The Department of Education executives who want to rewrite Philippine history by removing the darkest days of the dictatorship from the annals of our struggles as a nation and as a people were not yet born on September 21, 1972.Their vain and desperate efforts to deodorize the stinks and stench of dictatorship shall meet vigorous objections from Baby Boomers like me who were eyewitnesses and victims of the regime. I spent time in detention. I have the right to tell the truth.
I was 22-year-old student leader of the biggest student body in Cebu City. I was a sophomore in the college of law as a working student. I witnessed the truths as they unfold before my eyes. Claiming that the declaration of Martial Rule was the last line of defense against the rising disorder by violent student demonstrations, the concerted actions staged by labor, urban poor, peasants and even the Church, President Ferdinand E. Marcos alleged that he was saving the Republic from being placed under the control and domination of alien power. He placed the whole nation under Martial Law and declared that he would govern the nation in his capacity as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
By that Proclamation 1081 and many Letters of Instructions and Presidential Decrees, Marcos ordered the abolition of both the Senate and the House of Representatives and therefore removed the duly constituted authority where the representatives. He closed all media organizations, print, broadcast and even monitored the private correspondence of suspected enemies of the powers-that-be. He ordered the arrest of senators Ninoy Aquino, Jose W Diokno, Francisco Rodrigo. Even his former vice president Fernando Lopez who had a falling out with the Marcoses and who resigned from the Cabinet and accused Marcos of corruption was to be arrested. But Lopez was abroad. Senator Serging Osmeña was also to be arrested but he was in the US. So, in their stead, Serging's son, Serge and Lopez's nephew Genny were the ones arrested.
Many journalists who were critical of Marcos were also arrested: Amando Doronilla of Daily Mirror, Luis Mauricio of Philippine Graphic, Teodoro Locsin Sr. of the Philippine Free Press, Rolando Fadul of Taliba, Robert Ordonez of Philippine Herald, Rosalinda Galang of The Manila Times, Ernesto Granada of the Manila Chronicle (owned by the Lopezes), Maximo Soliven of the Manila Times and Luis Beltran and Ruben Casipag if the Evening News. Also arrested was Cebuano associate editor of the Philippine Free Press, Napoleon G. Rama (uncle of Mayor Mike Rama and former delegate to both the 1972 and 1987 Constitutional Convention). Rama and Velez were outspoken delegates of the 1972 Convention, They were arrested together with fellow delegates Heherson Alvarez, Voltaire Garcia, Teofisto Guingona Jr. and Alejandro Lichauco,
Also arrested were Etta Rosalaes of UP, along with Flora Lansang and Professor Haidee Yorac. Student leaders were arrested whether they were considered "radical" or "moderate." I have the honor to be among them. To have been arrested, detained and held captive without any formal charges was a mark of honor for me. I was an organizer of basic Christian Communities among the poor peasants and an organizer in the urban poor settlements, starting with my own squatters' community on B. Rodriguez Street, Cebu City. I was president of the BRUPA or B. Rodriguez United Peoples' Association and I founded a youth movement called BIDLISIW and its affiliate SILAW. I was the president of the UV Supreme Student Council, the biggest in Cebu and one of the most active. When I took the Bar, they objected but some good people like Governor Eddie Gullas vouched for me, that I was never a communist.
Thousands have died and others were never found. The relatives, after 50 years, are still hoping, praying and grieving. We can never fully write about all the tragedies, the atrocities and the injustices. But we strongly object to the Dep-Ed's and other revisionists' concerted effort to deodorize the bloody pages of Philippine history. There is no word that can ever fully essay and portray the pains, the anguish and the sufferings of the victims of Martial law. Even my own children and grandchildren cannot fully comprehend the full extent of the many despicable abuses of the powerful against the poor and powerless.
Only God knows the full story. And neither Dep-Ed nor any other revisionist can ever delete the darkest days of our struggles as an oppressed people.