Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA) and Project Gunita strongly denounced the proposal to mark Ferdinand Marcos Sr’s birthday a special non-working holiday in Ilocos Norte Province.
The lower house approved on May 26 third and final reading, House Bill 9216 or “President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Day” every September 11, with 218 votes in favor, four against, and two abstentions. The measure was authored by Sandro Marcos, House Majority Leader and representative of the first district of Ilocos Norte Province; Ilocos Norte second district representative Angelo Marcos Barba; and representative Aklan Florencio Miraflore.
CARMMA convenor Kris Lacaba said the measure represents the Marcos family’s effort to revise history and portray the former dictator as someone worthy of respect and emulation.
“The Marcoses may succeed in marking this date on the calendar. But what remains indelible in the Filipino people’s minds are the thousands of human rights violations and the billions of dollars plundered from public coffers,” he said.
Project Gunita, an organization focused on collecting materials related to martial law, said that instead of forcing a revision and erasure of the grim history of the Marcos Sr regime, the people should honor and recognize the true heroes and martyrs of Ilocos Norte Province such as Purificacion Pedro, Fr. Zacharias Agatep, and Alfredo Cezar.
Pedro served communities affected by floods, urban poor residents, and those impacted by the Chico River Dam project before the military arrested her in a raid in Bataan in 1977 and killed her at the Bataan Provincial Hospital. Agatep and Cezar organized poor peasants in Northern Luzon. They later joined the New People’s Army in Ilocos Sur Province. Both died in an operation in Salcedo in October 1982.
Source : https://philippinerevolution.nu/angbayan/groups-denounce-proposed-declaration-to-make-ferdinand-marcos-srs-birthday-a-holiday-in-ilocos-norte/