EDSA 36 – The people’s call still resonates: “We’ve had enough! End tyranny now!”
The hundreds of thousands who marched on EDSA, thirty-six years ago, were united by the goal of ending the dictatorship and ousting the fascist Ferdinand Marcos. Today, the people’s demands remain clear: “we’ve had enough! End tyranny now!” This call reverberates even more as the tyrant Rodrigo Duterte’s term nears its end. The people are united by their aim to end all faces of fascism and dictatorship – then, and even more so, now under Duterte’s rule.
Both the older generation who led and the younger generation who shall continue the People Power will not allow the nightmare of dictatorship to hold the country in its vicious clutches. The highest esteem they can offer the historical People Power is to uphold the struggle and hinder the heirs of Marcos and Duterte from reclaiming Malacanang.
As they did before, the people will tirelessly put their lives on the line just to prevent the fascist and dictators from enshrouding the whole country. They have been long demanding justice for the tens of thousands of individuals killed, abducted, illegally arrested and had their rights abused. The ultimate justice they must attain is make the murderous criminals pay for their crimes and to completely end state terrorism.
In Bikol, the masses’ aspirations remain unflinching – justice for all the victims of dictatorship, be it under Marcos or Duterte. With the same might they had faced the brutality of Marcosian dictatorship, Bikokanos of the current times have been strongly and uncompromisingly combatting Duterte’s tyranny. They are doing everything they can to foil leeches like Bongbong and Sara from being seated in power.
NDF-Bikol believes that, once more, the Bikolanos will be able to display their resolve and steadfast struggle. The victories that the masses have won in the past in ousting dictators like Marcos must inspire and challenge the people to overthrow Duterte’s tyranny today. It is also imperative for them to escalate the level of struggle towards the advance of the people’s democratic revolution. Its triumph shall signal the complete demise of the violent and reactionary state that only serves the few and the inevitable annihilation of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism that holds the country in captivity.