More than just “Never Again” nor “Never Forget”.
“Struggle! Rage against the dying of the light!”
It is true that president Ferdinand Marcos jr. is no different from his late father. For as he justified the latter’s actions during his 21 year rule including that of its atrocities, this seems to be whitewashing the blood-soiled realities by equating Martial Law with “development”- in which apologists takes pride of it.
With that would say that the regime is trying to “restore” the way once was- and this is more than just a thermidor as first observed in this post-EDSA setting: that with Sara Duterte as vice president, and promising to continue the programs and policies of his predecessor, the country’s future under Bongbong seems uncertain let alone to hear words like “moving on”, “development”, and others.
And in speaking of “moving on” and “development”, will people move on while feeling the same effects of 1972? Books are being banned, media outlets are being censored or shut down, activists and concerned folks being harassed or arrested, communities are militarised, ‘projects’ being tainted with corruption or undertaken without consultation from the very people affected by such ‘aggression’, these and more would say will people simply “move on” from a bloodied and oppressive past?
Regardless of denials or justifications brought by its apologists, the social, economic, and political basis for a dictatorship remains. The crisis such as poverty, landlessness, corruption, injustice, remains basis for a growing need for resistance no matter how agencies like the NTFELCAC to that of a social media apologist will try or downplay such basis as just “acts of terror”. For sure these apologists reminds of Hitler or Mussolini’s populism that end rallied by the well-offs, the “oligarchs” who claimed to be as “nationalist” as that of the commoners- for they’re scared of a growing people’s tremor against them!
But don’t lose hope as one may say. For the pushback against attempts to restore that “was” remains strong. For as people becoming concerned after seeking truth from facts, it is not surprising that the revolt of the poor continues- and this becomes more than just “Never Again” nor “Never Forget”, but instead “Struggle”, “Rage against the dying of the light”. For it is not enough to remember the sacrifices brought by those who fought and died, but also to relieve the action, not just in upholding freedom and democracy alone but to assert justice, peace, and solidarity as a fighting nation.