KIN of human rights violation victims under Hustisya (Pagkakaisa ng mga Biktima para sa Hustisya) and Desaparecidos expressed their strong rejection of the “possibly the worst political tandem in Philippine history” as Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. and Sara Duterte-Carpio lead the 2022 presidential and vice-presidential polls, respectively.
“We grieve with horror and pain, as if we lost our friends and loved ones once again. Seeing these two liars desperately mislead the nation with misinformation and fake promises of unity fill us with trepidation that justice will never be served for us and our kin. It is certain that both Marcos Jr. and Duterte-Carpio will do nothing but commit massive economic plunder and countless human rights violations against the Filipino people. It is detestable to have these scions of despots be seated as president and vice president,” said Evangeline Hernandez, national chairperson of Hustisya, a human rights group formed by kin of victims of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations.
Based on the data from human rights organization Amnesty International, 70,000 people were imprisoned during Marcos’ martial rule, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed, and at least 77 people were forcibly disappeared. An estimate by the Supreme Court tells that the Marcoses stole around $10 billion, considered as one of the greatest robberies of a government in the world. Meanwhile, human rights groups estimate that around 30,000 individuals were killed under the Duterte administration’s bloody drug war, while the national debt ballooned to PHP 12 trillion.
Meanwhile, Erlinda Cadapan, national chairperson of Desaparecidos, a group consisting of families and friends of victims of enforced disappearances, agreed that the Marcos-Duterte tandem won by misleading the nation, calling it “a disheartening product of a gargantuan machinery of fabricated lies, deception, and historical revisionism that both Marcos and Duterte camps peddled for a very long time.”
“Even before the campaign period, both Marcos Jr. and Duterte-Carpio, along with their cabal of trolls and vloggers, strongly relied on spreading malicious information and black propaganda in and out of social media to build up their reputation while whitewashing their respective father’s grave offenses. Rodrigo Duterte’s administration has brazenly coddled the Marcoses and condoned their atrocities against the nation through various ways – from sneakily burying the corpse of Marcos Sr. in the Libingan ng mga Bayani to defending Imelda Marcos from being incarcerated after being found guilty of seven (7) counts of graft by the Sandiganbayan. Despite the number of glaring evidence, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) – mostly appointed during the Duterte administration – has turned a blind eye on the rampant fraudulent and irregularities during the elections, especially those involving this atrocious tandem’s camp. Their possible win in the 2022 elections is the culmination of the Marcoses’ grand scheme to rehabilitate their bloody legacy while protecting the equally despicable Dutertes from the nation’s wrath once his administration is over. Clearly, this atrocious connivance of two clans of fascist rulers and their cohorts is a grave insult to the memories of our loved ones, to those who fought for our rights and freedom, and to the nation as a whole,” she stressed.
The two rights advocates urged the public to push for broader action to condemn the Marcos-Duterte tandem, as various groups gather near the COMELEC National Canvassing in PICC today, May 13, to protest election irregularities.
“We will never, ever forget how both Duterte and Marcos Sr.’s bloody and corrupt track record. We vow to continue in upholding our rights and freedom, and in rejecting another possible dictatorship and suppression of rights. We also echo the call to strongly reject this nefarious tandem,” Hernandez ended.
