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Transitions are tricky to handle.

If only a few days after were merely a habit

in storytelling to render the plot more credible.

So that what came first could be understood

as requisite for another to occur. As such, horrifying stories are easier to make sense of. As when you’re told by a midlife woman of her story, who at nine witnessed her parents’ ordeal from a tight sack into which she was sealed, an inch of the straw weave she holed out to see how bodies she had known her young life could die grotesquely, slowly, apart from the real life she lived in, while suspended from a tree she had climbed, more times than she could count, its canopy the flourish of her childhood, her mother assured of the growing strength in her legs. Who could tell how days were to be different? As that day that began with the usual early sunrise for the meal that brought them around a table soon to be the site to their torment. The nearing raucous of men in search of those who sympathize with ideas sturdier than their guns filled the house and hours after, cluttered the implements of home.

By midday, stripped naked of her clothes, her mother had walked around in a circle of madness, forced to confess to a treason that in their daily hunger she barely understood, not an inch of her skin left unscathed. Her abdomen ripped open when they could no longer take hold of her flesh. Her blood streaming into unyielding fields. Her father fainted after hours of beating, a toe severed from too much pounding of a rifle butt. In between the wailing were bodies crossing a threshold.

The sun rose with her still in the air, a fruit too heavy of its own sap, a knowing she would have exchanged for anything to go back to those days when the hours faded without fear. When she didn’t have to say a few days after to tell the story of her life, when fleeting forgetfulness could be the only reprieve of years ahead. But such was to be the plot of her story as with those others she has soon come to learn, who had hung from a tree, impaled, or maimed.

Of too much pain, one survives by taking it in parts. So a few days after is easier on the tongue as it is on the mind. For how lives could be told as they unfold, ravaged before our eyes. They are the kindest words to stall what could pass off as history, chronicled now behind this lens to discern how darkness unhinges, in between the sun setting and rising, in between breathing, in the flesh ripping apart, in the minds losing what it could hold, numbed into what it could wake up to a few days after

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The Sunday edition of the Philippines Daily Express on September 24, 1972, was the only newspaper published after the announcement of martial law on September 23, the evening prior.

At 7:15 p.m. on September 23, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos announced on television that he had placed the Philippines under martial law, stating he had done so in response to the "communist threat" posed by the newly founded Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and the sectarian "rebellion" of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM). Opposition figures of the time (such as Lorenzo Tañada, Jose W. Diokno, and Jovito Salonga) accused Marcos of exaggerating these threats and using them as an excuse to consolidate power and extend his tenure beyond the two presidential terms allowed by the 1935 constitution. Marcos' signed Proclamation No. 1081 on September 21, 1972, marking the beginning of a fourteen-year period of one-man rule which effectively lasted until Marcos was exiled from the country on February 25, 1986. Proclamation No. 1081 was formally lifted on January 17, 1981, although Marcos retained essentially all of his powers as dictator until he was ousted in February 1986.

This nine-year period in Philippine history is remembered for the Marcos administration's record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. Based on the documentation of Amnesty International, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, and similar human rights monitoring entities, historians believe that the Marcos dictatorship was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, 737 "disappeared", and 70,000 incarcerations.[page needed ] After Marcos was ousted, government investigators discovered that the declaration of martial law had also allowed the Marcoses to hide secret stashes of unexplained wealth that various courts later determined to be "of criminal origin".

While Marcos' presidency began in late 1965, this article is limited to the period in which he exercised dictatorial powers under martial law and the period where he continued to wield those powers despite lifting the martial law proclamation in 1981.

Numerous explanations have been put forward as reasons for Marcos to declare martial law in September 1972, some of which were presented by the Marcos administration as official justifications, and some of which were dissenting perspectives put forward by either the mainstream political opposition or by analysts studying the political economy of the decision.

In his 1987 treatise, Dictatorship & Martial Law: Philippine Authoritarianism in 1972, University of the Philippines public administration professor Alex Brillantes Jr. identifies three reasons expressed by the Marcos administration, saying that martial law:

was a response to various leftist and rightist plots against the Marcos administration;

was just the consequence of political decay after American-style democracy failed to take root in Philippine society; and

was a reflection of Filipino society's history of authoritarianism and supposed need for iron-fisted leadership.

The first two justifications were explicitly stated in Proclamation 1081, which cited two explicit justifications: "to save the republic" (from various plots); and "to reform society" (after the failure of American-style democracy). The third rationalization arose from the administration's propaganda, which portrayed Marcos as a hypermasculine or ultranationalist figure able to compel the obedience of supposedly "spoiled" Filipinos.

Opposition to Marcos' declaration of martial law ran the whole gamut of Philippine society - ranging from impoverished peasants whom the administration tried to chase out of their homes; to the Philippines' political old-guard, whom Marcos had tried to displace from power; to academics and economists who disagreed with the specifics of Marcos' martial law policies. All of these, regardless of their social position or policy beliefs, subscribed to the interpretation that Marcos declared martial law:

as a strategy to enable Ferdinand Marcos to stay in power past the two Presidential terms allowed him under Philippine Constitution of 1935; and

as a technique for covering up the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos, his family, and his cronies.

In addition, some critics who ascribe an economic component to Marcos' motivations, suggesting that martial law:

was an acquiescence to the global market system, which required tight control of sociopolitical systems so that the country's resources could be exploited efficiently;

was a product of the infighting among the families that formed the upper socioeconomic class of Philippine society; and

was a connivance between the state powers and the upper-class families to keep the members of the country's lower classes from becoming too powerful.

Martial Law monument in Mehan Garden

Although Marcos initially claimed that he had declared martial law in response to violent acts that took place in 1971-72 - such as the Plaza Miranda bombing and the alleged assassination attempt on Defense Secretary Enrile - the groundwork for its implementation had been laid down much earlier. Marcos aide-turned whistleblower Primitivo Mijares noted that "The beginning infrastructure for martial law was actually laid down as early as the first day of his assumption of the Philippine presidency on December 30, 1965."

Most notably, by the time Marcos declared martial law in September 1972, he had:

assured the loyalty of state institutions - especially the Armed Forces - to himself;

appointed 8 out of 11 justices of the Philippines' Supreme Court;

gained the support of the Nixon administration; and

carefully crafted a public relations environment that ensured that the majority of Filipino citizens would at least initially accept martial law.

Marcos began increasing his influence over the armed forces of the Philippines as soon as he became president in 1965 by following President Ramon Magsaysay's precedent of concurrently hold the portfolio of defense secretary in the first thirteen months of his presidency. American defense analyst Donald Berlin notes that this gave Marcos an opportunity for direct interaction with the AFP's leaders, and a hand in the military's day-to-day operationalization. Singaporean author and political science professor Terence Lee notes that this had the effect of "develop[ing] a patronage system within the defense establishment." Professor Albert Celoza, in his 1997 book on the political economy of authoritarianism in the Philippines, notes that: "It was alleged that a plan of action had existed as early as 1965...no one opposed the plan because no one was certain that the plan would be carried out."

Marcos soon carried out the "largest reshuffle in the history of the armed forces" when he forcibly retired fourteen of the AFP's twenty-five flag officers, including the AFP Chief of Staff, the AFP Vice Chief of Staff, the commanding general of the Philippine Army, the Chief of the Philippine Constabulary, the commanders of all four Constabulary Zones, and one third of all Provincial Commanders of the PC.

