No Marcos admin order to stop construction of Martial Law museum - HRVVMC

There are no orders from the Malacanang to stop the construction of the Freedom Memorial Museum amid the delays, the Human Rights Violations Victims Memorial Commission (HRVVMC) said on Wednesday.

Carmelo Crisanto, HRVVMC executive director, said the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been supportive of the project through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

“The Palace expresses its support through the DBM and I am here to say that during the administration of President Bongbong Marcos we have never received any instruction to stop what we’re doing,” Crisanto said in response to a question from Senator Jinggoy Estrada who asked about the status of the museum during a budget hearing at the Senate.

“In fact under this administration, we have always been supported by DBM in the provision of our trust receipts and increases actually in our (Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses) and (General Appropriations Act),” the HRVVMC official said.

But Crisanto said that he has never talked to Marcos, only with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.

“On last April of this year, when I met him at the Palace, Executive Secretary Bersamin asked me, ‘Hindi ba dapat tapos na yang museum na ‘yan two years ago? What’s delaying you?’,” said Crisanto.

The University of the Philippines and HRVVMC earlier agreed to sign the deed of transfer of the new UP Diliman campus maintenance offices and workshops, funded by the latter, on September 27, 2024.

The non-signing of the turnover documents has stalled work on the museum.

The HRVVMC said the construction of the seven-storey museum can be finished in a year and a half. 

“If UP is able to move out quickly in about eight months, from the time they move out for me to demolish all of their buildings, we would be able to finish construction of the museum in 18 months,” said Crisanto.

Republic Act No. 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act, provides for the construction of the Freedom Memorial Museum in honor of the victims of the human rights violations during the martial rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. from 1972 to 1986. 

The HRVVMC is an attached agency to Commission on Human Rights. —RF, GMA Integrated News