NPA rebels admit they bombed Marcos bust

The communist New People's Army (NPA) yesterday said it was responsible for blowing up the bust of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos on Saturday, adding they would try to blow "to pieces" the 30-metre monument that was built to uphold the former strongman's 20-year rule which ended in 1986.

"It is a grim reminder of the monstrous crimes that the Marcoses have committed against the people," said the NPA northern regional command called Chadli Molintas, in a statement.

"It is an abomination that had to be eliminated," the statement said, adding that there will be more attacks to totally destroy the edifice.

"The edifice, built for tourists, is a blight upon land that is the ancestral home of the Ibaloi people," the statement said, adding that the NPA will continue to fight for the right of the Ibaloi, an ethnic group in the north, which was displaced by the Marcos administration for the building of a monumental park for tourists.

The edifice, meant to edify Marcos even after his declaration of a martial law rule from 1972 to 1978, has been targeted by failed attacks since he was ousted by a people-backed military mutiny in 1986.

The NPA blamed the administrations of former president Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo in bulldozing the Marcos bust.

"We can do it," said the NPA a day after unidentified men blew to pieces a part of the bust before dawn of Sunday.

It now looks like a wrecked mass at the lower side of the Cordillera mountains, by the roadside that leads to his hometown in northern Batac, Ilocos Norte.

In 1980, the tourism department developed a sprawling five-hectare park under and beside the Marcos bust.

Not one of the elected presidents dared to touch the bust because Marcos remained a popular hero among his province and town mates.

"A former president said the eminence of the bust would die a natural death," said a source, adding this was the policy undertaken by those who were anti-Marcos who became leaders of the land after the strongman's ouster 16 years ago.

Leaders of the northern command said they were undermanned, that was why they failed to prevent the attack on the Marcos bust.