In their place, Marcos appointed officers from his home region, the Ilocos, the most significant of whom had familial connections to Marcos - ensuring their familial and regionalistic loyalties to him. The practice was so pervasive that it quickly earned a moniker: "Ilocanization". The most important of these appointments included Juan Ponce Enrile as Secretary of Defense, and Fidel Ramos as Armed Forces Vice Chief of Staff, who were both related to Marcos; and Fabian Ver, Marcos' townmate from Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, as Armed Forces Chief of Staff.

In tandem with this "Ilocanization", generals loyal to Marcos were allowed to stay in their positions past their supposed retirement age, or were rewarded with civilian government posts. This led to a loss of morale among the middle-ranks of the AFP, because it meant a significant slowdown in promotions and caused many officers to retire with ranks much lower than they would otherwise have earned.

As a result, Security Affairs Professor Douglas J. Macdonald noted that "near the end of the dictatorship, the Military and the Intelligence organizations were badly polarized along generational lines, as they are today."

In June 1970, Marcos authorized the creation of civil militias called "Barangay Self Defense Units", which would be renamed the Civilian Home Defense Forces in 1977 through Presidential Decree 1016. At its inception, the CHDF numbered 73,000 men, and it earned a reputation as the perpetrators of the worst human rights violations during martial law.

The "Oplan Sagittarius" expose

When Marcos was ready to declare martial law, copies of the plan for its implementation were distributed to key officials within the Armed Forces. As a way of assuring that any whistleblowers would be easily accounted for, the copies of the plan were distributed with codeword titles taken from the signs of the Zodiac. The copy marked "Sagittarius" was given to General Marcos "Mark" Soliman who commanded the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency. Thus, when Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. exposed the existence of "Oplan Sagittarius" a week before martial law was declared, other generals were able to deny that they had heard of any operation under the said code title, and it was easy for Marcos to pinpoint Soliman as the whistleblower who gave the information to Aquino.

Not long after the declaration of martial law, the controlled press reported that Soliman had died of a heart attack, but his family believed that Marcos had ordered that he be killed. Marcos then dissolved the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) and put a powerful super-agency, the National Intelligence and Security Authority (NISA) in its place, with steadfast Marcos follower General Fabian Ver in command.

By 1971, Marcos had reached out to US Ambassador to the Philippines Henry Byroade, with the question of whether the United States, then under the administration of President Richard Nixon, would support him should he choose to proclaim Martial Law. Byroade brought the matter up with Nixon in a conversation in January 1971. According to the US National Archives' copy of the Memorandum of Conversation between Nixon and Byroade:

The president declared that we would "absolutely" back Marcos up, and "to the hilt" so long as what he was doing was to preserve the system against those who would destroy it in the name of liberty. The President indicated that... we would not support anyone who was trying to set himself up as military dictator, but we would do everything we can to back a man who was trying to make the system work and to preserve order. Of course, we understood that Marcos would not be entirely motivated by national interests, but this was something which we had come to expect from Asian leaders.

Marcos informed the US Ambassador to the Philippines about his intent to declare Martial Law plan as early as September 17, 1972, just a few days before Martial Law was announced on September 23, 1972.

After Nixon, the Ford and Reagan administrations were similarly supportive of Marcos. While the Carter administration expressed diplomatic concerns over the human rights abuses of the Marcos dictatorship, it could not totally withdraw its support from Marcos in light of US foreign policy's need to have the lease on the US Bases in the Philippines renewed by Marcos.

Of the various threats cited in the Proclamation 1081 document as rationalizations for declaration of Martial Law, the most extensively described was the threat supposedly posed by Communist insurgents - specifically the newly formed Communist Party of the Philippines, a Maoist organization which had only recently broken off from the Marxist-Leninist Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas.

The "Red Scare" in the Philippines and the Anti-Subversion Act

When Marcos became president in 1965, Philippine policy and politics functioned under a Post-World War II geopolitical framework. After gaining independence from the US after the war, the Philippines had retained strong economic, political and military ties to the United States, manifested in a Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), Military Assistance Agreement (MAA), a US Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG), and the physical presence of several Military Bases where the US Military could conduct " unhampered US military operations" for 99 years (later reduced to 50).

Filipino presidents were very politically dependent on American support, and this did not change until the end of the Cold War in 1989, and the termination of the 1947 US Military Bases Treaty, in 1992.

With its close ties to the US, the Philippines was ideologically caught up in the anticommunist scare perpetuated by the US during the Cold War. The government was not yet strongly-established, and it was "fearful of being swept away by [communism]'s rising tide", so in 1957, it passed Republic Act (RA) No. 1700, known as the "Anti-Subversion Act of 1957", which made mere membership in any communist party illegal. The Philippines would take three and a half decades to repeal it, through Republic Act 7636, in 1992.

RA No. 1700 was originally meant to counter the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and its armed force, the Hukbalahap (also called the "Huks"). The campaign against the PKP and the Huks was bloody, but it had basically ended by 1954. Throughout the 60s, the remnants of the PKP pursued "a course of peaceful action" while working to rebuild their organisation, but, this was later challenged by a youth-based Maoist group within the organization created by University Professor Jose Maria Sison, who joined the PKP in 1962. Clashing with the PKP party leaders' view that armed struggle was an exercise in futility, Sison and his group were expelled from the PKP in 1967, and on December 26, 1968 founded the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) along Maoist lines. While the PKP sought to marginalize this new group, it soon became the leading communist party in the Philippines.

When Marcos became president in 1965, the PKP was a weakened organization, and the Hukbalahap reduced to "what amounted to banditry." But Marcos immediately made noise about the supposed "communist threat" - drawing on images of the bloody Huk encounters of the 1950s, and courting the Johnson administration's political support in light of the U.S.' recent entry into the Vietnam war.

Marcos continued using communism as a bogeyman after 1968, as the PKP faded into obscurity and the nascent CPP became more prominent. The Armed Forces of the Philippines did likewise in 1969, when the CPP allied with Huk commander Bernabe Buscayno to create the nascent New People's Army. Although the CPP-NPA was only a small force at the time, the AFP hyped up its formation, partly because doing so was good for building up the AFP budget. As a result, notes security specialist Richard J. Kessler, "the AFP mythologized the group, investing it with a revolutionary aura that only attracted more supporters."

Even in the days immediately before Marcos' declaration of Martial Law on September 23, 1972, the Philippine National Security Council did not consider the two communist movements to represent a sizeable threat. At around that time, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations received notice that as of September 19, 1972, the Philippine Council had set their threat assessment at "between 'normal' and 'Internal Defense Condition 1'" on a scale where 3 was the highest Defense condition. In 1971, AFP Chief of Staff Manuel T. Yan had prominently told media that the grounds for Marcos to either impose of martial law or suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus did not exist. One of the generals serving under General Fabian Ver of the National Intelligence and Security Authority later recalled that "Even when Martial Law was declared, the communists were not a real threat. The military could handle them."

Despite historical consensus that the Marcos administration willfully exaggerated the capabilities and actions of the Communist Party of the Philippines, a few of the incidents cited by Marcos have been confirmed as genuine activities of the CPP. These included: the December 1970 raid on the Philippine Military Academy's armory by defecting army officer Victor Corpus; and the July 1972 MV Karagatan incident in which a secret arms shipment from China, meant for Communist Party forces, sank just off Digoyo Point in Palanan, Isabela.

