IT IS TYPICAL for a community to greet the burial of the dead with solemn, silent mourning, in respect and remembrance.
But the atypical clandestine, sneaky burial of deposed strongman Ferdinand Marcos sparked just the opposite response — an outcry of protest and anger across the nation.
On Friday, November 25, thousands of Filipinos in various cities expressed not respect but rage for the rushed burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. They burned and tore up his effigies, launched a torrent of #HeroMoMukhaMo online posts, wore black, and hurled banners emblazoned with sharp, critical comments on the corruption and repression that marked his rule as a despot for nearly two decades.
Burying Marcos at the cemetery for heroes mocks, they say, the memory of tens of thousands of political activists that he had sent to jail, torture, or summary execution. The rushed burial that happened with evident consent from President Rodrigo R. Dutete (even as the high court has yet to rule with finality on the issue) betrays yet again the evidently typical behavior of the Marcoses — impunity and indifference to rule of law and due process.
