said it is strangely ironic that some groups would use the uprising’s anniversary to call for the perpetuation of one family in power that is both “a dictatorship and a dynasty.”

“These are the more pressing matters that need attention, not early campaigning or electioneering,” Reyes said.

Duterte-Carpio, daughter of the incumbent president, has in the past downplayed the uprising’s importance in the country’s history.

“I find it hard to understand why this bloodless revolution has become the standard definition of freedom for our country and this standard is forced down our throats by a certain group of individuals who think they are better than everyone else,” Duterte-Carpio said in a response to Archbishop Socrates Villegas in 2017.

Villegas criticized the Duterte administration as a shame to the spirit of EDSA because of its human rights record.

Duterte-Carpio had also had been repeatedly accused of being pro-Marcos, evidenced by her close friendship with Senator Imee Marcos.

President Duterte himself is believed to be a Marcos supporter.

President Duterte has repeatedly denied that her daughter is a presidential candidate while the mayor herself said she has no plans for the presidency. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)