Safety of Women & Children Jeopardized By Duterte Decision to Bury Marcos a Hero



Make no mistake about it: the Philippines Supreme Court DID NOT APPROVE the hero burial of Ferdinand Marcos.

The order to give the deposed dictator a hero’s funeral was issued by Rodrigo Duterte who was once on the Marcos team.

The Court was asked by opposition to rule on an application to stop the burial based on the nation’s statutes.

The Court ruled on the application that sitting authoritarian president Rodrigo Duterte has the legal right to use the lands of the people of the Philippines in the manner of his choosing. That meant that he could use the Hero’s Cemetery to bury Marcos, which he ordered the Philippines military to do.

They completed that task on November 18, 2016 before the 15 days of appeal had expired.

Authoritarian Philippines Leader Rodrigo Duterte did indeed order that former brutal dictator Ferdinand Marcos be buried in the Philippines cemetery for “heroes” (Libingan ng mga Bayani – Fort Bonifacio.). Five petitions to the Supreme Court attempted to block this, but failed.

This decision, say critics, supports the concept of a Filipino authoritarian leader promoting extrajudicial killings; and instilling fear through the rape, torture and murder of women & children.

Meanwhile in a typical flagrant abuse the kleptocratic Marcos family with full blessings and flowers from current ‘leader’ Rodrigo Duterte buried the disgraced former dictator Marcos with full military honours at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Marcos, like Duterte, ruled with fear. Extra-judicial killings, rape and torture is what children and their families feared in the Marcos era. The fear is back.  Sexual harassment, including rape threats and lewd comments, particularly aimed at female protesters quickly spread following the controversial burial.

Following the controverted burial of Marcos as a “hero” many protests took to the street and on social media.

Taking to the streets in opposition to the burial of Marcos at Libingan ng mga Bayani are thousands of female Marcos-victims who suffered rape and other violence at the hands of corrupt police and military members during the Ferdinand Marcos era of authoritarianism and martial law.

The response of Filipino men has been to attack the women on social media with stalking, threats of rape and allegations against some women that they are ‘shabu’ (amphetamine) users and should be on a drug-user-kill-list.

This treatment of women in the Philippines is quite typical.

Every woman and child in the Philippines is in immediate danger of being raped 24/7 and they know it. Taken seriously are the threats of people like Calvin Castro Menrige who on Facebook talked about one young woman this way: “Let’s gang bang her so she won’t be able to bite… Let’s tie her up.”

The new reality in Manila is that Marcos got a hero’s burial and Duterte is the new despotic (Maoist) leader who said around 11:00am September 3, 2016, “The military and the police will run the country in accordance with my specifications”, as he instituted what he called a “state of lawless violence”, something like Martial Law but much more vague.

Article 7, Section 18 of the Philippines Constitution reads: “The President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines and whenever it becomes necessary, he may call out such armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion.”

The-RINJ-Foundation-Warning-To-Women-In-The-Philippines

Similarities between Dictators Marcos (Martial Law) and Duterte (State of Lawlessness) include impunity of leader’s crimes. Duterte wants Marcos buried as a hero.

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino politician and kleptocrat who was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled as dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981.

Duterte, during his election campaign, said he would end drug crime and the extensive political corruption in Manila.

Since Duterte was elected his kill teams only murdered drug users who, in the majority of cases, were so poor and wretched they couldn’t pay their drug bills. They have also done plenty of arm-twisting-effect by murdering little children, moms and grandmas and pouring on the fear.

Duterte is now making a hero of a Kleptocrat-in-Chief.

Poverty and government corruption are the two most pervasive problems in the Philippines, problems that have even driven men and women to substance abuse.


Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos visits the glass coffin of her husband, late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who remains unburied since his death in 1989, in the town of Batac, Ilocos Norte province, north of Manila March 26, 2010. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

Human Rights Violations of Marcos Offend Opponents Of “Hero Internment” and Jeopardize the safety of Filipinos

Every few dozen seconds, a woman or a child is raped in the Philippines, with seven in 10 victims of rape being children. Every 53 minutes a rape is reported. Every 16 minutes, a woman is battered.

