It's the 50th anniversary since the beginning of martial law...
...where thousands disappeared, were tortured or killed, arrested and detained. September 21 marks the 50th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines.
Having arrived in a cream barong, white mask in hand is Ferdinand “Bong bong” Marcos Jr., the current President of the Philippines, as he heads to the United Nations headquarters in New York City for the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
The United Nations General Assembly, a global summit of world leaders and Member States who congregate to discuss international policies and find solutions to global issues. On September 20, or September 21 according to the Philippine time zone, was when Marcos Jr. made his official address. As he delivers his speech with glowing Pinoy pride, outside are activists protesting his administration - especially amidst the anniversary of his father’ initial declaration of martial law.
I had first heard of the history of martial law in the Philippines through my parents who grew up in this era, and who described it as an era of prosperity, peace, and safety. They told me how, during the 1970s, there were many guerilla wars and violence that raided the streets and said that martial law helped in controlling the perpetrators and keep the crimes at bay. But upon reading more into the history and speaking to other Filipinos who lived through that era, I heard different stories.
Back in May, after the recent presidential elections in the Philippines when Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte won President and Vice President, I attended a rally (as mentioned in one of my past articles) and demonstration outside the Philippine consulate building in midtown Manhattan. On a dim day with drizzling downpour, stood activists from Malaya Project and Anakbayan, amongst many other local organizations that advocate for Philippine democracy and human rights, wearing colored raincoats and waving cardboard signs that wrote Never Again to Martial Law, WALANG SUSUKO, LALABAN TAYO! (“We won’t give up, continue to fight!”), and NO TO MARCOS-DUTERTE.
Aside from the signs and megaphone chants that echoed over the hustle and bustle of Fifth Ave, some of the organizers delivered a demonstration that revealed the names of the activists, writers, and even a high school student, who were killed during martial law. Some of the activists I spoke with accused the nation of “historical revisionism”, in which they erased the parts of Marcos Sr.’s administration that gave him the name of dictator.
“This is a presidency that was all smoke and mirrors”
When I learned that Dr. Joanne Rondilla, a San Jose Professor I spoke with and mentioned in my last post, Dr. Rondilla’s mother contributed to Marcos Sr.’s presidential campaign, I wanted to speak again about her mother’s experiences. “This is a presidency that was all smoke and mirrors.” She described to me, alluding to a student she had who walked away from a lecture on Marcos’s martial law wanting a straight answer. “For people who know, we see Ferdinand Marcos as this 20 year dictator, but what we’re forgetting is who he was in 1964 at that first election.”
Dr. Rondilla’s mother, Sonia, met Dr. Rondilla’s father, Fernando, as pen pals and wrote letters to one another - letters Dr. Rondilla keeps that, not only chronicles her parent’s courtship, but also documents conversations on her mother’s campaign. Sonia, wanting to secure a job in government, decided to follow her uncle’s advice and join the Marcos Sr. campaign in 1964. “Marcos was known to have captured the provinces during that campaign. He was known to be the candidate of the people.” Dr. Rondilla explained. “It’s like he created this sense of belonging among people in the provinces.”
Marcos and his campaign team organized lavish parties in the provinces where light-skinned middle to upper class people attended — in the eyes of a poorer person in the provinces, this was seen as a privilege. Sonia danced with her cousin all night in these parties, as described so in her letters, mingling with the crowd as if she was part of them. “It’s the interactions that would happen at these parties that made poor people from the provinces feel important.” Dr. Rondilla describer her mother as light-skinned; “I would always joke with my mom and say ‘Mom, you look like Imelda Marcos!’ because she was a very light skinned Filipina with the same [as Imelda’s] beehive hairdo.”
We can see this same tactic used by other authoritarian and strongmen in different countries: Trump developed his famous line “Make America Great Again” and portrayed himself as a leader who will “save America”, culminating a following of Trump supporters so loyal that they raided Capitol Hill in protest against the election results. To go further back, Hitler used the aftermath of World War I and took advantage of the empty space and portrayed himself as the hero who would bring Germany back into power. Vladimir Putin took the reigns in Russia to drive it back up after the shame from the Cold War. The patterns in these leaders is that they envisioned a future for the country, a future that will bring glory to the nation. In the case of Marcos Sr., he wrote “The New Society” which is what he envisioned for the future of the Philippines: it’s a set of promises, that includes ending corruption and poverty, and pushing for equality.
Despite his vision, Marcos drove the Philippines to corruption and internal wars between his government and the people. And so rose the People Power Revolution, a movement that drew international attention, with countries in South America and Asia looking up to People Power as a source of inspiration for “the desire for freedom”.
As part of the anniversary of this dark period of Philippine history, Asian American Writer’s Workshop (AAWW) organized this recorded event that includes songs composed by survivors of martial law, readings of excerpts from writers about their experiences, poems and songs about freedom. A list of books and people to speak to are all here if you wish to educate yourselves more on this hidden part of Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship.
Never forget the people who died, were tortured, and who disappeared in the fight against Marcos’s corruption. These include Liliosa Hilao, Jessica Sales and Rizalina Ilagan (who were both part of the Southern Tagalog 10 and the biggest disappearance case during martial law), Ronald Jan Quimpo, a high school student who never made it home for dinner, Albert R. Enriquez who was a human rights activist who volunteered for Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (a group who documented military abuses in the provinces), and Rosaleo B. Romano, a Catholic priests whose disappearance even attracted the then Pope John Paul II. But these were just amongst the several thousands during martial law who were never seen again.
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