Marcos declares father’s birthday a holiday in Luzon

Manila: president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos has issued a proclamation declaring the 105th birthday of his father and namesake, the late martial law dictator, a holiday in their home province of Ilocos Norte in Northern Luzon.

The Office of the President released the proclamation on Thursday, informing Ilocos Norte Governor Mathew Joseph Manotoc, one of the dictator’s grandson and son Senator Imee Marcos, of the non-working holiday in the province.

The dictator’s birthday is on Sept.11, a Sunday. As a result, the Ilocos Norte provincial board requested that the following day, Monday, Sept. l2 to be declared a holiday instead.

“It is but fiting and proper that the people of Ilocos Norte be given the full opportunity to celebrate and participate in the occasion with appropriate ceremonies, subject to the health measures of the national government,” the proclamation read.

The late strongman 105th birthdate comes more than week before 50th anniversary of his declaration of martial law under Proclamation No.1081 on Sept.21, 1972.

But this did not sit well with groups identified with martial law survivors or those taking up the victims of martial particularly those who were killed or disappeared during the strongman’s regime.

Karl Patrick Suyat, cofounder of Project Gunita, the birthday of the late dictator should not be celebrated anywhere in the country “not even in Ilocos Norte.” Project Gunita is composed of a group of archivists collecting material during martial law.

“He plundered our country so terribly that our economy fell into the guters when he was ousted,” Suyat said. “He was a repressive dictator and a remorseless leader.”

Francis Gealogo, history professor at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University and lead convenor of “Tanggol Kasaysayan (Defend History), said the President’s proclamation was a “huge disrespect” to the memories of the victim’s of father’s strongman rule.

“All those killed, detained, raped and disappeared during his dictatorship are effectively being erased in our history by this policy of this president and his family who are seated in different political posts,” Geologo pointed out.

Bonifacio Ilagan, a martial law survivor and convenor of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law, said Bongbong’s proclamation only showed his intention on “whitewashing and covering up the hellish memory that the late dictator and his ilk wrought the nation.”