Numerous other incidents cited by Marcos as rationalizations for his declaration of Martial Law have either been discredited or disputed, in light of Marcos' known tactic of undertaking false flag operations as a propaganda technique.

This includes: the August 1971 Plaza Miranda bombing; the 1972 Manila bombings from March to September of that year; and the alleged September 1972 ambush of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile.

The social unrest of 1969 to 1970, and the violent dispersal of the resulting " First Quarter Storm" protests were among the early watershed events in which large numbers of Filipino students of the 1970s were radicalized against the Marcos administration. Due to these dispersals, many students who had previously held "moderate" positions (i.e., calling for legislative reforms) became convinced that they had no choice but to call for more radical social change.

Other watershed events that would later radicalize many otherwise "moderate" opposition members include the February 1971 Diliman Commune; the August 1971 suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in the wake of the Plaza Miranda bombing; the September 1972 declaration of Martial Law; the 1980 murder of Macli-ing Dulag; and the August 1983 assassination of Ninoy Aquino.

This radicalization led to a significant growth of the Communist Party of the Philippines under the Marcos administration. Writer and peace advocate Gus Miclat cites the example of Mindanao: " There was not one NPA cadre in Mindanao in 1972. Yes, there were activists, there were some firebrands... but there were no armed rebels then except for those that eventually formed the Moro National Liberation Front. When Marcos fled in 1986, the NPA was virtually in all Mindanao provinces, enjoying even a tacit alliance with the MNLF."

Several conflicting accounts about exist regarding the exact date on which Marcos signed the physical Proclamation No. 1081 document, which placed the entirety of the Philippines under martial law.

"Whether they conflict or not, all accounts indicate that Marcos' obsession with numerology (particularly the number seven) necessitated that Proclamation No. 1081 be officially signed on a date that was divisible by seven. Thus, September 21, 1972 became the official date that martial law was established and the day that the Marcos dictatorship began. This also allowed Marcos to control history on his own terms."

Jose W. Diokno at the MCCCL rally

September 22, 1972, marked a brief period in which Proclamation No. 1081 was formally in place, but without the knowledge of the public. For most of the Philippines, therefore, martial law was thus properly implemented when it was announced on the evening of September 23, 1972.

Media outlets were shuttered, although those linked with Marcos crony Roberto Benedicto were allowed to reopen within the day. Soon after, Congress was abolished, mass activities were prohibited, political parties were outlawed, a curfew was put in place, and civil and political rights were suspended.

The first wave of arrests under Marcos' declaration of martial law began with the arrest of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. late in the evening of September 22, during a late meeting of the Joint Congressional Committee on Tariff Reforms at the Manila Hilton Hotel. Aquino was one of Marcos' most prominent critics, and had exposed the plan to proclaim martial law in a speech in the Philippine Senate the week before.

The arrest of others took place after midnight in the early morning hours of September 23. Martial law forces were sent out to arrest 400 individuals on their priority target list. By 1:00 am, Senator Jose W. Diokno had been arrested at his residence in Makati, as had poet-Senator Soc Rodrigo as of 2:00 a.m. that day. Vice President Fernando Lopez, who had resigned from his cabinet positions in the Marcos administration after accusing Marcos of corruption and power-grabbing, was on the priority list but was overseas at the time of the declaration. Sergio Osmeña Jr., who had run against Marcos in the contentious election of 1969, was also abroad at the time and was not caught. In their place, Lopez's nephew Eugenio Lopez Jr. and Osmeña's son Sergio Osmeña III were arrested in what international media described as an act of extortion designed to undermine their families' financial empires.

By the dawn of September 23, 100 of the 400 individuals on the list were in detention centers, with detainees including Senator Ramon Mitra, JRU history teacher Etta Rosales, University of the Philippines College of Social Work professor Flora Lansang, human rights lawyer Haydee Yorac, Manila Times publisher Chino Roces, and a plethora of journalists. Student leaders were arrested regardless of whether their organizations were "radical" or "moderate".

Newspaper editors arrested that night included Amando Doronila of the Daily Mirror, Luis Mauricio of the Philippine Graphic, Teodoro Locsin Sr. of the Philippine Free Press, and Rolando Fadul of the vernacular broadsheet Taliba. Also arrested were reporters Robert Ordoñez of the Philippine Herald, Rosalinda Galang of the Manila Times; columnists Ernesto Granada of the Manila Chronicle and Maximo Soliven of the Manila Times, and Luis Beltran and Ruben Cusipag of the Evening News.

Philippines Free Press associate editor Napoleon Rama and ABS-CBN broadcaster Jose Mari Velez also happened to be delegates to the 1971 Constitutional Convention, and were among the 11 outspoken convention delegates to be arrested. The others included Heherson Alvarez, Alejandro Lichuaco, Voltaire Garcia, and Teofisto Guingona Jr.

Marcos reacted with fear of deposition and immediately finalized Proclamation No. 1081, which declared nationwide martial law at 8:00 p.m. later that evening. One day before the proclamation, on September 22, 1972 at 8:00 p.m., Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile was told to exit his white Mercedes-Benz sedan near Wack-Wack village. Another vehicle carrying gunmen arrived and stopped near an electrical post, right beside Enrile's vehicle. They then alighted from their vehicle and began to fire at the large sedan of Enrile to give an impression of a terrorist ambush, setting the stage for Marcos's theatrical television announcement.

By the morning of September 23, 1972, martial law forces had successfully implemented a media lockdown, with only outlets associated with Marcos crony Roberto Benedicto allowed to operate. In the afternoon, Benedicto-owned television channel KBS-9 went back on air playing episodes of Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races cartoon series, which was interrupted at 3:00 PM, when Press Secretary Francisco Tatad went on air to read Proclamation No. 1081, through which Marcos declared martial law. Ferdinand Marcos himself went on air at 7:17 that evening to formalize the announcement. On the following Morning, September 24, the headline of Benedicto's Daily Express announced "FM Declares Martial Law" - the only national newspaper to come out in the immediate aftermath of martial law. (The Mindanao Tribune, which had not received notification of the media lockdown, had been able to put out an edition by the evening of September 23.)

The declaration shut down 7 television stations, 16 national daily newspapers, 11 weekly magazines, 66 community newspapers, and 292 radio stations; as well as public utilities such as Meralco, PLDT, and airlines such as Philippine Airlines (later redesignated in 1973 by Marcos as the flag carrier), Air Manila and Filipinas Orient Airways.

Diokno's Delta Room

Aquino's Alpha Room

Some of the individuals on the list, such as Raul Manglapus, were not in the Philippines when martial law was declared, while some, such as Raul Roco, were in the country but managed to evade arrest.

However, numerous members of the Constitutional Convention's opposition bloc were among those arrested in the early hours of September 22, 1972. Convention members arrested included Antonio Araneta, Jose Concepcion, Voltaire Garcia, Bren Guiao, Teofisto Guingona Jr., Alejandro Lichuaco, Jose Nolledo, Philippines Free Press associate editor Napoleon Rama, and ABS-CBN broadcaster Jose Mari Velez.

With nearly a dozen of its members in jail and some of its most prominent leaders overseas or in hiding, the "progressive faction" of the convention that spoke against Marcos was no longer able to contribute to the discussion.

