Groups commemorate 38th year since toppling of dictator Marcos Sr.

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — The people will not forget the first People Power uprising.

This is the assertion of progressive groups as they commemorated the 38th year since the first People Power uprising on Sunday, Feb. 25, which toppled the late dictator and father and namesake of the current president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

This year’s commemoration was not included in the list of special non-working holidays.

“They do not want to commemorate the EDSA People Power because this will remind them of the day that people the overthrew them from Malacañang,” said award-winning director and martial law survivor Joel Lamangan.

Groups also assailed the railroading of the proposed amendments to the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Read: Groups slam railroading of charter change, question Marcos Jr.’s political agenda

Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raoul Manuel said that on Feb. 26, the House of Representatives will discuss again the proposed charter change.

“Why are they railroading this? They said that this is a people’s initiative but the truth is, this is a politician’s initiative. Who is behind charter change? No other than Marcos. And now, the Congress is railroading this,” Manuel said in a speech during today’s protest action.

Martial law survivor Sr. Mary John Mananzan said changing the Constitution to extend term limits is not new as the same was used by Ferdinand Marcos Sr. when he moved to stay in power until he declared martial law in 1972.

“But the people rejected the Marcoses then. Many activists who expressed their dissent were attacked or killed,” Mananzan said in Filipino during the program.

Women’ s group Gabriela, meanwhile, stressed that the government should address the perennial problems afflicting Filipinos. This includes low wages, increasing unemployment rate, relentless price hikes, lack of social protection, foreign military intervention, and worsening human rights situation in the country — issues that Charter Change will not resolve, the group said in a statement.

“Mga sirang plaka sa usapin ng ChaCha pero sa usapin ng dagdag-sahod puro kontra?” said Gabriela Secretary General Clarice Palce, referring to the anti-wage increase statements of congressmen regarding the measly P100 wage hike.

In a statement, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas National Chairperson Danilo Ramos said, “Marcos Jr’s destructive ChaCha attempt is similar to his father’s wreckage of the domestic seed culture with the so-called Green Revolution, which facilitated the propagation and dominance of imported chemical-intensive seed varieties.”

Ramos added that Marcos Jr. “is swiftly copying, if not transcending his father’s corruption and cronyism.”

“Marcos Jr and his cousin House Speaker Martin Romualdez are also breeding their cronies — those who will benefit from ChaCha’s term extension,” Ramos said.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Chairperson Renato Reyes Jr. said of the rumored rift in the Uniteam, “During (Rodrigo) Duterte’s term they also pushed for charter change because they will benefit from it. Now they are against it because they will not benefit from Marcos Jr.’s charter change,” he said in Flipino.

Read: Youth groups condemn Marcos, Duterte ‘word war’ amid cha-cha talks

He said that both families have their own interests. “We will not allow a reactionary be replaced by the same.”

“We want real (societal) change,” Reyes said. (JJE, RVO)