EDITORIAL: They call us temperamental brats

They call us temperamental brats. They say we have no right to be angry about Martial Law because we didn’t live through it. They say we don’t know the truth. But we are children of this nation, and we have every right to be angry. We've studied our history and say, “Never again!”

We are the ones who have to pay for Marcos’ debt until 2025. While Imelda boasts about her jewelry and the Marcos kids ride private jets, our salaries go to servicing the $28 billion that they loaned in our name and shoved in their own pockets. Damn right we’re temperamental, but we are not the brats.

We are the ones who suffer the effects of Marcos’ rule. An older generation may have been touched by the spell of new roads and bridges, but we were born in the reality of what was stolen: A government in disarray, an economy in shambles, a currency that had to climb its way out of despair. Damn right, we’re temperamental, but we are not the brats.

We stand with the 70,000 Filipinos that were imprisoned under Marcos, the 34,000 that were tortured, and the 3,240 that were killed because we, too, have felt the stinging pain of loss. While they shut their eyes to keep their comforts, it was the bright students, the critical thinkers, and the strong voices that were silenced — an entire generation of leaders lost in blood. Damn right, we’re temperamental, but we are not the brats.

They tell us to move on, yet the thing is: We have moved on. We’ve learned the mistakes of the past so that we do not repeat them in the future. It is they that haven't moved on. They cling to their dimming memories, screaming “Marcos pa rin” like a lovelorn teen kneeling before an ex. Damn right, we’re temperamental, but we are not the brats.

On Nov. 30, we formed seas of black around the country to show them the change that is about to come. We fight for a country where Filipinos don’t kill fellow Filipinos; where Filipinos don’t steal from fellow Filipinos; where Filipinos don’t disrespect fellow Filipinos. We fight for a country where justice means doing what is right, and not just what is legal.

Damn right, we’re temperamental, and if the old brats in this country want us to move forward, perhaps it is they that should step aside.

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Tweet the author @PepeDiokno.

Photos by MIKE REBUYAS