August was the month to remember and honor our nation’s heroes. It was National Heroes’ Day on Aug. 26, the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of Ninoy Aquino on Aug. 21, and Aug. 1 was the 4th death anniversary of Corazon Aquino.
September is the month to remember and to never forget one of the darkest periods in Philippine history. This is the month to remember all the hardships and horrors of the Marcos martial law regime. When Ferdinand Marcos became president in 1965, the Philippines was the second richest country in Asia, next only to Japan. By the time People Power forced him to step down in February 1986, the Philippines was economically, politically and morally the Sick Man of Asia.
Sept. 11 is the birth date of Marcos and Sept. 21 is the day martial law was proclaimed in the Philippines.
But today, more than 40 years later, many Filipinos, especially the younger generation, have begun to forget the nightmare that the nation endured all those years. There are even those, especially the Marcos family, who are trying to rewrite Philippine history.
They have never apologized or even expressed any hint of sorrow for all the injustices and hardships inflicted during the martial law era. Unfortunately, certain beneficiaries of the Marcos regime have managed to retain their wealth and have used it to regain political power in this democracy that they tried so hard to kill.
The Filipino people, especially the youth, need to be reminded and taught that never again must we ever allow a Marcos rule to be restored. This month – September – we need to be reminded so we can ask the next generation to stop listening to the “siren song†of these false prophets who are trying to rewrite our nation’s history.
In November 1981, Amnesty International already released a report stating that in the first three years of martial law over 50,000 people were arrested without charge or trial. In 1975, an Amnesty International mission found that 71 of the 107 prisoners they were able to interview had been tortured. The torture most often occurred during interrogation after arrest when detainees were commonly held incommunicado, often in secret holding centers known as “safehouses.â€
Among those arrested were senators — Aquino, Diokno, Mitra, Salonga, Rodrigo — congressmen, constitutional convention delegates, and other opposition figures. Other independent figures were also arrested like Chino Roces, then publisher of the biggest and most independent publication and Geny Lopez of the ABS-CBN media group. There were student leaders, labor activists, civil society organizers and other innocent victims.
But this figure of 50,000 did not include the “desaparecidos†or those who simply “disappeared.†We will never know how many thousands suffered this fate of being killed or tortured in some lonely site away from any assistance that their families, friends or even just religious groups could provide.
There were many evils in Philippine society that saw their roots during martial law and are still haunting our nation today. One of them is the introduction of systemic and endemic corruption in the government bureaucracy. Another was the perversion of business practices we now know as crony capitalism.
But one of the worst seeds of social destruction planted in those martial law years was the instigation of the Bangsamoro rebellion which is still haunting the country until now.
One of the reasons Marcos gave for imposing martial law was the supposed existence of armed conflict between the Muslims and Christians. There was supposedly a Muslim secessionist movement in Southern Philippines. However, during that period sectarian violence was already declining.
The principal Muslim groups at that time were above ground political groups like the MIM and Nurul Islam. At that time, there had been no public pronouncements or major activities by either organization for almost a year.
However, the imposition of martial law caused a ban on all political parties. This caused the dissolution of the aboveground Muslim groups like the MIM and Nur Islam. This led to the activation of the underground Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). At that time the MNLF was a loosely organized group. Most of its leaders were also operating from abroad.
One month after the declaration of martial law, the MNLF began having sporadic uprisings. According to an Amnesty report, the Marcos government did not expect extreme opposition in the Muslim areas in Mindanao and militarized these areas by beefing up the Armed Forces.
Three weeks after the declaration of martial law, Marcos announced he was prepared to commit an entire division of troops to the South to “annihilate†all outlaws and set a deadline of October 25 for their surrender. A week after the deadline, fighting began between government troops and Muslim rebels in Cotabato. Central and Southwestern Mindanao became battlegrounds.
In the same Amnesty International Report, it stated that whole communities were subjected to bombings, strafing, forced mass evacuations and food blockades. Arrests, tortures, detentions, summary executions, massacres and other forms of human rights abuses became rampant.
The town of Jolo, Sulu was bombed and subjected to artillery fire. It was razed in 1973. Open warfare left 50,000 people killed. By 1977, even the Marcos government had estimated that a million civilians were displaced and an additional 200,000 refugees had fled to Sabah.
Let us never forget that that the Muslim insurgency was not the cause of martial law but simply one of the excuses that Marcos abused. Martial law was the proximate cause of the present Muslim insurgency.
Hopefully today, the fires ignited in Mindanao by Martial Law may finally find a peaceful settlement.
More importantly, we should learn from history that allowing blatant abuses of power results in deep, lasting repercussions and consequences that will continue to affect future generations long after we are gone.
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Email: elfrencruz@gmail.com