Manila, November 21 (RHC)-- In the Philippines, thousands of protesters gathered to voice their rejection of burying former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the central cemetery in Manila.  Popular movements took to the streets to denounce the "hero's burial" and accused President Duterte of suffering from "historical amnesia." 

While President Rodrigo Duterte has issued calls for "forgiveness" amid the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes Cemetery) in Metro Manila, thousands of protesters renewed demands that justice be served in relation to the crimes of the Marcos dictatorship and that these crimes not be repeated again. 

Ferdinand Marcos was a kleptocratic dictator whose brutal rule in the Philippines lasted from 1965 to 1986.  "This (secrecy) is nothing new to the Marcoses - they who had hidden wealth, hidden human rights abuses and now hidden burial - with complete disrespect for the rule of law," Vice President Leni Robredo, who belongs to an anti-Marcos political party, said in a statement. 

“We condemn in the strongest terms President Duterte’s whitewashing of the historical crimes of the Marcoses and the brazen trampling on the call for justice of all the victims of the Marcos dictatorship,” said Anakbayan National Secretary-General Einstein Recedes. 

The head of the national democratic youth organization Anakbayan also called on Duterte not to forget the plunder of the economy and millions of victims of human rights crimes during the period of martial law, which was imposed in 1973 and lifted in 1981.  The period entailed the illegal arrest and detention of 70,000 Filipinos, while 35,000 were tortured. 

“By insisting on giving a corrupt dictator, U.S. puppet, and human rights violator a hero’s burial, Duterte is aggressively stoking historical amnesia,” said Recedes. 

Meanwhile, Marcos's eldest daughter, Imee Marcos, the governor of Ilocos Norte province and a longtime ally of the current president, thanked Duterte for allowing her father to be buried under such conditions of pomp and circumstance.