Sign EO making military files from Martial Law public, Bantayog ng mga Bayani urges PNoy

              

The Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation is asking President Benigno Aquino III to sign an executive order for the Department of National Defense to turn over military files during Martial Law to the national archives, making these available to the public.

Foundation trustee Meth Jimenez made the plea during the memorial service for the late Senator Jovito Salonga on Thursday at the Bantayog Center in Quezon City.

Salonga had fought the Marcos dictatorship and protested the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani since the 1990s.

“It’s very important that (Aquino) signs it before he steps down to secure the files of the military on Martial Law. ‘Pag nawala ‘yun, wala kang ebidensya (If these are gone, you have no evidence),” Jimenez told InterAksyon.com in an interview.

Aquino has a week left in his term.

The proposed executive order, meanwhile, is related to Republic Act 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013. The military files should be turned over to the national archives so that the government could validate whether those who filed their claims were indeed victims of human right abuses during the Marcos regime, Jimenez said.

“The executive order will help a lot in trying to construct the history, what really happened during Martial Law. It contains the proclamations, the general orders, the ASO (arrest and seizure orders), the arrests, the raids,” she explained.

By turning over the military files to the national archives, these will be digitized and made public. Although some may be confidential, this was “negotiable” with the national archives, Jimenez added.

For four years she worked on the documentation of Martial Law with the Commission on Human Rights, as well as proposals for Martial Law memorials.

She recommended that the military files be turned over to the CHR, as it is heading the memorial and reparation work.

For his part, CHR chairman Chito Gascon, who attended the Salonga tribute, said the agency would soon call for proposals for Martial Law memorials from the public. He said they envision a number of memorials around the country, as various provinces from the Cordillera to Mindanao suffered the brutality of the dictatorship.

Fuente:http://interaksyon.com/article/129489/sign-eo-making-military-files-from-martial-law-public-bantayog-ng-mga-bayani-urges-pnoy