Diokno and Aquino, whom the dictatorship considered their foremost opponents, were later handcuffed, blindfolded, and transferred to Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija in March 1973. They were placed in solitary confinement for 30 days after an article by Aquino published in the Bangkok Post further revealed abuses under martial law. Marcos accused Diokno and Aquino for this article as it was printed while both were in prison at Fort Bonifacio. Aquino and Diokno were kept in solitary in the enclosed and air-sealed Alpha and Delta rooms. Aquino spent his days counting through chalk on the wall, while Diokno counted using the knots of ropes from his mosquito net as well as the back of a soap packaging box and crossed out each day in the manner of a calendar.

They both learned of each other's presence through singing. One of them would frequently sing the national anthem Lupang Hinirang or "Chosen Land", to which the other would reply by singing or "My Country" to prove he was still alive. Their visiting family members were often strip-searched by soldiers. Diokno's wife Carmen would sneak in books in French and Spanish for him to read. Diokno and his wife talked in Spanish to keep the guards from eavesdropping on their conversation. Diokno would tell his family not to weep in front of the sadistic soldiers. Only his Aunt Paz Wilson, a woman in her 90s and a mother figure since his mother's passing, would frequently cry during every visit. She continued to visit despite also undergoing strip searches. The family would be in tears once they left the prison, where the Aquino family would see them. This helped the Aquinos prepare themselves emotionally since they never saw the Diokno family manifest much pain before. Nena Diokno, suspicious of Marcos, took most of her husband's books at the library along Del Pilar Street and brought them home before the military burned down the library. Jose would thank her as he was very familiar with the library and memorized the location of each shelf and book he read. Aquino and Diokno could not keep glasses or pipes, and Diokno needed to request his rosary from time to time. After enduring 30 days they were transferred back to Fort Bonifacio. Diokno was released on September 11, 1974, Marcos's birthday, while Aquino would leave for the United States in 1980.

The convention moved quickly after Marcos had declared martial law. The opposition bloc had effectively been decimated and the threat of imprisonment hung over any delegates who might voice opposition in the convention. The regular rules of the convention were suspended and a 166-member group headed by Marcos-supporting Delegate Gilberto Duavit came up with a new draft of the constitution. By November 29, 1972 - a little over two months after the declaration of martial law - the convention approved the draft, which was presented to Marcos in Malacañang Palace on December 1, 1972.

Sparked by revelations about the 1968 Jabidah massacre, tensions had been rising between the Marcos administration and the Moro peoples of Mindanao. Soon after Jibin Arula told the story of the Massacre story to the press, and Senate investigations suggested the involvement of the president, Lanao del Sur congressman Rashid Lucman called for Marcos' Impeachment. When the bid failed, he eventually founded the Bangsamoro Liberation Organization (BMLO), which initially called for Moro Independence, although it eventually shifted its positions and called for regional autonomy. Former Cotabato governor Datu Udtog Matalam likewise formed of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM), which also called for Moro Independence. Neither group, however, drew enough followers to form a viable opposition until Marcos declared Martial Law. The BMLO remained small, while the MIM was dissolved when Matalam accepted a government post under Marcos.

With the declaration of Martial Law, on October 21, 1972, political parties, including the BMLO and the MIM, were dissolved. So when former MIM member Nur Misuari formed an armed secessionist group called the Moro National Liberation Front, he was quickly able to consolidate power. The MNLF became the single dominant voice calling for Moro independence, and was able to raise a significant armed force. The Philippines' decades-long Moro conflict had begun in earnest.

Marcos' 14 years as dictator is historically remembered for its record of human rights abuses, particularly targeting political opponents, student activists, journalists, religious workers, farmers, and others who fought against the Marcos dictatorship. Based on the documentation of Amnesty International, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, and similar human rights monitoring entities, historians believe that the Marcos dictatorship was marked by 3,257 known extrajudicial killings, 35,000 documented tortures, 737 forced disappearances, and 70,000 incarcerations.

Some 2,520 of the 3,257 murder victims were tortured and mutilated before their bodies were dumped in various places for the public to discover - a tactic meant to sow fear among the public, which came to be known as "salvaging". Some bodies were even cannibalized.

International pressure, and knowledge of abuses by Marcos

The international community eventually got word of these human rights violations and applied pressure to the Marcos administration to end them. In 1975, Marcos aide and chief propagandist Primitivo Mijares defected from the Marcos administration and revealed in front of US lawmakers that torture was routinely practiced within the Marcos regime. Mijares' admission attracted international criticism, particularly from Amnesty International and Washington. Amnesty International's first report about the Philippines in December 1975 revealed the "systematic and severe torture" handled by the Fifth Constabulary Security Unit (5CSU). Amnesty International found convincing evidence of widespread torture among prisoners, enabled by Marcos's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and the absence of judicial oversight. Evidence reveals that not only was he aware of tortures and murders enacted by his military and police force, but that he condoned and at times arranged for it. This caused tensions between the United States and the Philippines, pressuring Marcos to admit human rights violations during his regime.

Marcos initially denied knowledge of human rights violations. In 1974, he proclaimed in a televised address that "No one, but no one was tortured". But he eventually confessed at the 1977 World Peace through law Conference in Manila that "there have been, to our lasting regret, a number of violations of the rights of detainees".

Philippine economic history from Marcos' declaration of Martial Law to his ouster through the 1986 People Power Revolution was a period of significant economic highs and lows.

The September 1972 declaration of Martial Law coincided with an increased global demand for raw materials, including coconut and sugar, and the increase in global market prices for these commodities. This "commodities boom" allowed GDP growth to peak at nearly 9 percent in the years immediately after the declaration - in 1973 and 1976. The Philippine's Gross Domestic Product quadrupled from $8 billion in 1972 to $32.45 billion in 1980, for an inflation-adjusted average growth rate of 6% per year.

The commodities boom continued throughout most of the 70s, only slowing down towards the early 1980s when it left the Philippine economy vulnerable to the instability of the international capital market. As a result, the economy grew amidst the two severe global oil shocks following the 1973 oil crisis and 1979 energy crisis - oil price was $3 / barrel in 1973 and $39.5 in 1979, or a growth of 1200% which drove inflation.[citation needed ]

The Heritage Foundation pointed that when the economy began to weaken in 1979, the government did not adopt anti-recessionist policies and instead launched risky and costly industrial projects. The overall economy experienced a slower growth GDP per capita, lower wage conditions and higher unemployment especially towards the end of Marcos' term after the 1983-1984 recession. The Philippine peso devalued sharply from 3.9 to 20.53. The recession was triggered largely by political instability following Ninoy's assassination, high global interest rates, severe global economic recession, and significant increase in global oil price, the latter three of which affected all indebted countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The Philippines was among these countries and was not exempted from the negative economic consequences.

Despite the 1984-1985 recession, GDP on a per capita basis more than tripled from $175.9 in 1965 to $565.8 in 1985 at the end of Marcos' term, though this averages less than 1.2% a year when adjusted for inflation.

The period is sometimes erroneously described as a golden age for the country's economy. However, by the period's end, the country was experiencing a debt crisis, extreme poverty, and severe underemployment. On the island of Negros, one-fifth of the children under six were seriously malnourished.

