The period under the dictatorial rule of President Marcos between 1972 until 1981 is characterised by the routine beatings, arrests and murders of labour and human rights activists. President Marcos was expelled via a popular uprising in 1981 and died in the USA a few years later. The current Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte reignited past wounds by allowing Marcos’ remains to be buried in the ‘Cemetery of the Heroes’ in Metro Manila. This decision provoked mass opposition and protest by many human rights and labour groups who see Marcos as a dictator and a murderer. The protests have also surprisingly generated widespread opposition from a younger generation who see this burial as an attempt to re-write Filipino history.
The period under the dictatorial rule of President Marcos between 1972 until 1981 is characterised by the routine beatings, arrests and murders of labour and human rights activists. President Marcos was expelled via a popular uprising in 1981 and died in the USA a few years later. The current Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte reignited past wounds by allowing Marcos’ remains to be buried in the ‘Cemetery of the Heroes’ in Metro Manila. This decision provoked mass opposition and protest by many human rights and labour groups who see Marcos as a dictator and a murderer. The protests have also surprisingly generated widespread opposition from a younger generation who see this burial as an attempt to re-write Filipino history.
