6 Martial Law 'martyrs, heroes' inducted to Bantayog ng mga Bayani wall

Six more individuals who opposed the Martial Law regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. were inducted to the Bantayog ng mga Bayani's Wall of Remembrance on Wednesday.

The inductees for this year's Annual Honoring of Martyrs and Heroes were Renato Ganchero, Alexander Gonzales, Valerio Nofuente, Evelyn Pacheco Mangulabnan, Ma. Luisa Posa Dominado, and Enrique Torres.

The induction coincided with the 159th birth anniversary of Filipino hero Andres Bonifacio.

The Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation Inc. also remembered four of its past honorees in a bid to inspire the present generation with stories of their heroism during the Martial Law period.

These special honorees were Rosaleo Romano, Zorro Aguilar, Jacobo Amatong, and Immanuel Obispo.

In his speech, former Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) commissioner Ruben Carranza recalled how he was detained for a few days in 1984 when he led a march against the Marcoses in Cebu.

He stressed that along with the pursuit for justice for human rights violations committed during Martial Law, he learned that accountability for corruption must also be sought with an equal vigor.

“[We] remember those we lost not simply because they were political activists, organizers, fighters in the underground, or even bystanders taken in the line of the dictatorship’s fire. We remember and honor them because they were people we loved, people we respected, people we gave birth to, people we married, people we lived with, people we cried for, searched for, waited for, took care of, buried, and today still miss,” Carranza said.

“We must seek justice for them because we love them. We must tell the truth about them because no one else might. But how do we know we can defeat the family that took our loved ones away? We know because we defeated the Marcoses once before, we made them flee in haste, and we made them hide in shame, and we know that we can surely defeat them again,” he added.  —KBK, GMA Integrated News