Activists deface Marcos memorial in Laoag City

BAGUIO CITY — Members of Kabataang Makabayan-Ilocos and Pambansang Katipunan ng Magbubukid-Ilocos have defaced a bust of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Ilocano Heroes Walk in Laoag City.

Under cover of darkness, activists poured red paint on a monument to Marcos. The bust was unveiled in December 2013 with those of eight other prominent Ilocanos at "Sirib" (Wise) Mile, the university belt in Laoag City.

Others commemorated on Sirib Mile are Juan Luna (1857—1899), General Antonio Luna (1866—1899), Gregorio Aglipay (1860—1940), General Artemio Ricarte (1866—1945), Teofilo  Yldefonso (1902—1945), Severino Montano (1915—1942), Anastacia Giron Tupas (1890—1972) and Josefa Llanes Escoda (1898—1945).

RELATED: Youth groups to Marcos: We haven't moved on

KM-Ilocos said the defacement was a response to Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos' claim on August 23, since refuted by youth groups, that millennials have moved on from Martial Law and that the rest of the country should too. 

The defacement "proves that the youth and the people will never forget how Marcos Sr. and his family plundered the nation, violated human rights like torture, illegal arrests, killings and how they abused power," Karlo Agbannuag, KM spokesman, said in a statement.

Agbannuag, likely an alias, also said in Filipino that Marcos has no right to be alongside memorials to heroes of the province and of the country.

Gov. Marcos, in a press conference on August 31, said her family apologizes "for those who were inadvertently pained" during the Marcos administration.
"But what I’ve heard is that there are calls for an apology tantamount on admission, which we would never do," she also said.

A government board has approved the claims for reparation of more than 11,000 victims of rights abuses during the Marcos administration. The payments were sourced from recovered ill-gotten wealth. 

Members of Kabataang Makabayan-Ilocos and Pambansang Katipunan ng Magbubukid-Ilocos have claimed responsibility for defacing a bust of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Ilocano Heroes Walk in Laoag City. | @ArtemioDumlao pic.twitter.com/FAvQ7uJiJX

— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) September 5, 2018

Gov. Marcos, the late president's eldest daughter who initiated the "Ilocano Heroes Walk", has yet to issue a statement on the incident.

On December 29, 2002, communist guerillas blew up the 99-foot concrete bust of the deposed dictator erected on a mountainside in Pugo, La Union overlooking Marcos Highway (Jose Aspiras Highway). 

The government put up the concrete bust in the early 1980s. It fell into neglect after Marcos was ousted from power in 1986.