CARMMA slams Duterte, Marcos bids for the 2022 elections
KARAPATAN Public Information
Press Release
11 September 2021
Reference: Judy Taguiwalo, CARMMA Convenor, 09167829666
CARMMA slams Duterte, Marcos bids for the 2022 elections
“#NoDuterteMarcos2020” - the call and hashtag was sounded off by the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA), on September 11, birthday of the deceased dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and days after President Rodrigo Duterte accepted the nomination of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan for a vice presidential run in the May 2022 national elections.
“For the past few months, we have seen the visible machinations of the Marcoses and the Dutertes, along with their rah-rah men gearing for their perpetuation in power through bids in the 2022 national elections. This tandem will have disastrous impacts on our democracy and our quality of life as Filipinos, considering their bloody, corrupt, and anti-people records,” said CARMMA Convenor Prof. Judy Taguiwalo in an online press conference.
“Our collective national history clearly remembers - the Marcoses and cronies plundered our nation's coffers, abducted and killed more than a hundred thousand Filipinos, left our debt-ridden economy in shambles and Filipinos in poverty. No less a tyrant is Duterte and kin who, five years since ascent into power, has cornered government contracts with impunity, killed thousands in a purported "anti-drug war", and has persecuted the opposition, media and dissenters. There are stark parallelisms in both administrations of their despicable kind of politics and governance,” she added.
Taguiwalo was joined in the online event by former Representatives Neri Colmenares and Erin Tanada, film directors and freedom of expression advocates Joel Lamangan and Bonifacio Ilagan, former ARMM Vice Governor Haroun Alrashid Alonto Lucman, Mother Mary John Mananzan, OSB, journalist and poet Kris Lanot Lacaba, indigenous people’s leader Joanna Carino, and youth leaders Heather Andres and Cheska Persia.
“The current machinations of Duterte and Marcos geared towards running for national elective posts in next year's elections are an affront to our collective national history. We are a people who have suffered under a despot who, with his family and cronies, plundered our nation's coffers, raped our natural resources and dragged the people into poverty. This is Marcos' legacy. And Duterte - a showman and braggart - is following this Marcos legacy with impudence,” Taguiwalo said.
CARMMA called for nationwide protest actions on September 21, 49 years after the imposition of Marcos’ martial law, as it also enjoined the public to be vigilant as the filing of certificates of candidacies start on October 1.
“We will never accept a repeat of such regimes, which will be made worse with a Duterte-Marcos tandem in the 2022 elections. We call on all freedom-loving Filipinos to vigorously reject, campaign and vote against them and to continue to demand accountability from them,” Taguiwalo concluded.
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