Baclaran Day for Justice:

Catholic congregations offer novena-masses

for victims of political killings under Arroyo

Sept. 20, 2006

"Let there be justice and indemnification for the victims of Marcos' Martial Law. Let there be justice and indemnification as well for the victims of the current undeclared, but equally brutal Martial Law of the Arroyo administration."

This was the call of Catholic congregations that led the offering of Holy Masses today in honor of the country's martyrs under past and present politcal repressive regimes.

- From the Press Release of the Baclaran Day for Justice Committee

The Justice and Peace Desks/Commissions of the Redemptorist Fathers, Religious of the Good Shepherd Sisters, Benedictine Sisters, Augustinian Sisters, Missionary Sisters of Mary, Carmelite Fathers, Order of St. Camillus, Order of Friars Minor and Missionaries of the Sacred Heart invited the relatives of the victims and the public to a Concelebrated Mass at the Baclaran Church for the victims of the Marcos dictatorship and ‘undeclared Martial Law’ under Arroyo.

They call it the "Libingan ng mga Martir" where church goers would take a look at the images and names of victims of extra-judicial killings under the Arrroyo regime, now totalling 752. A medium-sized town cemetery could easily be filled up by the sheer numbers of victims of these extrajudicail killings.

Press Release:

 Baclaran Day

for Justice

Visitors to the "Libingan ng mga Martir" sign the petition to stop the killings. Then they take a close look at the images and notes.  No amount of press releases from Malacanang and the AFP could erase the impact of having viewed first hand the photos of the victims and notes on their backgrounds.

IF WE FORGET THEM
Alexander Martin Remollino

If we forget the ones who were felled in the night,
we consent to our own demise.
They courted death that others may really live,
that others may really live.
Let us not consent to the slow and painful deaths
that are being offered to us.
Let not time erase their names printed,
printed on the pages of the mind.
For each one felled let us rise in our multitudes
and fight, fight till we cease to be
a nation breathing, but not living.