The Philippines had a cautious borrowing policy as late as the early 1970s, but the Marcos administration borrowed a massive amount of foreign debt in the early 1980s amid high oil prices, high interest rates, capital flight, and falling export prices of sugar and coconut. The country's total external debt rose from US$2.3 billion in 1970 to US$26.2 billion in 1985.[citation needed ] Along with corruption and plunder of public funds by Marcos and his cronies, this held the country under a debt-servicing crisis which is expected to be fixed by only 2025.[citation needed ]

The shutdown of media and the mass arrests of publishers and journalists on the eve of the 1972 Martial Law declaration effectively silenced the Philippine culture of press freedom for several years. It also had a chilling effect on news coverage all the way until Marcos was deposed and exiled in 1986, despite the Marcos administration loosening press restrictions in light of international pressure, and despite the technical lifting of Martial Law in 1981.

The few publications who dared to criticize Marcos, such as the WE Forum and Ang Pahayagang Malaya, came to collectively be referred to "the mosquito press," since they became a minor but persistent irritation to the dictatorship.

Key turning points in the history of Philippine journalism during this time included: the establishment of WE Forum in 1977 and of Ang Pahayagang Malaya in 1981; the landmark coverage the murder of Macli-ing Dulag, a leader of indigenous opposition to the Chico River Dam Project; the 1982 expose of Ferdinand Marcos' fake military medals which led to the closure of WE Forum and the jailing of its prominent columnists; and the 1984 murder of leading Mindanao journalist Alex Orcullo in Davao City.

On January 17, 1981, Marcos issued Proclamation No. 2045, which formally lifted the proclamation of martial law, but retained many of his powers. The lifting was timed to coincide with Pope John Paul II's visit to the Philippines and with the inauguration of new U.S. president and Marcos ally Ronald Reagan. Reacting to the announcement, former president Diosdado Macapagal, who at the time was the leading member of the United Nationalist Democratic Organization, said that the lifting of martial law after eight years was "in name only, but not in fact". Marcos reacted to criticism by telling the national assembly, "The opposition members want only to save their individual skins against national interests."

Amendment No. 6 to the new 1973 constitution allowed him to continue making laws, and the decrees issued during martial law were carried forward after the lifting of Proclamation No. 1081. He also retained the right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus for "crimes related to subversion, insurrection, rebellion, and also conspiracy to commit such crimes."

Human rights abuses continued.

Fearful of a scenario in which Marcos' presence in the Philippines would lead to a civil war, the Reagan administration flew Marcos and a party of about 80 individuals - the extended Marcos family and a number of close associates - from the Philippines to Hawaii despite Marcos' objections.

The exiles stayed at Hickam Air Force Base at the expense of the U.S. government. A month later, they moved into a pair of residences in Makiki Heights, Honolulu, which were registered to Marcos cronies Antonio Floirendo and Bienvenido and Gliceria Tantoco.

Marcos would eventually die in exile in 1989.

President Corazon Aquino eventually allowed the remaining members of the Marcos family to return to the Philippines to face various charges. News reports from the period record that Marcos supporters organized crowd from Manila's slums to welcome the Marcoses on their return.

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Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos - Wikipedia

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At 7:15 p.m. on September 23, 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos announced on television that he had placed the Philippines under martial law, stating he had done so in response to the "communist threat" posed by the newly founded Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and the sectarian "rebellion" of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM).

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An Oral History Project is said to be a tribute to the Martial Law victims in Samar, Leyte–the birthplace of Dinah Roma, the author of the text.

The story is told through the lens of a middle-aged woman, telling the story of how she witnessed her parents’ death at the young age of 9. She saw how the people she grew up with reached the end of their lives through a tiny hole she made. The sack she was tightly sealed in was hung on a tree, described as the “canopy” of her childhood. The passage transitions to the morning, where her silent environment became the den of their “torment” and how, specifically, her parents were abused to death–tortured and beaten.

In a situation where her past still haunts her today, she reflects on her desire to go back to where her life was free of burden and suffering, where life was serene. The only way to relieve herself from pain was through “fleeting forgetfulness,” even though it was rare and temporary. She acknowledges that her story was not something unique but a collective experience of abuse and violence, whether how others were “hung from a tree, impaled, or maimed.”

Surviving the pain and trauma brought by her experience involves breaking it into smaller pieces. Talking about an experience “a few days after” could ease the burden, allowing people to discuss without being too overwhelmed, a coping approach to continue life despite the past.

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Evoking the experiences of Martial Law - in remembrance of its declaration - Central Philippine University

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By Cyrus A. Natividad A photo of one of the demonstrations during the martial law. photo credits retrospect.ph. The declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972 by then President of the Republic of the Philippines Ferdinand E. Marcos brought portent changes in the development of Filipino society. It was a period of expectation and […]

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Dinah Roma is a full-time Literature and Creative Writing professor at De La Salle University. She is a triumphant poet and the author of award-winning pieces such as “A Feast of Origins,” which won the Manila Critics Circle’s National Book Award for Best Poetry, “Geographies of Light,” a poem collection that won 3rd best prize in Don Carlos Palanca Awards, and “Naming the Ruins,” who took part of the Asia Pacific Writing Series of Vagabond Press.

Her honors include the Research Fellowship at the National University of Singapore Asia Research Institute (Cultural Studies Cluster) and the Writing Grant for Local Culture and History from the National Book Development Board. She has also participated in international events such as the Sydney Writers’ Festival, the Medellin International Poetry Festival, and the Asia Pacific and Translators Conference.

Cited from: http://cordite.org.au/author/dinahroma/

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The Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center, in cooperation with the Department of Literature, launched Weaving Basey: A Poet's History of Home , the new book of University Fellow, Literature professor, and award-winning author Dr. Dinah Roma last April 13 at the DLSU Henry Sy, Sr. Hall.

Conceptualized following the devastation wrought by Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, the book is the poet's narrative of home that tells of the journey to recovery, healing, and hope. It features a blend of memoir and local history, poems, as well as visuals and photos that aid in locating her hometown Basey in the physical world.

Roma's initial manuscript was selected as one of only three proposals from among 69 entries that received a trust fund grant from the National Book Development Board (NBDB) in 2015. At the launch, she shared that while she completed the manuscript in 2018, it was during her sabbatical in 2023 that she was able to rework sections that made the manuscript different from the original.

"How wonderfully Dinah has herself woven in the weaving tradition of her hometown, her memories and romance with the place of her birth, expressed in the language of a great writer. Basey is a place she hardly knew but rediscovered, with gratitude to the many influences left on her," former chair of the National Book Development Board Neni Sta. Romana-Cruz remarked during the program.

Weaving Basey (Katig Writers Network Inc., 2024) is Roma's first collection of essays. Part of the development of the book project unfolded at the Eastern Visayas State University, which in 2022 hosted a series of dialogues on the lessons learned from Typhoon Yolanda.

She is the author of four books of poetry- A Feast of Origins (2004, National Book Award for Poetry in English), Geographies of Light (UST 2011), Naming the Ruins (Vagabond Press, 2014), and We Shall Write Love Poems Again (2021, National Book Award for Poetry in English). In 2019, the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL) conferred on her the Gawad Francisco Balagtas for Poetry.

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University Fellow's new book Weaving Basey launched - De La Salle University

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The Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center, in cooperation with the Department of Literature, launched Weaving Basey: A Poet's History of Home , the new book of University Fellow, Literature professor, and award-winning author Dr. Dinah Roma last April 13 at the DLSU Henry Sy, Sr. Hall.

