📷ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro
FOR people who have personal recollection of abuses committed under Martial Law years, an order requiring everyone to sing a hymn other than the national anthem makes them wonder if President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is headed towards the same direction with that of his father.
According to ACT Teachers partylist Rep. France Castro, Memorandum Circular 52 requiring all heads of national government agencies, state universities and colleges to include the Bagong Pilipinas Hymn and Pledge part of the regular Monday flag-raising, is no more than a propaganda.
For Castro, the Bagong Pilipinas Hymn and Pledge is basically meant to “deodorize and praise the administration,” even as she claimed that such an idea is just an adapted version of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s Bagong Lipunan gimmick.
“It is yet another way to deodorize the Marcos name brand and revise history,” the militant congresswoman who forms part of the Makabayan bloc said.
She added that the memorandum, signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, also reminds the people born during the fifties, sixties and seventies of the nightmare of dictatorship which she described as the darkest moments of the Philippines as a democratic nation.
“Is Pres. Marcos Jr. again imitating his dictator father and bringing back martial rule? His order is reminiscent of Marcos Sr.’s directive then for people to sing praises to the Bagong Lipunan,” a seemingly sarcastic lady solon averred.
The militant legislator then went on to ask Marcos Jr. to recall the memorandum, work instead on providing jobs, ensuring decent wages, addressing food inflation, among others.
“Sa halip na ganitong mga gimik ang ginagawa, dapat sana ay mas inilalaan ng administrasyong Marcos ang oras nito para pag-isipan at aksyunan, paano solusyunan ang mga problema ng mamamayan gaya ng pagtaas ng sahod, pagpapababa ng presyo ng mga bilihin, pagtulong sa mga driver at operator na huwag mawalan ng hanapbuhay, at paglikha ng mga kalidad at regular na trabaho sa bansa,” Castro noted.
It is also best, she added “to stick with the Lupang Hinirang and Panatang Makabayan.” (ANGEL F. JOSE)
