Of History and Collective Amnesia

Decades after one of the darkest times in Philippine history, the damages remain ingrained in the burning hearts of Filipinos today as we remember the atrocities of a dictator and a thief. In the webinar, several salient points have been raised against Marcos’ rule highlighting the grave human rights violations committed most especially to those critical of his tyrannical government. The following key points bear the realities and aftermaths of Martial Law and why we should learn to not repeat history again.

Political Arrests

One of the first things shared in a webinar by Atty. Chel Diokno was of his father’s arrest. His father’s charges were never established and left unknown even by his own family to this date; they were left concluding that his arrest was purely political without any legal basis. Diokno’s father is just one among the 70,000 people arrested in Marcos’ era. Anyone who speaks, writes, or talk about anything anti-Marcos, even if they were not part of the armed revolution, were being monitored, hunted down, and incarcerated by the military all to suppress dissent and weaken the opposition party. These warrantless arrests in itself are illegal as the people should have clear information about the status of their case (as also provided with the writ of habeas corpus).

Torture and Massacres

With the 70,000 arrested, 34,000 people were tortured and 3,240 were killed. In reported accounts, they endured through physical abuse, sexual assault, and torture by the state forces. Multiple accounts stated various methods of torture such as: electric shock, beatings (at San Juanico Bridge), truth serum, pistol-whipping, strangulation, cigar or flat iron burns, pepper torture, and animal treatment. Aside from these abuses, groups of people were also being mass murdered or massacred simply by expressing their dissent such as the Moro Muslims. In the 1973 Constitution, it did not contain any provisions against torture (e.g. the right to freedom from torture) but that does not mean it is right. It took the Philippine legislation about 36 years later since the Martial Law to have an anti-torture law (RA 9745) signed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2009. With innocent people being maltreated this way, it is hard for me to simply accept or bat an eye on the grim reality faced by our fellow Filipinos.

The Dictatorship

With former president Ferdinand Marcos attaining the highest position to be in power of the country, he had controlled the judiciary system and congress to widen the economic interests of his kind at the expense of his own people. These “economic advancements” people use as a defense argument does not equate nor excuse the human rights violations and the lives murdered. Until now, we are still paying off the debts of his administration 3 decades ago. A big factor of his tyranny was his control of the judiciary system as well as the military. Marcos added a provision in the 1973 Philippine Constitution stating “all members of the judiciary shall remain as judge until they retire...” or until the President removes them from the position. With this judicial capture and the power over the military, he had only advanced the justice system backwards enabling him, his family, and his cronies to get away with murder, theft, and violations to human rights.

Censorship

Media companies were shut down and subjected to strict censorship as well. This trampled on the people’s right to free speech and free press as no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for redress of grievances (Article IV Sec. 9, 1973 Constitution). That was the start of democracy’s decline when he was first seated into power. I strongly believe that media is one of the huge foundations of the country’s democracy. When the fourth state has been attacked, taken down, or controlled by the other states, best expect the rise of tyrannical rule.

How the Narrative Changed

Today, with social media as a ubiquitous tool, we have witnessed the astounding number of Marcos apologists and pro-Marcos propaganda even more so as the controversy for his body to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani knowing his atrocious deeds and damages all-too-well in the country. History's narrative has changed because (1) they had not experienced nor witnessed firsthand the monstrosity of being under the Marcos rule and (2) these were not taught in depth in schools. Most of the government textbooks only contain the “good” things that transpired in the era, not highlighting the disheartening figures, data, and HR violations so as not to repeat history again. It seems the Marcos family had benefitted from this act of historical revisionism with the Marcoses still holding positions in the senate. What’s maddening was how Bongbong Marcos ran and almost won for vice presidency with only 263,473 votes less than Leni Robredo. It is alarming to know that there are actually a huge number of people who are unaware and still believe in them which leads us to (3) the widespread of fake news. As mentioned, social media is ubiquitous and with the amount of people that stand with the Marcos regime that propagate these false information or propaganda easily misleading and influencing those that have read it simply because they lack knowledge and truth which should have been taught to them in schools in the first place.

Conclusion

With all these knowledge and facts in mind brought to light by the webinar, the broken justice system in the Philippines, only further cultivated by Marcos, still exist in today’s administration. This is because the following administrations since Marcos realized that if they do fix the justice system, they will be the first to answer and be jailed since they know their hands are dirty. It is with their syndicate and impunity do they continue to enjoy themselves in power and exploit the people. A plausible solution to this would be to clean out the judiciary and removing the corrupt through making their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) accessible because it serves as a basis to see if any accessories are ill-gotten. We must also bring about reforms with the current school curriculum by giving equal importance to Filipino subjects (Araling Panlipunan and Philippine History) and adding to the textbooks the truth about the past dictatorial regime to develop informed citizens not easily deceived by fake news. The government has long monopolized information that goes out to us students filtering our history with the perspective of those in power. Only when we, the people, the masses, know of our rights and power against the authoritative state do we learn never to repeat the dreaded history again.