 Black Friday rally to dramatize opposition to FM burial
(The Philippine Star) | Updated November 18, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Anti-Marcos protesters will hold a Black Friday rally today to dramatize their opposition to the planned burial of former president Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.
A noise barrage is set at 12 noon at various sites in Quezon City, Manila, Marikina, Caloocan City and Parañaque, according to Christian Yamzon, Bayan media officer.
“At the different protest centers, protesters will burn images of Marcos,” he said. “They will also announce future plans for their campaign against the Marcos burial.”
A bigger protest action will be mounted during the actual burial of Marcos, Yamzon said.
Meanwhile, most candidates for the posts to be vacated by retiring
Associate Justices Arturo Brion and Jose Perez, who went through the two-day public interviews that ended yesterday, agreed with the SC decision allowing the Libingan burial of Marcos.
The Judicial and Bar Council asked them if they agreed with the SC ruling.
Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta, Centro Escolar University Law School vice dean Rita Linda Ventura-Jimeno and Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Samuel Martires agreed with the majority decision that the Marcos burial is a political question resolved by presidential prerogative under the Constitution.
Acosta said the burial of Marcos has basis in law, citing Republic Act 289 (National Pantheon law).
“I will concur (with the SC ruling), the law is very clear. It’s time for the nation to be healed,” she said when asked how she would have voted in the case if she were already a member of the SC.
Jimeno agreed with the SC upholding the eligibility of Marcos for burial at the Libingan as a former president, soldier and Medal of Valor recipient.
“It is my respect for the rule of law which tells me the Supreme Court’s decision should be respected, and I do respect it,” she said.
Martires said he does not believe that Marcos was dishonorably discharged by the Filipino people.
“It’s always been my belief that Marcos wasn’t ousted, but he opted to leave to prevent bloodshed,” he said.
In the continuation of the public interviews yesterday, aspirants Court of Appeals Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier and law professor Joseph San Pedro disagreed with the SC ruling and supported the dissenting opinions.
Javier believes in the dissenting opinion that Marcos was dishonorably discharged during the EDSA people power revolution in 1986 and therefore disqualified for a hero’s burial.
“The highest form of conviction is people power… I think the conviction made by the people themselves is the highest court,” she said.
“Any other inferior court, even the SC, can’t trivialize that decision (of the people).”
San Pedro agreed with this opinion.
“I think the primary issue there is the historical underpinning of our 1987 Constitution,” he said.
“We came from an ouster of a dictator and to allow the dictator is a dishonor to the people who sacrificed to have our democracy right now.”
Other nominees who faced the JBC are CA Associate Justices Japar Dimaampao and Noel Tijam; Department of Justice chief state counsel Ricardo Paras III; Davao Regional Trial Court Judge Rowena Apao-Adlawan, and CA Mindanao Executive Justice Romulo Borja.
Seven other candidates for the vacancies were no longer interviewed because of their previous interviews over the past year.
They are CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. and CA Justices Apolinario Bruselas Jr., Rosmari Carandang, Stephen Cruz and Jose Reyes Jr., Quezon City Judge Reynaldo Daway and Sandiganbayan Justice Alex Quiroz.
‘People must decide’
Sanlakas secretary general Aaron Pedrosa said the decision on whether to bury Marcos at the Libingan must be left to the Filipino people, who were also the game changer in Edsa 1.
“President Duterte cannot simply reduce the issue to a clash of political clans, especially if he is aware of the injustices and crimes committed by the Marcos dictatorship,” he said.
Pedrosa said the Aquinos were not the only victims of martial law nor are they the ones leading the condemnation of a hero’s burial for Marcos.
“Under Marcos’s rule, 3,240 were killed, more than 70,000 were imprisoned, 34,000 people were tortured and 254 people were victimized by enforced disappearances,” he said.
Pedrosa said the “last word” on the issue could now rest in the hands of the Filipino people, who have every right to resist any attempt to deodorize the atrocities committed by Marcos.
“We demonstrated this when we ousted the dictatorship in 1986,” he said
“A hero’s burial for Marcos will not give closure to the families and the memory of those who were denied dignity and rights under his tyranny. Nor will it absolve the present and future generations of the 26.7 billion-dollar debt we will be paying as late as 2025, almost forty years after Marcos’s regime ended.”
Pedrosa said since the SC ruled that the matter was a political question, Duterte has the power to cancel or retract his order allowing the burial of Marcos.
“It is enough for the President to look at the backlash caused by his order to see that the Marcos burial will not bring closure and healing to the Philippines,” he said. – With Edu Punay, Ding Cervantes
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