- Another anti-Bongbong Marcos group is launched in Cebu
- The group, composed mainly of youth and student activists, calls itself the Anti-Bongbong Coalition (ABC)
- It is the second group with the same objective to be launched this month
CEBU, Philippines – A new group of martial law victims has been launched to block Senator Bongbong Marcos’ vice presidential bid; the second anti-Marcos group to be launched this month as election campaign goes full throttle for the May election candidates.
Calling itself the Anti-Bongbong Coalition (ABC), the group was formed by at least 15 members of civic, youth and student organizations; mostly coming from University of the Philippines (UP)- Cebu and Unversity of San Carlos,
The group’s launching on Friday, February 26, was attended by about 70 representatives from different militant groups like Akbayan, Kabataan Partylist, Partido Manggagawa, Sanlakas, , Selda, and Student Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (STAND) Alumni, among others.
Senator Francis ‘Kiko’ Pangilinan, who is supporting the group, was one of the guest speakers at the assembly, but he left early due to prior commitments in Manila. His speech was read by a representative.
“People paid for their lives for those freedoms, and we cannot dishonor their memories by saying Martial Law was a good thing. It was not,” read part of his statement.
Pangilinan is running for senator in the coming national election under the administration’s Liberal Party (LP) ticket.
Unrepentant son
ABC was formed following reports of Marcos’ sudden resurgence in pre-election polls.
The Ilocano senator is currently in second place in the latest Pulse Asia survey, but is now within striking distance of frontrunner Senator Francis Escudero. In the Social Weather Station (SWS) survey last week, Marcos is already ‘statistically tied’ with Escudero on top.
The group said they initiated the anti-Marcos campaign in school by disseminating information on alleged abuses of martial law and the Marcos regime.
“For so long, we who struggled to end the Marcos dictatorship faded into the background. But today, the anti-Marcos forces have awakened,” a statement from ABC said.
The members also signed a manifesto vowing to prevent the return of the late dictator’s ‘unrepentant son’ to Malacañang.
“We lament that 30 years after Edsa, the democracy we won remains flawed. But moving on should not mean allowing dictatorship to crawl out zombie-like from the grave. Moving on means struggling to make democracy stronger,” the manifesto read.
Early this month, a group called Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang or CARMMA was also launched with the same objective.
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