Does the Anti-Marcos Movement have an end game?

November 28, 2016

by benign0

Following the spectacular flop of last Friday’s anti-Marcos-burial rally at the Luneta, the leaders of a community of Filipino “activists” calling for the Marcos family to be taken to account for the alleged atrocities that happened during “the Martial Law years” continue to soldier on. There is another set of rallies planned over the coming several days — including rallies in the United States as part of a so-called “global protest against the Marcos burial” at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB).

What exactly is the ultimate aim of the anti-Marcos mob? Is it just to exhume Marcos’s remains from the LNMB and ship them back to Ilocos Norte? Is it to put the rest of Marcos’s immediate family in prison for their alleged Martial Law “crimes”? And if there is a specific aim, is there a roadmap to get there beyond conscripting university students and grade school kids into attending these street protests?

To give the anti-Marcos mob some credit, some of its members have specific objectives in mind. A certain JR Castillo issued his vision for his part in the anti-Marcos protest effort in this tweet.

One day I will visit Marcos’ grave and…

urinate on it and smear it with faeces.

I swear. That will happen. TANGINA NILA.

Indeed, that is something worth waiting to see actually happen (though I wouldn’t hold my breath). Hopefully, if it does happen, it will be captured on video so that the rest of the world may behold this triumph of anti-Marcos activism for generations to come. It’s got all the right ingredients to count as a seminal milestone — dramatic newsworthiness and high-voltage emotionalism.

The more important question to ask following an anti-Marcos henchman marking Marcos’s tomb with his personal brown and yellow stuff is this:

How exactly is whatever the anti-Marcos mob trying to achieve relevantto the ordinary Filipino of today?

If Marcos’s remains are sent back to Ilocos, if his tomb is smeared in JR Castillo’s excrement, if the Marcos family is throne in prison, and, get this, even if the “billions” he allegedly stole are recovered; will the Philippines magically transform into a different society? As in, a society fundamentally different enough to provide an environment where true inclusive prosperity could take root?

In short, is there some sort of synergy between what the anti-Marcos mob is apiring to and the broader interests of the Philippine nation as a whole? Are the anti-Marcos activists’ goals consistent with the national interests?

After 30 years of whining about nebulous notions of “justice”, perhaps it is time the Martial Law Crybabies start spelling out specifics. In the vernacular:

Ano ba talaga gusto niyong mangyare?

For now, while the above question remains unanswered, I am hanging on to the prospect of seeing Mr JR Castillo make good on his solemn promise to crap and piss all over Marcos’s tomb at the LNMB. At least he’s got things down to specifics. I can’t really say the same for the overall anti-Marcos “movement”.

[Photo courtesy Davao Today.]

http://www.getrealphilippines.com/blog/2016/11/anti-marcos-movement-end-game/