Forty years is a long time to hold on to memories. Among Filipinos, a generation has reached adulthood with no personal memories of living with basic rights curtailed. And yet the story of martial law bears constant retelling, as a reminder of what happens when the lust for power is allowed to go unchecked.
The story of martial law also needs to be retold, 40 years after the official date of its declaration, because the abuses of the dictatorship have not been eradicated. To this day, the Philippines remains in a list of nearly 90 countries where cases of enforced disappearances have been recorded in recent years and remain unsolved.
Human rights abuses, although no longer systematic as in the martial law regime, continue to be attributed to state forces by victims or their relatives. Retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, dubbed “The Butcher” by rights advocates and wanted for the torture and disappearances of two University of the Philippines coeds, is believed to be enjoying the protection of certain military elements.
The restoration of democracy did not put an end to the use of torture as a tool of law enforcement and counterinsurgency. Filipinos sick of lawlessness have also shown readiness to look away when the military and police employ extrajudicial methods against terrorism and rampant criminality.
Forty years after martial law was imposed, too few people have paid for the atrocities and large-scale corruption during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. His heirs are enjoying their wealth and are again wielding political power. His biggest cronies remain among the country’s richest and most influential individuals. The architects of martial law breezed back into politics and continue to influence policy-making.
Corruption - whether large-scale or penny ante - did not go away with the collapse of the Marcos regime. The problem was serious enough for Filipinos to send to Malacañang in 2010 the candidate whose battle cry was “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”
The lust for power - the desire to hang on to it for life - persists in certain individuals. Only eternal vigilance can stop them. And vigilance starts with remembering. Even after 40 years.