Reds urge Duterte to reverse hero’s burial for FM

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Warning of massive protests, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) urged President Duterte to reconsider the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga bayani (LNMB).

The CPP denounced the government for honoring Marcos with full military honors in what it called “surreptitious” funeral rites.

“In ordering his military honor guards to bear the tyrant’s casket in a hero’s funeral, Duterte exhibited gross disrespect and insensitivity to the Filipino people’s sufferings under the brutal martial rule and to the martyrs and heroes of their epic resistance,” the CPP said.

The CPP said Marcos’ interment at the LNMB “was an act of great reversal of the historical judgment of the Filipino people against the US-Marcos dictatorship and a completion of the political resurrection of the Marcoses.”

The CPP said it is supporting organizations and various sections of society protesting the Marcos burial.

The CPP warned Duterte faces isolation in the face of mounting protests against the Marcos burial. It advised the President “to reverse this historical wrong.”

“Instead of paying tribute to Marcos, Duterte should support the people’s demand to hold Ferdinand Marcos, as well as Imelda and their children, accountable for the crimes of plunder and violations of the people’s civil and political rights,” the CPP said.

“By giving Marcos a hero’s burial, Duterte has succeeded in stoking the anger and rage of the victims of the US-Marcos dictatorship as well as of the younger generation of Filipinos who are highly conscious of the lessons of martial law and indignant of the innumerable crimes of the fascist tyrant,” it said.

The CPP said Duterte is proving himself as a rotten “trapo” (traditional politician) in allowing the hero’s burial for Marcos.

“The Filipino people advises Duterte to renounce Marcos-style rule,” the CPP said. “He must stop effusively praising Marcos’ mythic brilliance which makes him sound like a loyalist, and end making suggestions about reviving such hallmarks of Marcos’s martial law as the constabulary and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus,” it said.

Where do you stand?

Other sectors, however, called on officials in the government, particularly those who had opposed the Marcos burial to cut their ties with Duterte and resign from their posts.

Other critics wanted to charge the Marcos family and some officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police for allowing the burial.

Senators called on Cabinet officials to make clear their stand and resign from the government.

Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon particularly called on Secretaries Judy Taguiwalo of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Silvestre Bello III of Labor, Rafael Mariano of Agrarian Reform and Secretary to the Cabinet Leoncio Evasco, all of whom have been active anti-Marcos activists since their youth.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros, who had pushed a Senate resolution opposing the Supreme Court ruling upholding President Duterte’s discretion to order the burial of Marcos at the LNMB, said she is leaving it up to the concerned Cabinet officials to decide on whether they would heed calls for them to resign.

However, she asked administration officials to make a more definite and stronger stance on the issue, “especially Cabinet officials who supposedly espouse progressive ideals.”

“There can be no nuancing on this matter. Lest they want to be part of the massive historical revisionism,  they must tell the President – straight to his face – that this is on him,” Hontiveros said.

Sen. Francisco Pangilinan said he was leaving it up to the officials who feel alluded to by calls to resign to act on the matter.

Sen. Richard Gordon said those calling for the officials’ resignation could only be promoting more division or even destabilization.

He said it does not mean that whenever a subordinate disagrees with a president, he or she must immediately resign even as he pointed out that Cabinet officials serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority.