On the Destruction of the Marcos Bust

Martin Montana
Chadli Molintas Command
New People's Army
Ilocos-Cordillera Region
December 29, 2002

The Marcos bust in Taloy Sur, Tuba, Benguet is a monument to a dictator's absolute arrogance and egotism. It has been inflicted on the Filipino people 29 years ago. It is a blight upon a land that is the ancestral home of the Ibaloy people. It is a grim reminder of the monstrous crimes that the Marcoses have committed against the people. It is an abomination that had to be eliminated.

It should have been destroyed when Marcos was ousted by People Power in 1986. But the Cory Aquino regime lacked the political will to topple it, much less, to indict the mastermind behind the assassination of her husband and countless other victims of the conjugal dictatorship. Instead, it took a perverse policy of accommodation and connivance with the Marcoses and their cronies. Ramos, Estrada, and Macapagal-Arroyo carried out the same policy, hoping to take over the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses. The continued presence of the Marcos bust is a mockery of justice and a betrayal of the will of the people. The return of the Marcoses to power is a sacrilege against the memory of countless martyrs who fought and died for national freedom and democracy during the dark days of martial law.

The Filipino people have had enough of the continuing Marcos myth -- their pompous impersonation of Malakas and Maganda, their ludicrous pretensions to royalty, his fake war medals, his macabre frozen corpse, Imelda's megalomaniacal confessions, her hypocritical tears of innocence, the distortions in history books glorifying the Marcoses -- all these fakery must be debunked and eradicated.

The damaging of the Marcos bust by the CPP-NPA is but an initial and symbolic step. Let the ruins be an ugly reminder that the Marcoses have yet to pay for their crimes. Let the ruins remind us that the root problems of US imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism that plague the people have yet to be uprooted. People Power can overthrow corrupt and despicable regimes, but only a People's War can totally destroy and sweep away the filth and injustice from the land. For as long as the same old system is intact, any change in presidency is merely cosmetic.

Toppling the Marcos bust is a formidable task. So is the revolutionary task of transforming society towards genuine national freedom and people's democracy. But even "strong republics" will inevitably fall, built on feet of clay, rooted in injustice, oppression, and exploitation. Nothing can withstand the power of the people and the revolution.

May the season be filled with revolutionary fervor and hope for all freedom-loving Filipinos!###

[Download PDF]

Back to top