Author Luz Maranan said it was important to highlight Dulag’s story as his life embodied not just the fight of the Cordillera people but what it meant to be a hero nowadays, for having defeated a dictator and a destructive project like the Chico Dam.
“It is part of the government’s acts of historical revisionism or distorting and erasing the true history of the people’s resistance and heroism which remain relevant until today.”
Like the Bantayog ng mga Bayani memorial in Quezon City, dedicated to a wide segment of Martial Law martyrs from community leaders such as Dulag to fighters of the New People’s Army in resisting the Marcos dictatorship, or the 1933 Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan honoring revolutionary heroes of the Katipunan who fought for independence from Spanish rule, the Anti-Chico Dam Struggle monument represents a step foward in committing our histories of resistance to public memory in more permanent form. To demolish it would be a grave disrespect of cultural and social history at the very least.
“We are very grateful to these three because we’re able to defend our land despite Martial Law due to their example and sacrifice.”
“Life! If life is threatened, what should we do? Resist! This we must do, otherwise, we are dishonored and that is worse than death. If we do not fight, we die anyway. If we fight, we die honorably…and our children may win and keep this land. And the land shall become even more precious when…