MANILA, Philippines— “Duterte is bull-headed with his decision to give Marcos a hero’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” the Communist Party of the Philippines said on Saturday in a statement condemning the Duterte administration of its plan to give former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. a hero’s burial.
“[He] taunts the people to protest as much as they want in the streets. He reveals his indifference to people’s demands,” the political organization said.
CPP accused President Rodrigo Duterte of being a party to a “Marcosian scheme” that seeks to revise history and make the younger generations overlook Marcos’ “colossal plunder and sale of the country’s patrimony, his debt-borrowing debt spree, his legacy of gross cronyism, his family’s ostentatious lifestyle built upon the poverty of the people, and his martial law’s massacre of freedom and democracy.”
“By further ordering that Marcos be accorded military honours befitting a former head of state, Duterte is virtually deleting Marcos’ bloody record as a military despot and the fascist violence, human rights violation, corruption and economic hardships he made the Filipino people suffer through 14 years of dictatorship,” CPP added.
CPP also called out on Duterte’s extreme insensitivity to the sensibilities of Martial Law’s survivors, victims, and their families.
“He insults the memory of thousands of patriotic Filipinos from all walks of life who gave up their lives at the prime of their youth to fight for the dictatorship’s overthrow,” CPP said.
“The revolutionary forces continue to stand against the political restoration of the Marcoses and demand that they be made to pay for all the crimes against the Filipino people,” the political organization said.
It can be remembered that Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, CPP’s founder, said in June that Marcos can be buried at LNMB despite being a “fake soldier for a long time” because he was a soldier who fought in the Battle of Bataan during Imperial Japan’s invasion of the Philippines in World War II.
However, Sison stressed that he sympathizes with people who are against the interment of Marcos at LNMB due to the presumption that it is a cemetery for heroes.
Despite protests against a hero’s burial for Marcos, the Armed Forces of the Philippines on August 10 formally received the directive for the internment of Marcos’ remains at LNMB.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of the former president, is “deeply grateful” to Duterte for allowing a hero’s burial for his father.
“It has always been our family’s position that it is our father’s right under the law to be buried there being a soldier and a former President of this country,” the young Marcos said.
“It is this kind of pronouncement that we hope could end the decades of divisiveness that have been imposed upon us by our leaders. We would like to thank President Duterte for this kind, rightful and healing gesture,” he added.
Marcos is to be buried at LNMB on September 18, a week after his birthday, according to the wishes of his family.