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“When fleeting forgetfulness could be the only reprieve of years ahead.”

It suggests that “forgetting” the most painful memories of the past could be the only relief or escape from the suffering or trauma one could experience. In layman’s terms, to “forget” is to find moments of solace amidst hardships. It sounds a bit ironic because, if using Dinah Roma’s An Oral History Project, the trauma of the storyteller is still evident despite attempts to forget how she witnessed the tragic death of her parents. Upon reading the text, it somehow felt that she wanted to return to when life was peaceful and free of burden. It is hard to “forget” that moment to find happiness within the next few years.

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Living Marcos’ Martial Law Through My Parents’ Eyes

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In reflecting on my feelings towards the 2022 Presidential Elections, I asked my parents what it was really like to live under Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship.

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1. How do you think witnessing a traumatic event as a child, like the one described in the poem, would shape your memories and identity?

2. Think about how seeing history through the child's eyes gives us a different view of violence and suffering. How does this personal story add to or change what we know from official histories, especially in the context of Filipino culture and history (e.g., Martial Law)?

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Pablo Baens Santos, "Panangis Ni Ina" , acrylic on canvas, 1973

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The truth the Martial Law survivors holds

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The truth the Martial Law survivors holds

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“They are the kindest words to stall what could pass off as history, chronicled now behind this lens to discern how darkness unhinges, in between the sun setting and rising, in between breathing, in the flesh ripping apart, in the minds losing what it could hold, numbed into what it could wake up to a few days after. ”

Given the recent elections and the candidacy of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for the presidency, it is crucial to revisit and understand the events that happened during his father's regime. The era of martial law under Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was a time marked by significant human rights abuses, suppression of dissent, and widespread corruption. Today, with the heavy influence of social media, it has become alarmingly easy to fall for misinformation and fake news. The voices of those who endured and survived this dark chapter in history are more important than ever. Their testimonies serve as a vital reminder of the truth, urging us to critically evaluate the narratives being propagated and resist the allure of distorted facts. It is through their stories that we are reminded of the importance of historical accuracy and the need to remain vigilant against attempts to rewrite history.

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The sacrifices of parents for their family

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The sacrifices of parents for their family

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“Forced to confess to a treason that in their daily hunger she barely understood, not an inch of her skin left unscathed”

Every parent would sacrifice their life for their children. The parents in the poem died in a grotesque manner but they died leaving a conviction of bravery and sacrifice for their children. In today's time, bravery and sacrifice can be seen from present parents, single parents, and OFW parents; who are definitely working through the hardships to provide for their family.

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“a knowing she would have exchanged for anything to go back to those days when the hours faded without fear.”

This statement perfectly embodies the stark contrast in the daily lives of Filipinos between the pre and intra martial law years. The willingness to trade anything just to go back to living without any worries for one's immediate safety speaks volumes when it comes to the psychological state that people were in during the elapsed period under martial law. The Marcos regime during that period has been marked with injustice and extensive barbarity, evidences of which are plentiful in accounts of political repression, human rights abuses, and economic disparities.

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Deemed as one of the darkest eras in Philippine history, the declaration of Martial Law by the late dictator and president Ferdinand E. Marcos has forever changed politics in the Philippines.

49 years have passed since the family of Marcos was stained with criticisms and opposition following severe violations of corruption and abuse of human rights during the Martial Law.

Even though some sources stated that Ferdinand Marcos officially declared that the country was placed under martial law on September 23, 1972, its documented date was just two days earlier, September 21, 1972.

Marcos decided to implement Martial Law to counter the communist threat across the country. It became also a "necessity" as per his diary after the so-called ambush to then defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile.

According to the Official Gazette in 1986, Enrile revealed that the ambush was faked to justify the implementation of the Martial Law.

Curfew hours and the banning of public gatherings were implemented during the dictatorship. Media outlets were shut down as well to avoid "propaganda against the government" under Marcos' rule.

During the Martial Law, Marcos ordered the transfer of all powers unto him while authorizing the arrest of individuals wanting to overthrow the current administration.

Marcos also silenced media press freedom by arresting journalists and media owners, implementing "blanket censorship" which required news agencies to get clearance before publishing their articles, including religious publications, and only allowed the ones that are controlled by Marcos to operate. The government also expelled and rejected the visas of foreign journalists during Martial Law.

During the first year of Martial Law, 60,000 were arrested, and according to Amnesty International, about 70,000 people were imprisoned while 34,000 were tortured. The prisoners' private parts were electrocuted, and women's genitals were smeared with chili peppers as they were raped and sexually assaulted. They were also beaten up and strangled with wires and burned using cigarettes.

The 10-year martial rule ended officially on January 17, 1981, with Proclamation No. 2045.

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Filipinos' suffering during political periods of repression

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Filipinos' suffering during political periods of repression

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“Her blood streaming into unyielding fields. Her father fainted after hours of beating, a toe severed from too much pounding of a rifle butt.”

This is an emotional illustration of how critical human experiences are to the collective memory of historical events and offers a vivid portrayal of pain. The phrase "unyielding fields" brings up images of a scene scattered with agony and blood, signifying the land's absorption of past tragedy. The father's amputated toe, which came from his constant beating, also represents the regime's unrelenting and degrading violence.

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1986 rally against the Marcos Dictatorship in which protesters hold up images of Escalante Massacre victims. Wikimedia Commons.

A year ago, I was asked to write an article for a book to be published for the 50 th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines. I was hesitant at first. My hesitation stemmed from the fact that I do not have first-hand experience of being victimized by martial law.

As the Philippines is entering the 5 th decade of the declaration of the iron fist of repression, a book like this is relevant and timely. It has become more relevant after the May 9 national elections when the son of the former dictator, who imposed martial law half a century ago, is sadly, now the new president of the Republic of the Philippines. I believe that sharing my recollection of a past that should never be forgotten and whose hard lessons Filipinos need to learn is a moral responsibility for those who witnessed the horrors of the dark night of martial law.

Recalling the not-so-happy memories of a distant past, a past that continues to haunt the Filipino people with each passing day, while excruciatingly painful, is likewise liberating.
Bitter Childhood Memories
I was nine years old when, by Proclamation No. 1081, the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972. It was the death of freedom and democracy. My father, Mariano Leon Fortich Diez, then Provincial Development Officer of the Presidential Assistant on Community Development (PACD), (which later changed its name to Department of Local Government and Community Development by virtue of Presidential Decree Number 1), was extremely worried about its implications to the country. From him, I heard about the incarceration of the late former Senator Benigno Aquino; the late former Senator Jose W. Diokno; the late former Senator Jovito Salonga; the late We Forum publisher Jose Burgos and many others who languished in jail. My father also shared with me about the curtailment of press freedom, the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and the dissolution of Congress. We spoke about these things discreetly because as a government officer, he was careful not to say things against the government in public. At nine, I was not fully mature to understand the situation. Neither was I too young not to feel its consequences. The atmosphere of fear was real.

Among other sad news, the following were bits and pieces of information that I gathered in my elementary and high school years:

The extravagance of the First Lady, Imelda Marcos, seen among others in her projects intended to "beautify" the country, was shameful and scandalous.

