An affront to democracy

Nov. 18 was no ordinary day. A “national event” that day was the height of contradiction, an affront to democracy.

Amid the Friday rush, a tyrant and dictator was buried in a cemetery for heroes. Seeking to muffle a mounting call for justice, the devious and despicable accelerated their scheme to bury a dishonorable man as a hero.

This supposed death blow to our nation’s long yearning for justice elicits a deep groan from the Filipino people, most especially the victims of martial law. However, this is not the burial of the people’s collective spirit in the continuing struggle to obtain what is just and moral.

In the name of Fr. Rudy Romano, CSSR, Fr. Edgardo Kangleon, Fr. Jerry Aquino, Carlos Tayag, Filomena Asunción, Jessica Sales and the thousands of church people, peasants, workers, men, women and youth killed under the aegis of a fascist, we condemn, in strongest possible terms, the burial of Ferdinand E. Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

For the political accommodation in the highest degree that he privileged the Marcos family with, we denounce President Duterte’s orchestration of as well as the military’s criminal connivance in this farce.

We call on the faithful to act on the lessons of the past and assert the respect for human life, human dignity, amid the long-prevailing climate of impunity that we have endured as a people.

Marcos was no hero. Assert the people’s aspiration for justice and national democracy!

NARDY SABINO, general secretary, Promotion of Church People’s Response, [email protected]