MANILA, Philippines — Professional-democracy protesters marked the anniversary on Saturday of the 1986 army-backed “folks energy” revolt within the Philippines with the son of the dictator, who was ousted in that rebellion, now the president in a shocking comeback.

About 1,400 demonstrators, some waving Philippine flags and holding placards that learn “Always remember,” gathered at a democracy shrine alongside the principle EDSA freeway within the Manila metropolis. An equal variety of left-wing activists, carrying an effigy that depicted Marcos Jr. as a pest, protested individually at a close-by pro-democracy monument.

Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos converged in February 1986 on the often traffic-choked thoroughfare to defend prime navy and protection officers who defected from the administration of then-President Ferdinand Marcos and braced for battle in two adjoining camps. The ailing president, who imposed martial rule from 1972 to 1981, was pushed together with his household and cronies into U.S. exile, the place he died three years later.

The rebellion awed the world and have become a harbinger of change in authoritarian regimes. However within the practically 4 a long time for the reason that rebellion, poverty, landlessness, stark inequality between the wealthy and poor, and injustices have remained deeply entrenched and shrouded the practically cold revolt’s legacy.

The Marcoses returned to the Philippines in 1991 and steadily rose again to political energy regardless of the plunder and widespread human rights atrocities that compelled the household patriarch from energy to world infamy.

In Could final 12 months, Marcos’s son and namesake received the presidential race in a landslide victory in one in all historical past’s most dramatic political comebacks.

“It’s mind-blowing in a single sense, isn’t it? How did this occur? You keep in mind those that sacrificed their lives and you are feeling so unhappy for many who have been tortured, those that misplaced family members,” Judy Taguiwalo, a longtime former political detainee and torture survivor beneath the dictatorship, advised The Related Press.

Now 73 and ailing, Taguiwalo mentioned her technology of activists who fought the dictatorship was slowly fading, and lots of have died, however she remained optimistic and defiant.

“There’s a brand new technology of fighters,” she mentioned. “Tyranny can return however there’s no endlessly in tyranny as long as we don’t cease resisting even when it’s an uphill battle or we get sidetracked by disinformation.”

Marcos Jr.’s supporters referred to as his large victory a political vindication however opponents mentioned he climbed again to the highest put up by means of well-funded social media propaganda that whitewashed the household historical past in a rustic considered one of many prime customers of the web and social media, together with Fb and TikTok.

He had steadfastly rejected calls by anti-Marcos teams for him to apologize for the atrocities and plunder beneath his father’s rule and mentioned in a TV interview on the presidential place in Manila in September that labeling his father a dictator was mistaken.

Confronted with the awkward scenario of issuing an announcement to mark the 1986 revolt that toppled his father, Marcos Jr. referred to as for reconciliation with none reference to the occasion as a democratic milestone as his predecessors did.

“I as soon as once more provide my hand of reconciliation to these with completely different political persuasions to return collectively as one in forging a greater society — one that can pursue progress and peace and a greater life for all Filipinos,” Marcos Jr. mentioned in a two-paragraph assertion he posted on Fb.

“As we glance again to a time in our historical past that divided the Filipino folks, I’m one with the nation in remembering these instances of tribulation and the way we got here out of them united and stronger as a nation,” he mentioned.

Renato Reyes of the left-wing alliance Bayan mentioned the president’s provide was a “good sound chunk however lacks sincerity and substance” given Marcos Jr.’s refusal to acknowledge abuses beneath his father’s rule.

The ousted president died in exile in Hawaii three years after being overthrown with out admitting any wrongdoing, together with accusations that he and his household amassed an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion whereas he was in energy.

A Hawaii courtroom later discovered him chargeable for human rights violations and awarded $2 billion from his property to compensate greater than 9,000 Filipinos who filed a lawsuit in opposition to him for torture, incarceration, extrajudicial killings and disappearances.