Do not destroy massacre memorials
The All Saints’ and All Souls’ feasts this weekend would have been among those commemorative days of prayer and remembrance in sites once stained by the blood of those who cried freedom and justice against tyranny during the Marcos dictatorship. Must they, the survivors, the next of kin, and those who wish to know more and remember, now be silenced and prevented from honoring those who perished? What is the agenda?
Forwarded to me is a summary of an appeal sent to the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission, Commission on Human Rights, National Historical Commission, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), and Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation. The appeal came from Escalante City in Negros Occidental regarding the local government unit’s alleged obstruction to the view of the Escalante massacre memorial monument and the construction of a toilet in front of it. Is this a prelude to its obliteration? The appeal forwarded to me via Messenger showed feelings of fear and intimidation among those who might have wanted to gather for a commemoration.
The appeal: What do we do? To whom shall we go?
If people are not vigilant enough, little by little, commemorative markers, monuments, and the like that carry with them the weight of historic tragedies will soon be gone because they are intentionally leveled to the ground and erased from memory. Look what happened to the statue of a “comfort woman” or sex slave of occupying Japanese soldiers during World War II. The commissioned statue stood facing Manila Bay along Roxas Boulevard and then was gone. I had written a number of articles on comfort women, even covered the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal organized by women’s groups that brought together surviving comfort women from Japanese-occupied countries in Asia. Ah, the heartrending stories they told, the weeping, the pain.
As to the missing statue of the comfort women, there is a whole story to it. I dare myself to weave a novella about it in my fertile imagination.
To remember, remind, and revisit, I might as well dig up something I had written before. Not all of the victims of the dictatorship were targeted individuals or groups. The despot’s iron hand had a grasp so big it could crush protesting communities in one bloody swoop.
Massacres they were called. In the 1980s, I was part of a book project that documented the excesses of the Marcos dictatorship and the military establishment. The book was “Pumipiglas 2: Political Detention and Military Atrocities in the Philippines,” published by TFDP. More happened after.
Here is a list of the massacres that deserved commemorative markers that, hopefully, have been preserved. I cannot write a paragraph for each one here due to space limitations.
Guinayangan, Quezon, February 1981. Pulilan, Bulacan, June 21, 1982. Daet, Camarines Norte, June 14, 1982. Las Navas, Samar. Sept. 18, 1981. Culasin, Antique, Dec. 19, 1981. Bayug, Zamboanga de Sur, May 25, 1982. Labo, Camarines Norte, June 23, 1982. Tudela, Misamis Occidental, Aug. 24, 1981. Hinunangan, Southern Leyte, March 23, 1982. Talugtog, Nueva Ecija, Jan. 2, 1982. Dumingag, Zamboanga de Sur, Feb. 12, 1982.
The Escalante massacre in September 1985 had yet to happen and therefore was not included in the book. But here is the story, though briefly:
On the eve of the 13th anniversary of the imposition of martial law, hundreds of sugar workers, farmers, fishermen, and students marched in protest in Escalante. The Regional Special Action Forces and the Civilian Home Defense Force members fired on the workers. Twenty marchers were killed and scores were injured.
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This Halloween weekend, while ruminating on the subject of ghosts as well as on our not-so-otherworldly concerns, may we be reminded to be watchful in the night. May ghost government projects, ghost employees, ghost transactions, ghost beneficiaries, and the corrupt who suck the blood out of us be cursed and find their way to Dante’s “Inferno.”
A thought: the departed ones we loved and those who loved us continue to live in us.
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