From my home province, there was a massacre in Hinunangan, Southern Leyte. Eight children aged 3-18 were killed by the 357thPhilippine Constabulary. Despite the town's proximity to Sogod, Southern Leyte, the news never reached my townmates.

There was secret news about Imee Marcos' ire against a student activist, Archimedes Trajano. Her anger was caused by the latter's questioning in an open forum of her leadership in the Kabataang Makabayan just because she was the president's daughter. This led to Trajano being forcibly thrown out of the forum, blindfolded, beaten, and killed. He was later found after a few days with signs of torture in his lifeless body.

The huge rallies of student activists in Manila, now known as the First Quarter Storm.

As an elementary and high school student who was taught traditional lessons in Social Studies and Philippine History, I learned nothing about the ills of society. The bits and pieces of information I gathered outside of the classroom were fragmented, bereft of in-depth analysis that could have aided a student's profound understanding of society.
Fertile Ground for a Lifetime of Human Rights Advocacy
It was then when I studied in an exclusive Catholic school for girls, in St. Theresa's College (STC) in Cebu City that my awareness of the situation gradually deepened. The school's social orientation facilitated our exposure to the plight of the different social sectors: the urban poor who were deprived of their right to decent living; the farmers in the hinterlands of Cebu who did not own the land they till; the workers who were victimized by unfair labor practices; the political prisoners who were deprived of their freedom to correct the ills of society...

My affiliation with the Student Catholic Action of the Philippines (SCAP) and the College Editors' Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) further sharpened my understanding of the signs of the times. The thesis I did, entitled, "A VTR Documentary on the Proposed Philippine Tourism Authority Golf Course Row and Sports Complex" helped me understand better the situation of the poor farmers in the hinterlands of Cebu who, in the name of "development" were violated of their economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights. Reading the We Forum and attending symposia organized by progressive organizations gave me a better understanding of the country's situation.

It was in STC when I met Fr. Rudy Romano again - my retreat master in high school, who used to say Mass at the school chapel and in a nearby Redemptorist Church, and whose homilies were anchored on the situation of the poor and the value of solidarity. With him, we frequented rallies and long marches to express our demands related to the different local and national issues.

At the forefront of these demonstrations protesting against the demolition of the urban poor and unfair labor practices, Fr. Rudy earned the ire of the military. On commemorations of International Human Rights Day, in his white cassock, he linked arms with the wretched of the earth. On a number of occasions, he was teargassed, jailed for days, and released. The height of Fr. Rudy's prophetic ministry was in line with the preferential option for the poor, a concept well-articulated by Latin America's liberation theology.

The arrest and detention of 22 political activists were one of my recollections when I was in college. Hidden from public eyes ahead of the visit of Pope John Paul ll was their hunger strike. I attended one of the hearings during which, a female detainee, Recah Ruedas fainted, perhaps due to thirst and hunger. Later, I became a friend to two of these detainees, although we did not have the chance to talk about their life in detention.

My four years in college were a combination of academic responsibilities and activism - a foundation that had prepared me for a lifetime of human rights work. My involvement as an associate editor of Star and Catalyst, STC's official publications was a training ground for further writing responsibilities in the course of my professional life.

During my entire student days - from elementary, high school, and college years, I never knew any president of the Republic of the Philippines other than the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos Senior. As a student activist starting at the age of 16, I was no undiscerning spectator. Fortunately, I did not have a first-hand experience of the iron fist of repression.
Leaving the Portals of my Alma Mater, Entering Human Rights Advocacy
A lucrative job could have been a path to choose after my graduation in 1983. But, I opted to work as a publications officer in the now-defunct Visayas Secretariat of Social Action (VISSA), a regional social action arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. The two-year and six months of experience in the institution provided me with opportunities to immerse with the poor, deprived, and oppressed in the different dioceses of the Visayas. It was then that I also integrated myself with the Church hierarchy as well as with social action directors and lay workers who facilitated the delivery of social action programs and services to the "least of His brethren."

Being part of a team of documenters of the gruesome Escalante massacre was my baptism of fire in my first job. The twenty-minute flight from Cebu City to Bacolod City and a short land trip brought us to Escalante wherein one of the areas we visited, we saw a photo exhibit. I remember a woman in search of a family member. Looking at the photos taken on that 'Bloody Thursday,' she found out that her missing son was one of the 30 victims of the massacre. The creation of an official Fact-Finding Team resulted in the imprisonment of only three low-ranking policemen who were subsequently released on parole. The family members of the victims expected the promised indemnification but that never came.

Working in a Church institution exposed me to the reality of the persecution of the progressive segment of the Church. Among many other cases, these included raids of social action centers, the "accidenting" of Fr. Edgar Kangleon, former social action director of the Diocese of Catbalogan, the brutal killing of an Italian priest, Fr. Tulio Favali, the detention and torture of the late Fr. Pete Lucero, the bombing of the convent of Bishop Antonio Fortich, worst of all, the enforced disappearance of Fr. Rudy Romano, CSSR.

With Minet Aguisanda of the then Visayas Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace, I traveled to the militarized province of Samar to document the incarceration of Fr. Pedro Lucero. Disguised as relatives of the detained priest, we went inside Camp Lucban, Catbalogan Samar where we discreetly took a photo and got a first-hand testimony of Fr. Lucero's torture. He vividly shared with us his ordeal. He was mauled, threatened, and tortured by the military. He painfully told us that the perpetrators poured water over his body for 30 minutes. Stripped naked, and abused, he was hit on the head, breast and belly to force him to confess his alleged involvement in the Communist Party of the Philippines.

I am also fortunate to experience fond moments with the late Bishop Antonio Fortich, a staunch critique of the Marcos regime. He was among the most courageous bishops during the Marcos regime. Against the landscape of a worsening armed conflict and rising human rights violations in Western Visayas, the Diocese of Bacolod was blessed to have Bishop Fortich as the good shepherd to the poor and the downtrodden in this sugarcane-rich area. Thus, he earned the ire of the security forces, including the right-wing citizens' vigilante group, who the prelate blamed for the attempted bombing of his bedroom on 28 April 1987. Known as the "people's bishop," Bishop Fortich had a sparrow stuffed and made it into a paperweight to remind him of the continuing struggle. That bird was the sole casualty of the said bombing.

The most unforgettable experience that I had in responding to a case of persecution of a man-of-the-cloth was the enforced disappearance of Fr. Rudy Romano. An ordinary sight during martial law was policemen in shields and truncheons with teargas ready to disperse mass actions. As earlier mentioned, Fr. Rudy was many times arrested, detained for days, and released. Then he continued linking arms with the wretched of the earth.

Yet on that fateful day of 11 July 1985, he was taken by armed men while he was riding his motorcycle and never returned.

In an email interview I had on the eve of Fr. Rudy's 37 th anniversary of his disappearance, with Rev. Fr. Ramon Fruto, then Vicar to the Vice Provincial Superior for Visayas and Mindanao and who later became the Vice Provincial Superior himself, he recalled: " My fellow Redemptorist priest, Fr. Rudy Romano, was fixing the lock of one of our doors in our Cebu monastery when I last chatted with him on July 11, 1985. It was his hobby to be fixing or re-inventing things. This time he was doing something to the door so that the common key each member of the community had could open it. Before he could finish this task, he got a phone call that he was wanted for some meetings in another part of the city. He left at once. I presumed that the meetings had to do with another of his tasks of "fixing," this time not some door-lock but some obstacles that hindered the progress of society. Fr. Rudy was not just an amateur mechanic, but by profession, a missionary sent to "bring good news to the poor."