Many of the women who are seen in news videos of recent demonstrations have been targeted by so-called “Marcos Supporters”.

Lawyer John Molo, a law professor and graduate of the University of the Philippines, took to Facebook to share that he is offering free legal assistance to victims of sexual harassment online.

Molo told the Philippines Inquirer he received “massive response and offers to help” from fellow lawyers, students, co-teachers, and those in information technology.

“From what we have seen, online sexual harassers, bullies and, perverts better be afraid. This is not just 1 lawyer or 1 victim filing just 1 case. As of today our volunteer complement has:
1. Four (4) full-service Law Firms;
2. Fourteen (14) individual lawyers;
3. Two (2) IT organizations and several IT practitioners ;
4. Three (3) law student organizations; and
5. Almost a hundred law students. More volunteers are coming in,” he said.

“With volunteers from as far as Agusan, Bacolod and Laoag, we have the means, machinery and motivation to hunt down lewd trolls – Wherever they are. So if you are thinking of sexually harassing a student, better think twice. Because we will be coming for you and we Will Find You,” Molo added.

Since the Marcos era the perpetrators know that they get away with these crimes. We witness that fact daily.

The Philippines has an authoritarian patriarchy wherein there is no evidence of gender equality, probably the perfect patriarch.

Women are sent to work in countries around the world as domestic help, compelled to send their money home to their families.

Misconduct by all levels of male police officers is atrocious. Many women have reported being raped by police officers and that problem has been exacerbated by drug-user kill lists that list women. Police pick up women they want to have sex with and make the claim they are on the list. The woman must accept being raped in silence or face death as a ‘drug execution’.  The Philippines leader, Duterte, just like Marcos once did, has vehemently promised immunity to these police officers. They have killed an unknown number, maybe into the tens of thousands of persons. Nearly 5,000 have been reported in aggregate as official police killings plus  killings by ‘others’ (Barrangay police and ‘Kill Teams’ working for police.)

The 4-year-old little girl pictured here with her dad was murdered by police who were trying to shoot her grandpa, a man who Denila Katalbas, police chief in Guihulngan City, says was put on a “drug list”.

Marcos was a violent military dictator who ordered martial law in the Philippines and encouraged the torture, rape and murder of his opponents. Thousands were killed. Duterte is on exactly the same path.

Marcos’ family and cronies amassed an estimated $10 billion (Reuters) USD  in ill-gotten wealth which the family flaunts to this day in arrogance.

Etta Rosales was raped, tortured, and went through electric shock and Russian roulette at the hands of Philippine government officials.

Trinidad Herrera says, “they [“Marcos government police”] ordered me to remove my blouse and they applied electric shock on my breast. Electricity went through my body until I couldn’t take it anymore.”

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Fe Mangahas, said: “They would scare me again by touching me and breathing down my neck and then I felt something like naihi ako (I peed). I figured it was blood because at the time I did not realize I was two months pregnant.”

Maria Christina Bawagan said her thighs were hit until they looked like rotten vegetables. She was sexually abused, with her captors inserting objects into her vagina and touching her breasts while blindfolded.

Many thousands of Filipinos have opposed making a hero of Dictator Marcos.

Marcos Reign, Myth-Making and Deception in History

Years after the death of Dictator Marcos a similar leader, Rodrigo Duterte has emerged in the “Palace”. Duterte is best known for his extra-judicial murders of  an estimated 4,500 persons in the Philippines since taking power a little more than 100 days ago.

Duterte running mate and friend Former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos is the son of the former Dictator Marcos and his response to these women is “Get over it.” But a new group of women is in the streets in 2016 pleading for a stop to a new mass of killings under Duterte in 2016.

Criticisms levelled at alleged Kleptocrat Bongbong Marcos  say he is unapologetic for human rights violations and ill-gotten wealth during his father’s administration.

History professors from Ateneo de Manila University recently released the following opinion. This is a reflection on the legacy of Mr. Marcos.

