Bishops remember rights victims on martial law anniversary

MANILA, Philippines — Retired Catholic bishops Deogracias Iniguez Jr. of Kalookan and Antonio Tobias of Novaliches will hold a mass at the EDSA Shrine today for the 51st anniversary of the declaration of martial law by former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

“Never again! We remember in our prayers the victims of martial law. We also pray that this darkest period in our history may never be repeated!” the EDSA Shrine posted on Facebook.

The mass is scheduled for 12:15 p.m., according to church-run Radio Veritas.

Meanwhile, Liberal Party president Rep. Edcel Lagman said Filipinos’ memory of the darkest era in Philippine history “must be perpetuated to repel any attempt of repetition.”

“We celebrate anniversaries not only to commemorate past achievements but also to condemn past horrors,” he noted.

On Sept. 21, 1972, the incumbent president’s father signed Proclamation 1081, placing the country under martial law until it was nominally lifted on Jan. 17, 1981.

He was ousted in February 1986 during the people power or EDSA revolution.

The martial law era reportedly led to 3,257 extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, 77 forced disappearances and 70,000 incarcerations.

The EDSA Shrine was built in 1989 to commemorate the 1986 people power revolution. It was also the site for the 2001 EDSA revolution that ousted former president Joseph Estrada.

Noise barrage

The University of the Philippines will hold a noise barrage at noon today.

In a memorandum issued on Sept. 18, UP president Angelo Jimenez called on members of the UP System to participate in activities to remember the atrocities and suppression of freedom during martial law.

Jimenez encouraged everyone to honk their car horns and use any materials to make noise throughout the campus.

“This activity is intended to demonstrate that the University will continue to be a bulwark of academic freedom and human rights in the light of attempts at historical revisionism and red-tagging to suppress dissent,” he said. – Delon Porcalla, Neil Jayson Servallos