Thread by @indiohistorian

Five years ago, I was on my desk in the NHCP as I tweeted this. I was angry & very close to bursting into tears. At first it was just a wreath at LNMB gate. Then military honors. Before lunchtime, it was confirmed that Marcos is being reinterred in LNMB. 1/

https://twitter.com/indiohistorian/status/799457930693070848

After office hours (5pm), I went w/ .@eufems to the EDSA People Power Monument. The crowd there surrounded the monument. But still all too few. It was rush hour. The traffic ignored the crowd around the monument. Some stared at us as if we’re a nuisance. 2/

I remember, we had our rushed placards raised, young people activists, with us. I remember feeling rage at the SC justices that gave Duterte the go signal to bury the dictator in LNMB. What now? What do we tell our children when we say “hero”? 3/

https://twitter.com/indiohistorian/status/1324564247964131328

I saw Hilda Narciso, Martial Law survivor, just standing there at the left side of the monument, blankly staring. The society, her gov, had ignored her pain. This was retraumatization. I approached her, asking her how she was. I hugged her. I doubt if she remembered me then. 4/

Out of protest at such an injustice, more than half of @NHCPOfficial’s Board of Commissioners and the NHCP Chairperson resigned. I have never been more proud of our historians for standing up for truth. 5/

https://twitter.com/cnnphilippines/status/803505088400474113?s=20

Looking back, I realized how tiring it was to feel rage all the time—that rage alone isn’t sustainable. We need to be smart about it, to spend our energies for the long haul. Let us prepare for the long battle ahead. 6/

The Marcoses will keep on looking over their shoulders. If Spanish dictator Francisco Franco could be exhumed from his grand mausoleum and moved to a low key grave in 2019 after a long legal battle, we can do the same. #Hukayin!