“In response to Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos, Jr.’s call that teachers and students of history should make a judgment about the Marcos administration, we, the undersigned members of the Ateneo de Manila community, vehemently oppose and condemn the ongoing willful distortion of our history. We deplore the shameless refusal to acknowledge the crimes of the Martial Law regime. We reject the revision of history, disturbing vision of the future, and shallow call for “unity” being presented by Marcos Jr. and like-minded candidates in the 2016 elections.

“The Marcos regime’s economics of debt-driven growth was disastrous for the Philippines. The regime was not interested in inclusive development, long-term state-building, nor genuine social transformation of the country, despite its “New Society” rhetoric. Instead, Marcos was mainly concerned with perpetuating his personal hold on power by favoring family members, friends, and other cronies. Thus, Marcos simply created new elites or “oligarchs” rather than abolish them — supposedly one of his main justifications for declaring martial law. Those who dared challenge the regime’s monopoly on power, whether politicians, business people, political activists, organized labor, peasants or urban poor, Church workers, students — young or old, rich or poor — were intimidated, imprisoned, kidnapped, tortured or summarily executed.

“We refuse to forget the atrocities committed by the Marcos regime, and we renew our demand that the perpetrators of these crimes be brought to justice. We also reiterate our position that the government should relentlessly pursue and reclaim all the ill-gotten wealth accumulated by the Marcos family and its cronies. Moreover, victims and their families should be given justice and compensation in full. Any call for unity, most especially from the heirs of the Marcos regime which bitterly divided the country, will be empty and meaningless unless truth and justice are upheld.”

5-Yr.-Old Danica May Garcia was shot to death in her family’s store by two men on motorcycles, said police in Dagupan in Pangasinan province. Her Grandpa was on a list of drug users.

On March 28, 2016, the Department of History of the University of the Philippines Diliman released a statement entitled “MALAKAS AT MAGANDA: Marcos Reign, Myth-Making and Deception in History”  In it, they stated:

“Great danger now lurks behind a deceptive nostalgia for a past that never really existed–that the Marcos years were a period of peace and prosperity. This is patently Marcos myth and deception. Under martial law, the country was plunged into a climate of repression and plunder and then into a social crisis that exploded in the 1980s.

“…it was in fact under martial law that the communist and Moro rebellions grew in leaps and bounds. Marcos claimed to break up an old oligarchy, but martial law instead created a new type under his control, a crony oligarchy.

“Economic crises characterized the Marcos years, as economists have consistently revealed, the most telling indicator was the extent of poverty. Poverty incidence grew from 41% in the 1960s to 59% in the 1980s. Vaunted growth was far from inclusive and driven by debt, which further weighed down on the nation. From 1970 to 1983, foreign debt increased twelve times and reached $20 billion (Dr. Manuel Montes, 1984). It grew at anaverage rate of 25% from 1970 to 1981. Much went to unproductive expenses like the Bataan Nuclear Plant, which was unsound and wasteful.

“To say then that EDSA interrupted our becoming like Singapore is a big joke, a malicious lie. Marcos had mismanaged the economy; it was in shambles long before the EDSA revolt. From 1970 to 1980, among East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines registered the lowest GDP per capita at 3.4% [sic] (An Analysis of Economic Crisis, ed. Dr. Emmanuel de Dios, 1984). Peace and order, a spurious claim, actually meant an iron-fisted clampdown on civil liberties. Through presidential decree and executive order backed by the full force of the military apparatus, Marcos padlocked Congress, jailed the opposition, gagged media, emasculated unions, and banned student councils. Thousands were jailed without warrant and due process, not to mention countless killings and disappeared. Yet the national crime rate climbed continuously from 183 in 1976 to 279 (per 100,000) in 1980 (De Dios, ed. 1984 citing Philippine Constabulary data). In 14 long years, repression had also stunted the growth of independent-minded new leaders from the younger generation.

“We reject deception and demand accountability!”

Ed. Note: Since Rodrigo Duterte took office the anecdotal accounts of rape have risen dramatically. Murders of children and women in the so called “drug wars” of leader Duterte are such that the streets of cities and towns in the Philippines’ provinces have gone dead at night. Fear reins above all. Taboo in coffee shops and bars is the talk of Duterte and his extra-legal killings.

 

Duterte: I want these people killed.