GABRIELA USA Rejects the Inauguration of Marcos, Jr.

GABRIELA USA Press Release

GABRIELA USA joins Filipino women across the country in protest to reject the inauguration of both Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte. Marcos Jr. took over the Presidential office in the Philippines after one of the most fraudulent elections in recent Philippine history. The return of the Marcos dynasty to power comes as a result of their decades long campaign of historical revisionism and whitewashing of their plunder and crimes against the Filipino people. GABRIELA USA calls on all freedom and democracy loving people to join local protest actions to reject the inauguration of the illegitimate Marcos-Duterte regime.

“Marcos Jr.’s inaugural speech was full of empty promises for the Filipino people,” said Terrie Cervas, Secretary General of GABRIELA USA. “As an overseas chapter of GABRIELA, established in 1984 during the time of Martial Law and Marcos, Sr.’s dictatorial rule over the Philippines, we will never forget the plunder of the nation’s wealth and human rights violations committed by the Marcoses. We will not stand idle to the continued revision of history spewed by the Marcoses, but we will continue the fight for national democracy and genuine liberation of the Philippines.”

The Filipino people can expect that Marcos Jr. will follow in the footsteps of his dictator father. According to data from Amnesty International, 72,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed under Marcos Sr.’s Martial Law. Just like his father, Marcos Jr. plans to continue to terrorize the Filipino people, as he committed to ensuring additional funding for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)–the government agencies responsible for terror tagging and carrying out counterinsurgency operations against the people.

One week ago the National Telecommunications Commission blocked the websites of various alternative media and people’s organizations, and just yesterday news website Rappler was ordered to shut down. The current attacks on press freedom repeat the same tactics that Marcos Jr.’s father used during Martial Law. Through various means, the mass media is prevented from performing their work of reporting the truth. Marcos’ officials drown out and shut down mass media, while amplifying their own government backed media and social media trolls, who spread lies about the supposed achievements of the Marcos dynasty, while covering up their crimes against the Filipino people.

Just as Filipino women participated in the people’s struggle against Marcos Sr.’s Martial Law, so will we continue the struggle in the face of the new Marcos-Duterte regime. We have faced down a dictatorial regime in the past and persevered until its defeat. We will take our lessons from all those who struggled against dictatorship and fascism in the Philippines and we will carry the torch forward to victory!

Reject and Fight the Marcos-Duterte Regime!

Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!

Abante Babae! Palaban Militante!

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