Duterte accusing Marcos Jr. of being a dictator and Marcos Jr. pointing the finger to Duterte’s record of human rights violations is a classic case of a pot calling the kettle black.
This ignominious exchange is rich, especially coming from the current and previous heads of State whose family names are synonymous with State-perpetrated bloodbaths and big-time heists of public funds.
The timing of the finger-pointing is fortuitous: it is days before the 39th anniversary of an uprising that resulted in the ouster of the current president’s dictator-father, the same dictator who was politically rehabilitated by Duterte the dictator-wannabe. In a hilarious twist, Duterte the dictator-wannabe has also called Marcos Sr.’s son a dictator.
Thirty-nine years after the first Edsa People Power Uprising, two dictator-wannabes are lunging at each other’s throats for power, while the people suffer from record high inflation rates and record low wages. Prices of food, utilities and services are beyond reach of the poor, while big landlords and tycoons rack up billions in wealth.
Thirty-nine years after the first Edsa People Power Uprising, two dictator-wannabes are comparing notes on the billions their clans have plundered in the years they have dominated Philippine politics. From confidential and intelligence funds to POGO-laundered money, from using ayuda to buy off loyalties to keeping ill-gotten wealth intact through dismissals of graft and corruption cases, the Marcoses and the Dutertes are living the high life at the expense of poor, overtaxed and exploited Filipinos.
Thirty-nine years after the first Edsa People Power Uprising, the two dictator-wannabes use similar playbooks of repression to suppress dissent. From killing civilians to enforced disappearances, from hamletting and bombings communities to red-tagging and hailing dissenters to court using terrorism laws and other criminal offenses, the Marcoses and the Dutertes have built the infrastructure of impunity that plagues the nation.
What the first Edsa People Power Uprising reminds us of is that genuine social change is not about dictators and wannabes playing musical chairs. Genuine social change entails transforming the system that produces dictators and wannabes.
Amid the din of historical distortion and disinformation, we claim what the first Edsa People Power Uprising taught us as a people—that we have the power and the courage to bring down dictators, and that our journey is not done.
Today, we remember these lessons and march with the thousands who refuse to forget.
Today, we remember and march to denounce the filth of corruption, human rights violations and oppression by the dictator Marcos Sr. and the dictator-wannabe Marcos Jr.
Today, we hold the Dutertes to account for their crimes against the Filipino people.
Today, we march to fight for genuine freedom, justice and democracy.