Ex-detainees’ group Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) blasted former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani as a “gross injustice” and a “vicious rewriting of history.”
SELDA, composed of former political detainees during the Marcos dictatorship, stressed that Enrile should be remembered not as a hero but as one of the chief architects and administrators of martial law under Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
According to the group, Enrile oversaw the use of the police and armed forces as instruments of repression, resulting in widespread human rights violations.
Under his watch, up to 70,000 individuals were arrested without warrants, 35,000 tortured, more than 3,000 killed extrajudicially, and at least 700 forcibly disappeared.
“To his dying day, Enrile did not express a shred of remorse for these atrocities. Instead, he justified martial law, rationalized his role in Marcos’ 14-year authoritarian rule and maintained a conspicuous silence on the bureaucratic plunder that marked the martial law years and from which he benefited immensely,” SELDA said in its statement.
The group also recalled Enrile’s alleged involvement in the 1981 massacre of 45 men, women, and children in Sitio Sag-od, Las Navas, Northern Samar. The victims lived within the concession area of Enrile-owned San Jose Timber Corp. (SJTC).
SELDA said paramilitary forces serving as SJTC’s security guards attacked the villagers after a series of labor protests and accusations of supporting the New People’s Army.
“To SELDA, Enrile’s burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is less about his place of interment than about the attempt to distort history,” the group said. “He will merely be joining the pantheon of fake heroes at the Libingan, ranging from Marcos Sr. to Elpidio Quirino.”
“Enrile should not be hailed as a hero but relegated to the dustbins of history where he belongs,” SELDA concluded. (ZIA LUNA)