Looking back to the events that occurred during Fr. Rudy's enforced disappearance, 37 years ago, I remember my role as a documenter. As part of the VISSA Research and Publications Desk, with my supervisor, Geraldine Mayo, we both went to the site of Fr. Rudy's disappearance in Labangon where we were able to interview a couple of witnesses who told us that Fr. Rudy was forcibly taken while he was riding his motorcycle by plainclothes men. A few days later, in a news item in a local newspaper, the same people whom we interviewed sadly denied having seen the act of enforced disappearance. Witnesses were silenced, including a brother of a driver who took the witness stand. He was killed because he looked very much like the witness.

On another unforgettable occasion, I, with my VISSA colleagues, was arrested from a picket that we, together with many members from cause-oriented groups, joined at Camp Sergio Osmena to Camp Sotero Cabahug. We were dumped in a six-by-six truck and brought to Camp Sotero Cabahug and detained for seven hours. With the intervention of the late Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, we were released at around 1 AM and we collectively walked in the dark towards the St. Alphonsus Seminary, a place we fondly associated with Fr. Rudy, who made it a sanctuary for tired, weary and hungry activists. The day after, our Executive Secretary, the late Msgr. Jose Borces heaved a sigh of relief in knowing that no one among his team was hurt.

The enforced disappearance of Fr. Rudy and Rolan Levi garnered national and international visibility of the most sustained series of mass actions ever in Cebu City. For more than two months, our whole VISSA team participated in daily rallies where our voices reverberated in all nooks and crannies of the city. We chanted and demanded the release of Fr. Rudy and another activist, Rolan Levi Ybanez who also enforced disappeared on the same day, but in a different place in the city. All these and the many deafening voices at the international level miserably failed to produce the two activists.

Fr. Rudy and Rolan Levi, whose names are engraved in the Bantayog ng mga Bayani or Monument of Heroes, have now joined the hundreds of desaparecidos of the Marcos regime. Fr. Ramon Fruto, in the same email interview, shared: "Down the years, different groups here and abroad clamored for the people responsible for his abduction to surface him, but all the agitation had fallen on deaf ears It has been thirty-seven years since the abduction. We reflect that if, during Pres. Cory Aquino's administration, the assassination of her husband is still unsolved, what hopes have we of having Fr. Rudy surfaced alive? We, his confreres and friends, have accepted the possibility of his having been liquidated. And so we continue to pray that while he has joined the courageous group of the desaparecidos, his example and the desaparecidos' witness to freedom, truth, peace and justice be kept alive in our own lives."

Another story is that of the first priest imprisoned during martial law. A friend of Fr. Edward Gerlock, I had the privilege to read his vivid recollection of what happened.

"I was arrested the first day of martial law but it was house arrest. A few months later, I was brought to Camp Crame. The US embassy offered to help, but only if I agreed to leave voluntarily. The nuncio offered to help [but only toothpaste!]
"In the meantime, Nena Diokno, wife of the late senator, Jose Diokno, sent me a note [saying] that if I decided to stay, she would find me a lawyer. In the meantime, I was moved from [national headquarters of the Philippine National Police Camp] Crame to an immigration prison. "The best day of my whole life was the day we entered the immigration courtroom. I saw the face of Commissioner Edmundo Reyes when he saw our lawyers. Senator Lorenzo Tañada was next to me. Wow! What a look! Tañada told me that every country has very loose immigration laws so that they can get rid of 'undesirables.'
"Colonel Rolando Abadilla and squad came to the Asian Social Institute and bodily carried me out of the building and out to the airport. I hid my passport under the mistaken notion that you cannot be deported without a passport. Abadilla looked at me and said: 'If they allowed me, I would get that passport from you!' I had no doubt he would. The trial dragged on for 13 months. Finally, I was allowed to stay and had to report to immigration monthly."

Fr. Gerlock, fortunately, survived to tell his history.

The persecution of the progressive segment of the Churches, both Catholic and Protestant alike, led us to establish the Promotion of Church People's Rights (PCPR) in the Visayas. It became a national organization with different provincial chapters whose mandate was to protect the right of Church people to serve the poor. I moved from VISSA to become the Executive Secretary of the PCPR-Visayas. Working there for three years, I witnessed the height of the anti-Marcos struggle which saw its peak after the brutal assassination of former Senator Benigno Aquino Senior.

My last days in VISSA coincided with the 1986 people power revolution. It was an era that brought new hopes and provided democratic space to human rights defenders.
Thoughts to ponder
The 21 years of Marcos dictatorship officially ended with the victory of the February 1986 EDSA people power revolution. It was a product of years of conscientization, organizing, and mobilization of the various sectors of society who persistently fought to put an end to one of the darkest periods in Philippine contemporary history. Triggered by the assassination of the late Senator Benigno Aquino Senior and pushed by the influential voice of the late Jaime Cardinal Sin, the end of the Marcos era in 1986 garnered victory for the anti-Marcos struggle, albeit partial.

The people power revolution could have been pursued by a unified search for truth and the attainment of justice. Upgrading the school curricula and utilizing all forms of media could have been the key to massive education of both the young and old alike. Filing cases in courts and winning emblematic cases could have broken the chains of impunity. Allotting human and material resources towards memorialization efforts to preserve the historical memory of those who perished during the tyrannical and rapacious years of martial law could have been significant avenues to remember and learn the lessons of a past that should never be forgotten.

Guarding, preserving, and strengthening the unity that the people's movement achieved prior to 1986 could have been a key to sustain the gains of the anti-Marcos movement. The peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Communist Party of the Philippines and other peace processes could have been seriously pursued with sincerity to uproot the causes of unpeace.

As dictators and perpetrators of human rights violations in other countries are being sentenced for the crimes they committed, sadly, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., the son of the former dictator now holds the highest position in the land. Worse still, Sara Duterte. daughter of the immediate past president Rodrigo Duterte, guilty of thousands of killings in the context of his "war on drugs", is the country's vice president.

Amidst the nagging insistence of lies and oblivion for the sake of false reconciliation and unprincipled peace, all survivors of martial law should never obliterate the past. Instead, let us immortalize the memory of those whose lives were offered on the altar of freedom. The exemplary lives of those who perished during the dictatorship should serve as shadows that will not leave us and that will always inspire us to link arms with the young generations so that they may see the unfolding of a better tomorrow.
About the Author:
Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso is the president of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED). She is likewise a lecturer on Human Rights and Philippine Interests at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines, Diliman. By dint of her work for victims of enforced disappearances nationally, regionally, and globally, on 10 December 2013, she received the Emilio F. Mignone International Human Rights Prize given by the Government of Argentina. She likewise received the Franco-German Ministerial Prize for Human Rights and the Rule of Law on 12 December 2019. This article was published recently in a book edited and published by Atty. Democrito Barcenas titled MARTIAL LAW IN CEBU - Stories of Life and Struggle During the Marcos Dictatorship.

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Of Dark Nights and Bitter Days: The Horrors of Philippine Martial Law

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by Mary Aileen D. Bacalso A year ago, I was asked to write an article for a book to be published for the 50th anniversary of the declaration of